Year: 1879

Poor King Alfonso is finally to be
married. An embassy is shortly to set
out from Madrid for Vienna, to bring
the Archduchess Marie Christine to
Spain, where she will become Alfonso's
bride. The poor young man has never
seen her. He does not even know what
her mothers temper is, nor to what ex-
tent her brothers viii borrow money of
him, but, nevertheless, he will have to
marry her, and live on friendly terms
with the whole of her numerous German
relatives.


The marriages of royal personages are
the most prosaic affairs. When an En-
glish Princess arrives at the marriage
able age, Queen Victoria says to Mr.
Gladstone or Lord Beaconsfield, as the
case may be, {" By the by, how is the
German Prince market just now?'' The
Prime Minister replies that q it is rath-
er overstOcked, as usual, and that a
good fair article of Duke or Archduke
can be had quite reasonably Where
upon he is ordered TO make out n list of
marriageable Germans of royal or, at
least, noble birth, and to send it up to
the Palace the next time the messenger
boy has occasion to pass that way. When
the list arrives, her Majesty runs it over
and tries to select a name, but uniformly
4dilS-OilC Illlili ullllc DGlllD btOuJ us
unattractive as another. The result is
that she finally writes to the British
Ambassador ut Berlin to send her l
(one) marriageable German Prince, and
charge freight and expenses to the con-
tingent fund. In due time the German
arrives and is delivered at the Palace
door. If he is fat Prince, there is
generally an attempt made on the part
of the Queen to have the eXpressman
bring him up to the secOnd-stOry back
bedroom, but hitherto the expressman
has always stOutly refused, asserting
that his duty was done when he deliv-
cred packages or Princes at the front
door In the course of the evening the
Queen iuforms her daughter that hus-
band for her has arrived from Germany,
and that she is to marry him that day
week, to which the dutiful daughter re-
plies, "Just as you please, ma,'' and
beyond expressing a faint hope that the
new husband is gOod-tempered, betrays
no further interest in the subject. When
the wedding day arrives the marriage
takes place in due and proper style, and
the newly welded pair then begin to
form an acquaintance.


There is not particle of romance or
poetry about this sort of thing. The de-
lights of courtship are absolutely un-
FNhON II W AnO DlbJCAl1
glish Princess. From the time she is a
little girl she knows that the inevitable
German viii some day be deposited at
the front door, and that she will have to
take possession of him as her husband
The poorest girl in England may taste
the bliss of moonlight walks with real
lover, but the English Princess regards
love as an invention of the poets and
practical lovers as vulgar and plebeian
in the extreme.


In other royal families the same sys-
tenn prevails, with the exception that
husbands or wives may be sought out
side of the German market Occasion
ally q King draws prize in the matri-
monial lottery, as did King Umberto
when he married the most beautiful
woman in Italy, but, as a rule, undesira-
bic Princesses with irregular noses are
served out to royal Continental hus-
bands. Whether Alfonso has secured a
desirable wife or not remains to be seen.
If the Archduchess Marie Christine
should turn out to be n 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 Prin-
cess whom his Cabinet thought proper
to select.


And yet the young man is decidedly
more fortunate than most persons. His
first wife was a Spanish girl, and he was
actually allowed some little liberty of
courtship. She was the daughter of old
Duke Montpensier, who, having for
many years followed the profession of a
pretender to the Spanish throne, agreed
TO 90 out of business on condition that
his daughter should marry the King.
Montpensier was therefore very friendly
his IntnnHa1 c-,r-
every show-as a Western statesman
would say. Alfonso was allowed to
come every Sunday night and sit in the
Montpensiers' back parlor, and at 8 so
the old gentleman always went to bed,
with discretion which il 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 to-
gether on the front gate. Still, the young
King was made to feel the burden of his
rank. He was never allowed to 90
counting without the company of two
Cabinet Ministers and a squadron of
dragoons. 1t was all very well for old
Montpersier to 90 TO bed at 8 80, but il
availed little so long as the two Cabinet
Ministers persistently sat in the back
parlor. Perhaps they were humane men,
and occasionally heard a supposititiouS
cat in the dining room, whittier they
went for a few moments in pretended
search of her, but it is more probable
that they strictly performed their duty
and sat in the back parlor with invaria-
BILE and maddening persistency. Then,
too, the romance of a moonlight walk
must have been seriously marred by the
ten Dragons that rode clanking ip front
sf the lovers, and the ton mere that came