Year: 1879

The marriages of royal personages are
the most prosaic affairs When an English
princess arrives at the manageable age,
Queen Victoria says to Mr. Gladstone or
Lord Beaconsfeld, as the case may be, 'sBy
the by, how is the German Prince market
Just now 2" The prime minister replies
that 'it is rather overstocked as usual, and
that good fair article of duke or archduke
can be had right reasonably" Whereupon
he is ordered to make out list of mar
riageable Germans of royal or, at least
noble birth, and to send 1t up to the palace
the next time the messenger boy has oc-
casion to pass that way When the list ar
rives, her majesty runs IL over and tries to
select name, but uniformly fails-one
German name being about as unattractive
as another. The result is that she finally
writes to the British ambassador at Berlin
to send her l (one) manageable German
prince, and charge freight and expenses to
the contingent fund. In due time the Ger
man arrives, and is delivered at the palace
door. If he is fat prince there is gener-
ally an attempt made on the part of the
queen to have the expressman bring him up
to the second-story back bedroom but





ed, asserting that his duty was done when
he delivered packages or princes at the
front door. In the course of the evening
the queen informs her daughter that hus-
band for her has arrived from Germany,
and that she is to marry him that daG
week, to which the dutiful daughter replies,
"Just as you please, nh and, hey ond ex-
pressing faint hope that the husband is
good tempered, betrays 10 further interest
in the subject. When the wedding day
arrives the marriage takes place in due and
proper style, and the newly-wedded pair
then begin to form an acquaintance. In
other royal families the same systems pre-
walls, with the exception that husbands or
wives may be sought outside of the German
market. Occasionally king draws prize
in this matrimonial lottery, as did King
Umberto when he married the most beauti-
full woman in Italy; but, as rule, unde-
sirable princesses with irregular noses are
served out to regular continental husbands.
Whether Alfonso has secured a desirable
wife or not remains TO be seen. If the
Archduchess Marie Christine should turn
out to be a nice girl; it would, however be
a mere matter of luck. So far as Alfonso
is concerned, he has not been allowed the
least liberty of choice, but has had to
accept the princess, whom his cabinet
thought proper to select. And yet the
young man is decidedly more fortunate
than most persons, His first wife was
Spanish girl, and he was actually allowed
some little liberty of courtship. She was
the daughter of old Duke Montpensler, who,
having for many years followed the pro-
fession of pretender to the Spanish throne,
agreed to go out of business on condition
that his daughter should marry the king.
MOntpensier was therefore very friendly to
his intended son-in-law, and gave him every
shQw-as q Western statesman would say.
Alfonso was allowed to come every
Sunday night and sit III THE Montpensier's
back parlor, and at 9. 80 the old gentleman
always went to bed, with a discretion
which 1t could be wished that all fathers
would initiate. Moreover, Alfonso and
Mercedes were allowed to take moonlight
walks, and it is even said that they once
swung together on the front gate. Still,
the young king was made to feel the bur
den of his rank. He was never allowed to
go courting without the company of two
cabinet ministers and a squadron of dra-
goons. 1t was all very well for Montpen-
sler to go to bed af $50, but it availed
little so long as the two cabinet ministers
pcrsistently sat in the back parlor. Per-
haps they were humane men, and occasionly
heard a supposititious cat in the dining
room, whittier they wentin pretended search
of her, but it is more probable that they
strictly performed their dnty, and sat in
the back parlor with invariable and mad
dening persistency. Then, too, the ro-
nance of a moonlight walk must have been
seriously marred by the ten dragons that
rode clanking In front of the lovers, and the
ten more that came Gathering behind them.
AS for the front gate exploit, it must have
been large gate that held king, princess
and two cabinet ministers, and in the cir
Cumstance we can but regard the gate swing
ing as prosaic failure,