Show a f r s THE ALFONSO INSULT j Ii j I At any time an incident like that if i which occurred in Paris on Saturday 4 l Satur-day when King Alforao was insulted t in-sulted hissed and hooted by the r populace would he unfortunate for I 1 ji J the French and at present it J amounts almost to a disaster Under r 1 r ordinary circumstances it would be fl f I disgraceful now it is not only that J but will be construed an intended ut 1 Jnsult offered by one nation to two d a others the Spanish being the more insignificant of the pow ers affronted 11 The French can have no personal f illwill towards Alfonso who is 1 c merely the boy monarch of a nation J 4 I that none of the great powers in which family France is included i can possibly fear Two months ago k i the young man might have entered j a Paris and received a popuiar ova i t 4 j 2 + tion as the son of a mother more i J French than Spanish but lately the Ger Alfonso has been courting f mans and hobnobbing with the two great Teutonic Emperors who have made much of him 4 j 1 One of them went so far in bestow y ing favors as to give Alfonso a 1 > 1 1 i oolonelcy of a Prussian regiment 1 1 1 Doubtless Wilhelm had an object in this He iknew that the honor j would tend to incline the young King to him and as a natural consequence l I sequence irritate the French which 1 I 1 latter IS peculiarly an aim of the i wily German France is in no condition N con-dition to offend even miserable J i Spain She is far from recovered I r from her war of thirteen years ago Ci r = were she lost so much money and r1 the great prestige that she enjoyed I J + a f one of the leading powers of Europe Y t I Eu-rope Her present g government is 1 I 1 I y of the flimsiest character unstable j t and inherently weak as the French j themselves are erratic and flighty J r In her anxiety to recover some of J 4 her lost greatness the republic has t1 > 4 becomedesperate and gone almost d mad reaching out here and there ° t R s for territory inviting and forcing d is S wars with Tunis Madagascar Ton f i a quin and there is every prospect that 1 r she will soon lock horns with l i I the great empire of China in t v J I a struggle wherein the French tf J I will certainly be worsted and humbled t rI 1 hum-bled With a shaky government at y home a ruinous and increasing i t t debt an unsteady population engaged r j r en-gaged in two wars and maintaining J f S her position in Africa only by armed + i force France cannot afford to incur o the displeasure of poor Spain much 11 of Ger f 1 less intensify the enmity I I td 4 1 many which stands ready on tne 11 r slightest provocation to administer 55 and humiliating r M another severe l k castigation The idea that the I rot French can ever revenge themselves the Germans is the veriest r t upon I r I folly Such a thing is not among 0 1 r t the remotest probabilities hence t h any action that further irritates the j 1 Germans is childishness The humble U k hum-ble apologies that France will ten 4 1 him but i 1 der to Alfonso may satisfy i i rt 4 they will not appease the Germans t 1 I t whiletheir effect must be to add toY to-Y the humiliation of the French J a whose star is certainly not in the + i j < ascendency |