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Show T Torn- MttU Alphnnsn XIII. I often say that poor people must be fonder of their children than the wealthy are of theirs. There is Btich a poignant interest in a child who will have to face a wa of troubles. Poor little Alphonso XIII must be invested in his mother's eyw with an interest of that kind, being th posthumous son of a viveur of a bad constitution, who, having used himself up at the age of 28, died of a gulloping consumption. A Spanish deputy told me last October that the poor little boy had no chance of a long life and that it would bo rather a misfortune if he grew up. The nervous system was so bad that the doctors were afraid of having him bathed in the sea. A shock of any kind might knock it to pieces. His mother comes of the most epileptic branch of the imperial family of Austria. Poor little Alphonso has, said the deputy dep-uty I quote, fleshless little legs, with bones no thicker than a chicken's. They bond under the weight of an abnormally abnormal-ly big head, which points to hydrocephalus. hydroce-phalus. Altogether the conformation of the little monarch is a thing rather for an anatomical museum than to bear tho weighty trappings of regal state. His mother is always in ear shot of hira and the doctor handy to her. A corkscrew stair communicates with his and her bedrooms, and there is a speaking tube close to his bod, so that were anything the matter with him the nurse could at once tell her and the doctor. The king's two waters pvomise to be winsome, and have fairly good constitutions, though their flesh is slow to heal. Mercedes, to whom I told you so early as November Spaniards here were beginning to make up as shown in "homages' of French toys, still nurses dolls. They noticed on the sands of San Sebastian what a weakling weak-ling the poor brother was, and jumped to the conclusion that the crown would soon drop down on the head of his eldest sister. She and Theresa are very pretty and cheery. Mercedes is very like the queen of the Belgians, who was never either one or the other. Her majesty is an aunt of Queen Christiana. Mrs. Crawford's Letter in London Truth. |
