"Lack of Ambient"

Hot news tips reached Manhattan, last week, that slender, weak-chinned King Alfonso XIII had asserted himself, at last, over Spain's paunchy and ruthless Dictator, General Don Miguel Primo de Rivera. The Associated Press thought that soon Don Miguel "may be replaced"; and other news services carried similar stories.

Of course the weak-chinned Monarch had done no such thing; and within a few hours the Associated Press put on the wire a despatch headed Spanish Rumors Moderate. But the brief interval of drama enabled a supreme and significant anticlimax to be supplied by the Spanish Consul General in New York, placid Don Rafael Casares y Gil.

It was the worthy Don Rafael who beamingly despatched to newspapers what he said was a true and authoritative translation of a cable just received from Dictator Primo de Rivera himself. Text:

"Certain unscrupulous telegraphic agencies continue to resort to rumors of political difficulties in Spain, forgetting in the first place that, properly said, there is not any politics at present. The last rumor is the most picturesque, assuming that His Majesty, while at San Sebastian, had refused his signature to the Premier on several decrees of destitution of authorities that the Premier proposed to relieve of their positions for having been unfaithful to the regime. The national opinion knows the value of such tricks, but the good faith of the foreign opinions might be surprised by such misleading news and therefore it is convenient to make it known to the public that nothing has happened in Spain, and that nothing will happen, as there is lack of ambient for the most insignificant disturbance, and that those who might intend to promote it are closely watched; and that, on the contrary, His Majesty the King has shown every day the greater proof of affection and confidence that he has in the present Government."

Masters of prose and politics despaired of bettering Don Rafael's expert sentence: ''Nothing has happened in Spain, and . . . nothing will happen, as there is lack of ambient. . . ."