Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 5, 1915, Page 31

0 Her Royal Highness the Infanta Eulalia of Sapin. By H. R. H. The Infanta Eulalia, Aunt of the King of Spain In Her New Book “Court Life from Within,” Published by Dodd, Mead & Co. HEN my mother died I w/u able to ‘get wholly clear of the for- malities of Court life, and I left the Palais to rent an apartment for my- #elf, where I could live like a private person with my maids, without even a Isdyin-waiting. T bought a few acres of land on the seashore of my beloved Nor- mandy, and built myself a Summer cot- tage ocvoled by the happy breezes that I had known as a child. And here I can 88y and do and think and write what I please, untroubled by the prohibitions of orpwned heads, who can enforce no com- mand on me and impose no punishment w-gtcept to dony me-an entrance to Qourts from which I have been only too B1Ad to escape. ‘When my first little book was about to bé published the King of Spain wired me that I could not publish it without his consent. 1 repudiated that control of my liberty, and they threatened to de- ta Bulalia,” and I was interested to if the King would set a precedent depriving the “Inviolable” Royal family of its titles and its property by Jegislative enactment. He decided, wisely, to let the matter drop, and I heard mo final would decide to call me, it not “the In- see realization of freedom celebrate now in these pages. I ve escaped, mind and body, from my &llded cage. It has taken a lifetime, but it was wo anything in the world except intelligence. 1 Mve in France because it is the most intelligent of all the countries I have known. 1 have seen the world waking to the faet that the rule of money is no better than the rule of rank, except when it is more intelligent; and 1 can foresee the day. when the inequalities of property will bave no more authority than the in- equalities of rank to oppress mankind. I'read and write to keep my own intelli- gence in health by exercising it. And I am traid of no critic except the one who may find my intelligence feeble, with & prison pallor, fn spite of its joy in its escape. It was during my years of travel in Burope that I was offered the opportun- ity of golug to America to represent the ‘Throne of Spain at the World's Falr that ‘was to be held in Chicago to commemor- ate the four hundredth anniversary of ‘Columbus's discovery. I accepted the in- witatior with joy. I had no longer my ohfldish idea that if I could only take a Doat and sail to America I should be really “free,” but 1 had still in my mind the household saying that | was “only fit for Americe,” and I felt sure that I should like the great democracy, and I Was eager to see it. When we picked up our pilot off 8andy Hook 1 was on the upper deck, prome- nading happlly 40 the chill wind in light clothes, and the pilot remarked to ome of the boat's officers that it “was dan- gerous for that young girl” to be exposed in such a way to such weather. He was told that I was “the Spanish Infanta,” and he laughed uproariously at the idea, and the more serfously the officer as- sured him of it the more he enjoyed the joke, I saw him looking at me and laughing, so I inquired what was the matter, and when I found out I was slightly puszzled. ‘His amusement proved to be typical of my whole reception in the United States. As one of the newspapers put it, they had expected a “big, dark Span- ish'princess with a black mustache,” and it wag with a tickled surprise that they found me “like any of the girls you see walking down Fifth avenue.” Thelr pleased curiosity was reflected in the ac- counts that the reporters gave of me. No conceivable personal detail escaped them. - One reporter even discovered that I had a gold erown on one of my back teeth, and I was mystified to know how he could have seen it. Surely my smile was not so broad as all that! I tried myself before a mirror. No! By mno possible grimace could I expose that tooth. I remained mystified. I do still. The amusement, however, was not al- together on their eide. The newspapers had not prepared me for this familiar but kindly tone of the American press, and the people of European countries had not the simple -benevolence of the curi- osity that brought the smiling crowds to greet me in the United States. The American young girl is the spoiled darl. ing of the nation, and they were all as willing to spoil me—and I was willing to be spoiled—by their almost affectionate and chivalrous desire to give me “a good time.” I cannot pretend that I saw anything at all of the problems of government in the country—nothing of the poverty, of the industrial exploitation, of the inequal- ities of opportunity and the control by the moneyed classes, of which we have since come to hear so much in all the kingdoms and republies and democra- cles of this changing world. I was merely a caller in the parlor. I knew nothing of the family life in the house, much less of the difficulties below-stairs, ‘We did not land at New York, but at Jersey City, where a special train was waiting to carry us to Washington. It would have taken us in Spain twonty- four hours to go the distance; we cov- ered it in five hours, and I did not feel shaken. In Spain if luncheon had been served us on the train it would have been “to kill time;" here it was served us “to save time.” One was struck at once by the busy- ness of the life and its efficlency. We had been caught up by an organization that transported us, fed us, housed us, delivered us Into the hands of a host or at the doors of an entertainment, re- turned us to our hotel, took us on excur- slons, provided us with drives, protected us from intrusion, conducted us through crowds, intelligently, suavely, without soy hitch,' comfortably, almost invisibly, with a foresight that seemed to provide for every coutingency that could happen, | Think.f o( UJ’ VeryAmusing Experiences in America Told by the Spanish Infanta Eula- lia in Her New Book, ““Court Life from Within’’ and to be prepared for any change of plan that we could wish. And the spectacle of the life through which we hurried had the same air of Raving conquered the material agents of existence to the same end—namely, that @every one should get as much as possible done in a day with as little friction as possible in the mechanical moans of do- ing it. From some of the Americans whom I have seen abroad I had not got a very happy impression, and now I understand why. They had been out of their element; they had left at home their reason for being. The women, for example, were less con- spicuously dressed than some I had seen in Paris, and less nervously self-assert- ive; and the men were more easy and more natural. They were not on the de- fensive among foreigners whom they felt to be critical or whom they desired to impress. They were not blatant nor apologetic. They were happy, intelligent, Lospitable and altogether engaging. I found no one with whom conversa- tion was not instantly possible, and the volubility of my-conversation was & mat- ter of amused comment with our suite. The truth was that'l 'was not only sym- pathetically interested in all I saw and eager to talk about it, I was also At once aware of the friendliness of the eyes that watched and listened, and I talked, and my vise-vis talked, without any awk- wardness of restraint. There were no royal “monkey tricks” expected of me. I was unable to dance ~—though I often longed to-—-because I was on an officlal visit, and questions of precedence would have made it neces- sary for me to choose the most impor- tant personage in the room as my part- ner or take the risk of offending him. And the most important person at a dance is not always the best dancer, But I was not apart on a dals, as 1 would have been at home—“always on a stand, ltke a harp, 88 1 usad to complain —and I enjoyed my- self. I felt that 1 was really meeting the people whom I met. Was not merely royalty; I was a sort of na- tional guest, whom One accepted as an inevitable part of sur- rounded us at every officlal appearance. They were not in- trusive, and having learned that I could not give interviews they did nct try to get any. The good- will of the crowds, who were as omni- present, as the newspaper men, was always delightful. They gathered, of course, merely out of curlosity, but their stares were not, as in other countries, either awed or inimical or just curlous. They greeted you, as they might thelr own representatives, with amiable smiles and cheers, waving their hand- kerchiefs, In the thronged streets of the ex sition they could not be held back by ::; police escort, who struggled with them good-naturedly thev. good-naturedly, pressed in upon us, and one could not help but accept their pressure with « smile. It was all quite human and jolly and finoffensive—a democratic crowd, democratically unrestrained in its inter est in everything and everybody. When I was complimented on the popular im- pression which I seemed to make I could reply, fllltt truthfully, that if the Amer fcans liked me it must be becaus? they could see how I liked them. I llked them immensely. » They seemed all prosperous and all happy, We had no begging letters and petitions for alms thrown into our car- riage, such as would have overwhelmed us at home, We did not meet any of those affected excesses of deference to royalty which would have been so out of place in a country where there is no Crown. If people crowded to see us, ou of curiosity, I could not complain; I was King Alfonso XHI. of S::in' the Infanta’s Nephew, W Threatened to Deprive Her Her Title and Allowances, The Royal Palace, Madrid, Where the Infanta Eulalia Formerly Enjoyed Apartments, from Which She Was Excluded for Expressing Herself Too Liberally. Just as curious to see them. They were not rude—and I hope I was not. Any one who makes & royal visit to nn‘ country must see it superficially; and if I wrote here that President Cleve- land and his beautiful wife were charm- ing hosts, that the country around Wash- ington reminded me of England, that the Iake front in Chicago (which was about a1 of Chicago that I really saw) was handsome, ‘that New York was New York, and the Hudson River the Hudson River—I should not relieve my mind of anything that even Lewis Carroll's con- ;::-uonu walrus would have cared to . And 1 should not interest even If by writing. it, If 1 had come to America ‘as.a person by intelle merely, by birth, 1 might drew away ‘ork, and all and the Some Very Queer Jobs Warships Have Done OT all the tasks warships are called on to under- take have to do with war and the destruction of human life and propérty. A couple of French warships were sent Mediterranean some years Ago to wage war against a school of porpoises which were doing an immense amount of damage to the fishing industry in those After three days' hostilities, during which quick-firing guns were used with considerable effect, the vessels returned to port ‘triumphant, having practi- waters. cally ennihilated the encmy, A year or two ago a warship of Great Britaln's Aus trallan fleet was given the strange job of capturing or destroylag a mysterious sea monster which had been Copyright, 1915, by the Star Company out into the Great Britain Rights Reserved. reported off the Falkland islands, the scene of the re- cent German naval defeat. It Is pretty safe to say that the officers, if not the crew, entertained grave doubts of the actual existence of the frightful creature which had been described; it was too terrifying, hideous, gigantic and ferocious. But shortly after the ship arrived fn the Wwaters where the monster was supposed to lie in wait for vessels, the officer of the waich described a strange-looking beest making toward his ship, and it was immediately guessed that this must be the substance of all the alarming talés. And a pretty good substance it proved, too. An attack was made upon it, dnd after some hours’ fighting with harpoons and quick-firers, the mysterious monster, which proved to be a sea-elephant between thirteen and fourteen yards long, wad slaughtered and ammunition. taken aboard. Some years ago the Norweglan government sent out @& powerful little fleet of Wlllhl’!. érmed with mines, torpedoes and quick-firing guns, to exterminate a vast horde of seals which was denuding the sea on the porth- west coast of all fish life. But the government had reckoned upon tens of thou- sands of seals, whereas there were ending was thefr number that the to admit itself defeated, with the Joss of one man and wounded, owing to er,"” having exhausted Fretre 1 ofd accident, and to entire supply of {