davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
ABustIiuR watery Bi9bva,.

wish could give you a picture of our
ride up the Menam to Bangkok. The sides
OF the river are lined with these small float
ing houses. They are anchored to piles
and they lie half hidden by the great palm
trees on the banks. Here and there a canal
juts of into the jungle and the houses on it
makes this floating street. These houses
are made of bamboo with their sides and
their roofs thatched with palm leaves. They
are sometimes on piles high above the
water, but more often they rest on its sur
face. They are tied to poles driven into the
bed of the river and they rise and fall with
the tide. Their average height is not more
than ten feet and each looks like two large
dog kennels fastened together and covered
with palm leaves.
Here and there is an opening in the palm
trees and you get a glimpse of the country;
it is fiat as the waters of the river, and where
it is plowed it looks as black as your hat.
The only beasts upon it are ugly water buff
faloes. There are no fences, no barns, and
only these thatched houses on piles.
The river is winding. 1t is perhaps a
quarter of a mile wide and every turn
brings new surprises. Aswe near Bangkok
the waters are alive with craft of all kinds.
Little, naked, brown, shock-headed Young
sters paddle long canoes not over two feet
wide and so sharp that the least balance
would unseat the rover. There are half.
naked women with great hats of straw.
which look like inverted workbaskets. sit.
ting bare-legged and bare-breasted in boats
which they paddle along, and boats of all
sizes are worked by all ages and sexes, from
babies of six to wrinkled old men and short.
pray-dsired women of 60. As you enter
BANGKOK the crowd increases. Instead oi
one fine of floating houses along the banks
there are three and sometimes four. The
whole river is alive and you turn your eyes
this way and that, meeting maze of new
objects at every turn.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
Owned bY the King.

THE King of Siam is supposed to own the
people and each man in the realm has to
serve for three, six or nine months as ser
want of the Government. At certain. time
OF the year the entire population is marked
off to particular neblemen or Government
masters. These masters, whenever the Gov
ernment demands anything of them can
compel the men marked off TO serve. All
kinds of work are demanded and the various
marks put upon the men indicate their trades
or profession. Some men are required to
give all their time to the Government and
in this case they get nominal salaries.
Those who give half their time work for the
King 10 days and then have 15 days off The
three months subjects get no pay and during
the time they are in Bangkok they have to
ind themselves in food and lodging. This
work practically enslaves the whole popu-
lation of males, and slavery is common in
Siam. Criminals convicted often become
slaves, and they are sometimes marked or
branded on the forehead. I have seen
many men in chains during my stay here,
and Just outside the walls of the palace
there are at least two score of men, bright
eyed, good-looking, lusty fellows who have
great iron collars about their necks and
chains about their legs and arms, who were
making basket work, and who offered to sell
me their wares as passed. The debtor who
does not pay in Siam must become the slave
of his creditor, who charges him from Is to
80 per cent year, puts him in chains and
takes his work as the interest on the debt.
There are hundreds of such slaves in
Bangkok, and many of the men become
slaves by gambling away their living.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
ThorouRhbred Gamblers,

There are gambling houses everywhere,
and men and women, old and young, are
addicted to gambling. One of the great
games seems to be fantan, and there are big
sheds scattered along the main streets of the
city in which these half-naked, brown
skinned, blood-spitting Siamese collect in
groups about mats, where Cinnamon act as
the bankers and conduct this game. Little
shells are used instead of cash, and the game
is substantially the same as the fantan of
China. Gambling also goes on upon the
river and it takes place among the ladies of
the harem, / am told, in the very palace
itself. The nation all told seems addicted to
vice rather than to virtue, and it is nearer
akin to pure heathenism than any other 1
have yet seen. Still it claims to be progress
i've, and its King has made some steps to the
front. The whole, however, compares more
to the colored Republic of Hayti or to the
blacks OF San Domingo than to any other
civilization. The people are devoted to
Buddhism and the priests are numbered by
Thousands. will visit the palace and the
gorgeous temples tomorrow, and in my next
letter can give you taste of high life and
culture as gathered under the very feet of
the sacred white elephants and in the
shadows of the harem itself.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07

its mouth thai I sit here on its banks and
write this letter in this floating city of
Bangkok. Imagine a city as large as
Chicago, of which ninety-nine hundredths
of the people live on the water. There are
Is miles of floating houses on the two sides
of this river, and these, with the Kings
palaces and few foreign buildings on the
land, make up the capital OF the Siamese
people,
There are 5000, 900 and more of these
Siamese, and their country covers a terri
tory of about twice the size of Colorado,
four times the size of New York, and it is
about five times as big as Ohio. It is a
tropical country, and the click of my type
writer falls upon my ears mixed with the
songs of the thousands of birds which sing
in the branches of the trees outside the
oriental hotel. The doors and the windows
are all open, and the lightest of white duck
linen is oppressive as clothing. 1t is Febru-
ary, but 1 long to 60 as naked as the Siam
ese themselves; and it makes me perspire to
think of American overcoats and of the
clothing which you people wear as write.
1t is too hot to 60 out in the middle of the
day, and we have all the surroundings of
the tropics. The cocoanut and the palm
tree line the banks of this Menam river, and
the boats fit in and out of jungles which
remind one of the swamps of Florida, save
that you may see the monkeys upon the
trees, and the plumage of the birds is more
splendid.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07

osophy, versatility and persuasiveness oi
all the mighty host" remains to be proven,
but with 1000, 900 acres of land on his lists.
the king of Florida land agents will need
the strength of old Atlas, and it will re-
quire more strategy than tine NEUROLOGICAL
giant possessed if he shifts this little world
of real estate on to the shoulders of mod.
ern Hercules
After all, there is popularity about
Florida. Its witching, stimulating climate
acts like an elixir, and silver promises
to blend with golden realities, and the
land agent is the magician who
has forced this beautiful, trackless,
tropical wilderness into the ranks
of vigorous, public-spirited, enterprising
country. There is a fascination in the
romantic legends of this elysian land. So
the agent who has discovered the original
Garden of Eden, in Florida, finds many
ready to believe in him, and when he pro-
duces the petrifed core of the apple, and
the identical fig tree from which Eve made
her trousseau, until the world disproves his
assertions he will continue to sell town lots
in the original Paradise, and, when the
prospective city appears, no doubt do honor
to the apple core by departing from all
formulas and erecting amonument-to Eyel
The Fountain of Youth is real Florida
chestnut, and about as profitable in Dixie
as the wooden nutmeg in Yankeedom. Old
de Icons failure to find the spring has
proved benefactor to the school of land
agents, for each one has accepted the privi-
lege of locating the Perpetual Spring, and
the Yankee medicine man is securing
nectarine trusts and bottling these health,
giving and rejuvenating waters for the ben
eft of humanity, and youth, health and
happiness are within reach of all those who
will put trust and faith in the selfsacrifcing
reformers of the Land of Flowers, sunshine,
oranges and wealth. M, M.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
A Siamese Home.

These floating homes are more like cot
tages or huts than houses, the average size
of them is three rooms, and you could set
one roof all down within a good sized
American parlor First there is an outer
ledge covered with a roof and open to the
river. Inside there is kitchen and bed
room. They have no windows, and in
Bangkok don't suppose there are hun
dred panes of window glass. The climate is
so warm that the people want every breath
of air they can get, and when you pack the
survivors of two or three generations of one
family into one of these huts you have no
need of either windows or doors. There
are no chairs in these floating houses. The
people sleep upon mats, or straw, or skins,
and their pillows are stuffed with cotton, or
are mere pieces of wood. The beds of the
ordinary family are filled with bugs and of
all the numerous species of the reptile crea-
ton, Siam seems to have its share. There are
ants, mosquitoes and lizards, everywhere,
and the bodies of these naked children are
rubbed with yellow powder which keeps
the mosquitoes away. A Siamese kitchen
has no chimney and the people never need
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
FewPecuIiar Features.

BERMUDA onions and potatoes.sre house.
hold words in northeastern America. The
first crop of potatoes has nearly been de-
voured and the second crop is coming on
nicely now. The onions have been retarded
by wet winter, but few boxes have been
shipped to New York. The potatoes and
onions look just like the Yankee article, ex-
eept the tops are greener and more
snowy. An onion and murphy are the
same the world over, barring flavor and
strength. The Bermuda lily is now in full
bloom. Acres of this .waxy white beauty
scent the air and nod in fields hedged by
oleanders. A field of lilies nesting in q
secluded but fertile little valley is feast
for eye and nostril, and a money-making
concern for the owner.
Scientists say Bermuda is a heaved-up
coral reef. As Science says this, it would
be useless to go behind the returns.
Bermuda's hills are quite lofty, and much
cutting has been resorted to in building her
beautiful roads. While walking one morn
ing the sound of saw discordantly marred
the whistling of the red bird. Turning q
bend in the road 1 came upon a dusky
native lazily pulling saw of the eross-cut
pattern through hillside. He said he was
making a road. In other words he was
saving a pathway through a miniature
mountain. The stone offered no more re-
sistance to his rude implement than would
a piece Of ice. After saving out a huge
block he commenced cutting it into smaller
squares These will be exposed to the air
and hardened, when they will be used for
building purposes. Quarrymen and stone
cutters would hunger in Bermuda.
This Stone is porous. of q cream-whits
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
HAY FEVER,
Something of Interest to Those Who Are
Troubled With This Disease.

Something of Interest to Those Who Are
Troubled With This Disease.
Youths Companion.l
'-"What are the causes, nature, prevention
and cure of hay fever? What places are
exempt from it? What are the latest opin-
ions Of the medical profession respecting
this disease?'
The most recent opinion is that it is
neurosis, or an affection of the nerves, pc
culiar susceptibility of certain nerves, ter
minating in the mucous membrane, to irri-
tation from the pollen of various plants.
1t is only about 20 years since it was first
described under the name of summer ca
tarrh. 1t prevails much more extensively
in some countries than in others, being
twice as common in England as elsewhere,
and much less common at the South and
in Canada than in our Northern States. 1t
is rare disease west of the Mississippi.
Its seat is in the mucous membrane of the
nostrils, eyes, pharynx, larynx and bron-
chial tubes. 1t sometimes assumes an asth-
matte form, and hence has been called hav
asthma. The susceptibility to it is often
inherited.
Although it is caused by pollen, yet the
lnhaDltantS OF rural districts are less liable
to it than visitors from the city. In this
respect it is like other diseases. Yellow
fever, for instance, is most likely to attack
those who come from abroad into the in
fected locality.
1t is called hay fever but the pollen of
many different plants may give rise to it.
1t prevails from May to August All
patients are not susceptible to the pollen of
the same plant. That of the grasses is per-
haps the most potent June is most prolific
of polIen-grains: Eight hundred a day
have been collected on aglass less than half
an inch square. Rains often wash the at
mosphere nearly clear of them.
To be sure of escaping the annual attack,
one must remove to region at distance
from the offending vegetation, say to the
White Mountains in New Hampshire, Mt.
Mansfield in Vermont. the Adlrondacks
in New York TO extended grazing regions, to
the seaside where the prevailing wind is
from the ocean, or to densely inhabited
cities, with few parks and open spaces.
Respirators are help.
The general system needs to be fortified.
say by shower-baths and tonic medicines
and the local irritation should be allayed
under the advice of physician. Each at
tack increases the susceptibility, and fire.
quently recurring attacks may lead to deaf
ness, as the Eustachian tube generally shares
in the irritation.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07

land of oranges and balmy sunshine on his
own account. He is, in the main, a hard
working, faithful fellow; but, of course,
frequently obliged to get into scrapes, as in
the case Of the agent who sold beautiful
fragrant elysium, with lake front, and as
a bonus, climate thrown in during the dry
season; but when the buyer attempted
location, nothing but the climate re-
mained; so with the heroic spirit
of a Trogan our vanquished victor
threw the deed to the largest frog
in the swamp with the generous reminder,
Possession is nine points in law and as
he waded away from the watery vastness of
the stretching marsh, the realization of the
chestnut" Island bought and sold by the
gallon" settled upon him.
The land agent is a man of varied moods
and lenses and quickly accommodates him
self to his victim. One person finds in him
a disciple of the teaching, "be 'umble
Uriah, and you'll git on" To another he
has all the wild-eyed enthusiasm of Col
onel Sellers. He is defender of the
faith" Every objection filed is met with
and fought with outright. The objections,
sand, moccasins and malaria, fade away
like dew before Florida sunshine when
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07

llcS and their short wirey hair, black
and oily, stands up like a shoebrush
al over their heads. Here one turns
ner face. She has a dark brown COM
plexlon. He- forehead is square, her cheek
Dones are high, her nose is half fat and it
Turns slightly upward over pair of ripe,
luscious black lips. She opens her mouth
ana the black of her lips is equaled only by
the jet of her teeth. The sight is disgust
ing. This maiden. like all the men, women
and children in Bangkok, is a chewer of the
betel nut, which turns the teeth black, putfs
out the lips and makes them crack. The
betel nut is native Of Siam, and immense
quantities of them are exported to India and
other countries where the chewing OF 1t
prevails. 1t has green skin and is of the
size of black walnut. 1t is sold in pieces
the size of hickory nut and it is of soft
spongy nature, having a bitter astringent
taste. The Siamese mix it with lime
colored red, and bit of tobacco. The red
lime is wrapped up in green leaves, and
everyone in the country has betel box
near him. He chews and spits and spits
and chews all day long and it is said that
this habit costs the people fully as much as
their food. 1t has much the same effect as
tobacco in that it takes away hunger and
produces stimulating and soothing sensa-
ton. 1t is used everywhere and the bride
groom gives present of betel nuts to his
bride. Babies are given it sometimes before
they are weaned, and saw young Siamese
boy yesterday, of 10, as naked as was Adam
before the fall, squirting betel juice be-
tween his teeth and aiming at a mark. 1t
is vile, filthy habit, and it turns the
Siamese from moderately handsome ma
tion into most ugly one.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
Floating Emporiums.

The Siamese girls have beautiful eyes and
the plump, olive cheeks of maidens of 15
would be very attractive were it not for the
betel. Their eyes are black, lustrous and
full of soul, They are a friendly set, too,
and they do not shrug their rosy uncovered
shoulders and attempt to pull down their
ballet girl costume in the presence of the
men. Many of them are peddlers in this
city of Canas, and they sit in these long,
narrow canoe-like boats and paddle along
their wares from house to house. They
seem to be the managers of the stores and
these river shops Of Bangkok are out on the
water, and the maiden storekeeper squats
down on the floor with her goods all around
her and with her betel box and tobacco be-
side her. Her husbands usually lying in
a back room or loafng. Her stock is very
small, and there is nothing for the foreigner
to buy. The wants of the people are few.
Siamese washing takes neither soap nor
starch, and vegetables and rice constitute
the most of the food of the people. When
they want dainty they take little raw,
rotten fish and mix it with their curry and
the majority of them do not know what
meat is.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
The Burglars Mistake.

Cnlcago Ir1ounes1
Masked Burglar Surprising railroad Of
fetal alone in ofice)-I'll trouble you, my
friend, to open that ERE safe and hand me
out the stuff that's inside.
Official (trembling)-Don't point that
revolver at me, please don'tI I'll do it.
Here it is.
Burglar (pocketing the spoil )-Thank
you, my friend. Now I'll trouble you to
give me pass to Omaha, properly signed,
and with the place for the name left blank.
Official (coldly)-I can't give you pass,
sir.
Burglar-I must have it. my friend.
) Official Cmpatiently)-You are not en-
titled to pass, tell you.
Burglar Cooking reyolver)-Come, be
quick
Official Gin violent rage)-You internal
scoundrel, take thatl (knocks burglar down,
ties his hands and feet, and telephones for
police.) III.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07

base burner. The cooking is all done
over Goals in a box filed with earth or
ashes, and the chief culinary articles are a
rice pot, kettle and frying pan. Many
of the eatables are bought cooked, and the
rice is first boiled and then set to steam in
an earthen pot Rice forms the bread of
the country, and the Siamese knows moth.
ing of the after JOYS OF the underdone Amer
ican pie or the oily Boston baked beans.
These Siamese girls never learn how to
make cake or pudding; they have no roasts
and no soups. They squat on the floor,
around little table not more than foot
high, when they eat and each puts her own
hands into the common dish and picks out
the morsel which pleases here In eating
rice they put the whole hand into the steam
ing kettle, and rolling the mass into hard
ball between their fingers, they crowd it
into their betel-stained mouths. The men.
as lords of the family, get the first bite and
the women take what is left. There is how
ever, no fixed dinner hour, and gastronomy
has a long ways to go before it will become
a science in Siam.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
A LANGUID LIFE,
The Tropics Compel Foreigners to Make
Life Very Easy.

The Tropics Compel Foreigners to Make
Life Very Easy.
Europeans in the tropics do nothing for
themselves which they are not compelled to
do, and at last almost lose the power of ex-
erting themselves at all. A writer thus
describes life at one of the large hotels of
Calcutta:
Every guest must have man of his
own to perform the most trifing service;
then two men have to be engaged to work
the bedroom punkah, one by day, the other
by night. In the wide passage of the hotel,
you find some of these men sitting or lying
asleep till they are wanted.
"a sportsman hardly goes out without
five attendants-one to carry his gun until
it Is wanted, another the ammunition, and
a third the dead game. Number four would
be responsible for refreshments, while the
fifth man would lead pony to carry the
sportsman from cover to cover.
"It is impossible to conceive a more un-
healthy life than that of many European
ladies In India, who lie on their couehes all
day and do absolutely nothing but think
how hot it is and how i'll they are"
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
where it Tires Some to Rest.

THANKS to the free trade proelivities Of
Mother England, her customs officers
ehalked the stateroom baggage politely and
without rufaing nightshirt. Unbroken
boxes of Yankee cigars were quickly vised,
the owners merrily tripped down the
| ship ladder, and all were soon steaming
through tortuous coral canals, amid pietur-
esque miniature headlands, through white
breasted islets into Hamilton harbor No
| clatter of wheel, screeeh of locomotive.
| tinkle of horse car bell shout Of
runner or hand of hackman was heard or
seen. 1t was Sabbath repose of the high
| est order, in spite of the fact that the three
| lone BARRIERS on the island lathered and
shaved, and the genial mixers of brandy
| splits dished out hot doses to all corners.
The shop keeper toiled not, and the fzz of
| the soda fountain Jared not on the Wis
hartian ear. L. & o. folk would find a
barren vineyard in Bermuda. It was a
peace that caused boisterous takers to lower
! their tones, and exercised loud laughers as
to cause them to suppress their outlaws into
satisfied smiles. Out on the white roads
| that ran under the budding oleanders it was
the peace of Paradise. Only the whistle
of the red bird and the ehirrup of the SPAR
row broke the rural silence of that sweet
summer-like Sabbath morn in climate
favored Bermuda. In the coral caves on
her shores the waves rolled in rythmic
numbers, and in receding left behind no
debris of the sea to hide the scale lines of
their mighty song.
Such is Bermuda on Sunday bevond the
narrow confines of hotel and rambling vii
lage. 1t is peace that to the busy man of
business seems oppressive. 1t makes him
tired to rest. But those who seek refuge
from the whirl of living, who have gone
wrong in nerve center and tissue, who
chase the god of sleep in wakeful dreams
only to see the vision-veil lifted and the
shadows grow brighter instead of darker,
Bermuda is a sea-giTt heaven. Frost is un-
known. Her pure coral-washing waves and
picturesque bays breed no malaria. Her
thermometer in winter ranges from $50 to
75O. During the writer's STAY it did not
huctuate five points, never dropping below
go or jumping over the 700 line. No frogs
croak in her handsome, sweet-smelling man
grove marshes, no snakes crawl through her
coral eaverns. Nothing in earth or air with
poisoned sting or Venomous tooth and tongue
scares loungers in field or on shore. They
say that centipedes have been imported
from the West Indies, and are sometimes
found on the southern coast. A few mos
quitoes buzz in summer time, and the frisky
flea makes it interesting for those who linger
about the docks in hot weather. These are
trifles, however, as one apparently must
hunt for before finding them in springtime.
Certain
'Tis bright little isle laved by bluest of waves,
That are warmed in the wash of the stream
of the sea;
That roll over reefs into quaint coral caves,
And shake their white names on nowery
lea!