Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-01-04

sus heard this in open-mouthed as
tonishment, and when the architect
at last asked,
''What will the sidewalk commit
tee say?" answered:
''What is that to you? Don't L pay
for ii ?"
A PRIME MINISTER'S HAREM.
Mrs. Leon Owens, who was the
governess of the young princess of
Siam, published sketch of the prime
| minister of that country as follows:
"He was the actual ruler of that semi
barbarous realm and the prime con-
| triver of its arbitrary policy. Black,
but comely, robust and vigorous,
neck short and thick, nose large and
nostrils wide, eyes inquisitive and
| penetrating his was the massive
| brain proper to an intellect deliberate
-ssasl sasl=systenatic. Veil founded in the
| best idioms of his native tongue, he
expressed strong and discriminative
| thought in words at once accurate
and abundant. His only vanity was
his English - She also sketches his
| harem.
eve discover in the center of the
hall a long line of girls with skins of
olive, creatures who, in years and
| physical proportions, are yet but
children, some twenty in number.
with transparent draperies with gold
en- girdles. their arms and bosoms
wholly nude, and covered with bar
barrie ornaments of gold. Their only
garment, the lower skirt floating in
light folds about their limbs, IS one
of very costly material bordered heav-
lily with gold. On the ends of their
fingers they wear long nails of gold,
tapering sharply, like the claws Of a
bird" She describes a dance in the
harem while the prime minister sits
stony and grim, his huge hands rest
ing on his knees in statuesque repose.
His department to his female slaves
was studiously uDgracious and mean.
Most Of the women who composed
the harcm of the king, who died in
1868, were of gentle blood, the
fairest of the daughters of the Siam
e5e nohies and princes of The adja
cent tributary states; the queencon-
sort was his own half sister. Besides
many choice Chinese and Indian girls
purchased annually for the royal har-
EN- by agents from Bangkok and
Bengal, enormous sums were offered
year after year at Bangkok and Sing
apore for an English woman of beau
ty and good parentage to crown the
sensual collection. French women
. offered themselves for the harem.
but the king would not accept them.
Although religious ceremonies were
held at this court, Mrs. Leon Owen
says:
The king of Siam was more sys-
| tematically educated, and more con-
scious devourer of books and news
J than perhaps any man of equal rank
f in his time. In Unborn integrity and
steadfast principle he had no faith
whatever He sincerely believed that
4: every man strove TO compass his own
, ends, and when sometimes ventured
to disabuse his mind of his darling
: scorn for motive and responsibility !
! had the modification to discover that
| had but helped him to an argument
against myself. 1t was simply my
pecuniary interest to do SO. Money.
money, money That could procure
anything. The love of children was
the constant and hearty virtue of this
7 forlorn despot. They appealed to
: him I,y their beauty and their trust
fulncss; they refreshed him with
+ the bold innocence of their ways. Al
) 8 O'Clock he retired 10 his private
: apartments, whence issued immedi-
t atcIy peculiar domestic bulletins, in
4 which were named the women whose
presence he particularly desired in adj
4 dtion TO those whose turn it was to
a wait that night. His spies penetrate
into every family of wealth and in
e fuence. Every citizen suspects and
fears always his neighbor, sometimes
, his wife"