The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-04-28
AT'LK WITHARAJAH
Something About His Kingdom
and His Palace.
HOW HE LIVES AND GOVERNS.
Singapore Women and their Beautiful Ear
Rings-The Eurasians and one ofthe Dan
gers Of Chinese Emigration.

SINGAPORE, February 2s, 1SS9.-[S Special
CORRESPONDENCE of The HERALD. l-Singa-
pore is lust eighty miles north of the Equa-
tor. Its climate is the same the yearround.
Its sun rises and sets at the same hours
each day the year through, and its flowers
ever bloom and its trees are always green.
Now. at the last Of February, l am sur
rounded by the verdure of the tropics.
BIRDS BY THE THOUSANDS
sing in the trees and the air is that ola not,
moist July. The natives in many cases
wear nothing but waist cloths, and all Euro
peans are dressed in white duck coats and
white pantaloons. They wear hats Of pith
or cork. the rims of which are as big around
as a dish pan and ', lich rise in two stories
to protect the head from the sun at
tended church at the English cathedral last
night and listened TO a service under forty
great punSahs or fans. which were pulled
10 and fro by men stationed on the outside
of the church, This cathedral had an
audience room about one hundred and
twenty feet long and it was, Judge, sew
entv-five feet from the floor TO the roof.
Below the ceiling there was net work OF
iron rods and to these, by ropes, were fast
ened these huge fans, each of which was
about four feet wide and eighteen feet long
They consisted of strips of white cotton
cloth. weighted and hung from black wal
nut poles. and it was by ropes attached to
these poles and stretched over pulleys IN
the windows OF the church, that the natives
outside kept them going and cooled those
engaged in devotion.
THE DINING TABLES IL THE HOTELS
have these punkah fans overthem and upon
the steamers there are punkans in the
cabins. which are pulled during the meals.
Some Of the Weather European residents
have servants who do nothing put pull pun
lahs. and not a few have fans over their
beds which are kept going allnlght by man
ual labor. Just in front of the hotel, and
along the shore of the sea, there Is tennis
and cricket ground comprising several
acres of lawn. Every afternoon these Eu-
ropean nabobs Of the east may be seen here
by the scores. Each player has his servant
with him who runs after the balls and
hands them to him. No one does any more
than he can help. and the business hours
are from ten to five.
WHERE IT Is.
Singapore is an island fourteen miles
wide and twenty seven miles long. II lies
lust half way around the world from New
York. and it is the half way station be
tween the Pacific and the Indian ocean. If
YOU will take your map of Asia and look up
the straights of Malacca YOU Will find this
little island. Lying at their entrance Just
north of Sumatra and south of lndO-Chlna,
a little over to the left you will see Ceylon,
and further still. the gulf of Alden and the
Red sea To the right and north are China
and Japan. Singapore is the center OF the
trade routes going via Ceylon and the Red
sea to Europe. and all of the great ships
trading with China and Japan stop here.
More than six thousand ships visit this port
every year and all of the great Islands OF
this vicinity send their freight here for
s-shipment 1t is four days and 500
miles from here to Bangkok, the capital of
Siam There are weekly steamers to Ba-
tayia. the capital of Java, five hundred
miles to the south. and you can in two days
reach this great coffee island, which com
ul.ises a territory about eighty miles wide
and longer than the distance between New
York city and Cleveland. Borneo is al
other great island at the eastward and 1t IS
thirteen DAYS from here to Calcutta by way
of Burmah. The result is that the pOpu-
lation of Singapore is made up Of the
natives of all these countries and you find
here mixture of yellc-vs and blacks, OF
HindOO turbans and Chinese plgtallS: OF
coffee-colored Malays and of pale, white
Caucasians from Europe. The costumes
are as strange as the skins, and all the
queer outfits of southern Asia iOstle each
another's heels upon the highways
THE WOMEN OF SINGAPORE
are of a dozen different types, ranging from
the rosy-cheelled English girl, in a suit
made by Redfern or Worth, to the half
naked beauty from Borneo. whose sole cos
rume is a strip of cloth about the waist.
which reaches to her knees and which is
fastened by a knot at the pit of her stomach.
| saw a black woman today who had holes
in the lobes of each Of her ears as big
around as my thumb, and | noted that an
other woman used her ear holes as bouquet
holders. Both of these women were Kings
and they came from southern India. They
were straight graceful, and by no means
bad looking. but their chief dress consisted
of ieWelry. They had great bracelets of
gold on their wrists and their ankles.
Their ears were riV eted with gold and above
these great ring-like lObeS, little gold nuts
and bolts were put through the ears so that
they were bound with pins OF gold from
lobe to tin. One of the maidens had each
of her nostrils riveted with these screw
rings and a great ring of gold hanging down
from the center of the nose. The gold
shone out all the brighter against the black
ness of the skin and the jewelry was the
more prominent from the scantiness of their
costumes. There was merely single skirt
fastened tightly around the hips and the
thighs and coming to the knees, and sort
of a scarf of cotton which was stretched
around the shoulder and under one arm and
tied in a knot at the side. Four yards of
cloth would have made the whole suit and
they wore neither hats nor bOnnets.
noticed another of these women who had 4
large, pear-shaped pearl fastened to a riyet
and hanging down from one nostril almost
to her upper lip.
THE MALAY WOMEN,
so far as have seen, are not as good look
ing as the Indians, though this country was
originally populated by them and there are
now more Malays than any other Asiatics
except the Chinese. The Malays live, as
rule in the poorest Of one-stOry matched
huts and there is a Malay village within
three miles of this city which is passed on
the way to the steamers. 1t Is the picture
of poverty and desolation. The MalayS
viii not work and they live like savages
Slowly but surely the Chinese are crowding
them out of their own country and there
are now st, 900 Cinnamon here in Singapore
THE population of the city is 10000 and the
Chinese. the Indians, and the Europeans do
the business. Everywhere L go l find that
John CHINANIAN Is PUSHING HIS WAY TO THE
FRONT.
Within the past few years the Chinese
have begun to emigrate,. and the horde
that came to America had its cOunterparts
i'm those who went to Australia and who
are now pushing themselves into the
various countries and islands of the Pacific
They gain foothold wherever they go,
L. asaurr hn1s ~ or