THE NEW SPAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8698, 11 August 1906, Page 2

THE NEW SPAIN.

Some Stories of Sine Alfoaio.

(By EDGAR WALLACE, In the " Daily Mail.") . - There came to meet me ab the Nortli Station at Madrid a cheerful boy — a boy who had obviously oorne straight from a tennis court, who was dressed " slack," as only the English can dress " slack " and remain respectable. __» the carriage that drove us through the* uneven streets of Madrid he told me about a " rotter " of our acquaintance, . used twelve different ' school-slang , phrases in as many minutes. That night he came to the Fornos to dinner, and I asked him why his friends called him by a Spanish name. " Because I am Spanish," waa tha reply, and the answer staggered me. ' " But you are unique?" " Not a bit of it. Dozens of fellows in Madrid like myself have been educated in England." ' And this boy I .discovered was the 1 , son of a noble house that goes back to the year 1, and that he was by no means alone in his Anglicißation I soon discovered. " ; The royal marriage and the enthn--siasm it has aroused through Spain afeV--only symptomatic of the extraordinary respect in which Great Britain is held throughout Spain. The word"lngle- - 5 .". ias a mea ning outside the narrow limits of appellation, and the young Spain that is growing up with the boyKing has possibilities which the boldest may speculate upon and fall short of the mark. '.-•*" "a little __ad." . ,„ Remember that old Spain does.no* quite understand Alfonso. It loves him ; he is the darling of the people, and your ultra-Republicans, exceedingly voluble on all pertaining to kingship, have a pleasant word for the slim youth with the everlasting smile. But none the less old Spain does noi quite take him in. To be perfectly frank, old Spain, watching in wonderment as the young man sweeps -away the cobwebs that hamper his administration^ confesses sadly .that the King is a littl© mad. This same old Spain, be it noted, has for generations regarded the "Inghtei" as a nation of ami T able, lunatics, and for very much *he same reason as England has deserved j*he stigma, King Alfonso hears it. People who know Spain from books will tell ycu with bated breath of the cast-iron etiquette that surrounds the royal personagee of Spain, of dreadful dinners eaten. in solemn silence, of bows to the left and curtsies to the right, of mace-bearers and cup-bearere ahd sword-bearers, of orders of precedence; such as that between the Infanta who was born at 7v25 and the Infanta wha^ entered this wicked world at 7.29. . There have been customs handed down from the days of the gloomy builder of the Escurial. They have been handed down from king to king—, 'even Joseph Bonaparte "carried on* — and they were handed over, heirlooms of procedure, to the patient little boy whose unceasing education earned for him the. sympathy of all the little boys in the world. Where, are those customs now? If we are to believe the aged maeteiV of ceremonies, who— rew 'tis said—go ' moaning about the Corridors of the Palacio Real, weeping for glories gone, they have vanished. Pruned here and omitted there, remodelled, improved, renovated, th© irreverent youth (he has just streaked past my window in a motor-car) has, in the language of the soap advertiser, "made home comfort* able." * ,',.'.'■' THE LROX HA2TD BENEATH. And his influence is felt throughout Spain. Not because he has led the Spanish gentry to wearing English clothes, English collars, and English -cravats (I saw a " smok-ing jakket " ticketed in the window of a cheap' tail-, or to-day), nor because he has infused into a languid people something of that restless energy which i. peculiarly his, but because you see his hand in the great acts of administration. There was a Minister in Spain who had a friend. Tho friend's past ' was not exactly blameless: there was a sort, of "war store© scandal" in the , background, but the Minister . was anxious | to put his friend into- the Cabinet. And ! the Minister, who was sufficiently j powerful to he blind to his own weakness had, not the slightest doubt that his nomination would be accepted. It I is unfortunately true that corruption in the public eervice has been by no means Tare in Spain, and is not regarded in a very serious light, and the Mm I ister was perhaps justified in his belief that the unfortunate affair bad been conveniently forgotten. | But the King's memory, like tha 1 I King's digestion, is remarkably good, 1 and without a word he struck his pen ! through his name. The Minister wair thunderstruck. "I shall place mjj resignation in your Majesty's hands," 'he eaid stiffly; but the awful threat did not alarm thtf young man. "That is my wish," he said gravely. Again. The present marriage is by no means regarded with approval in ,Germany. You are aware that there are divers great German Princes whose "military duties" will prevent theilf attending the ceremony. It is an unfortunate fact that ond cannot show preference without offend*ing the unpref erred. The attachment of the King has drawn him closer to Great Britain; but King Alfonso is a shrewd youth, and he has certainly no desire to antagonise a powerful State like Germany. Tho spirit of** manana," which is at 'once the joy an<B ourse of Spain, extends to every class of Spaniard — even to the Spaniard) ambassadorial' — and there aire to be celebrations this year in Germany at whibh the crowned heads of Europe are to be represented. Somehow the Spanish Ambassador at Berlin failed "to notify the King of these celebrations, with the result that there was no time for the fitting representation of Spain. Alfonso's ha-ld fell on the Ambassador. A prompt "Gazette" announced his recall and tbe reason. "all the to-mobbows shall bb as TO-DAY." This is how Alfonso XIH. is creatiii§B a new Spain. By substituting promptitude for procrastination; by (replacing " manana " by " to-day " ; by refusing to' recognise the plea of custom ; and lastly* and most important of all, by doing himself the things that he ask* his people to do. The story that best illustrates tha sane, practical spirit that underlies meet of his acts is the story- of . the reservoir disaster. In the course of constructing a reservoir near Madrid, part of the works collapsed, and hundreds of workmen were buried beneath tons of earth. . The boy King was at the royal palace when the newß waa telephoned through, and he ordered his car and drove through to ihe scene of tiie catastrophe. Crowds had fiati_«_*

_ — — , ed in the vicinity, and the King was recognised a 6 he drove up. Accident or -royal procession, all's one to the Spaniard, so long las it be in the nature of sight-seeing, and "Viva el Rey!" was roaired by a thousand throats. . It was an indignant young monarch who stood up in his car and harangued the crowd. "If you were helping to dig these poor fellows cut, instead of shouting ' Viva,' you would be doing a far better thing/ he said — and the orowd took the hint. It is customary at such a time as this for the wiriter to say the nicest . things he can remember about his royal subject. Kings, with two notable exceptions, are very uninteresting people, who do a great deal of work and listen patiently to a great number, of national ahthems- But one requires very Httle stimulating to "enthuse" over the ruler of Spain. Partly because he is the i sort of youth that an ordinary citizen-— were he, too, an ordinary citizen- — would be very friendly with, and would speak about behind his back as a very decent fellow indeed, and partly because he is a monarch, isolated from the contact of common men, surrounded .by what seemed insurmountable walls of etiquette and tradition, and apparently at the mercy of wire-pullers and courtiers, and yet has broken through \the steel girdle and proved hniinself a wise ruler and a very human being. . ■ . -"..'■•-•