The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-04-07


of the world. None of the great steamshi
lines of the Pacific or of the Indian ocean
stop at it.
FEW GLOBE TROTTERS VISIT IT
and it is about 1,5OO miles out Of tn
reg dlar line of travel around the world
The great Siamese peninsula iuts dow
from the east coast OF China. It contain
half dozen different countries, the chic
of which are Burmah, Siam and the trencf
states of China. Siam itselfis at the lowe
end of the peninsula and it bounds thu
greater part of that mighty body OF water
known as the Gulf of Siam. 1t is l,30t
miles long, and at its widest part 1t Is 45l
miles wide It is almost as fiat as yOU
hand though it has here and there a few
mountain chains. 1t has many big rivers
and the country is as much cat up with
canals as is Holland During the rainy
season it becomes a mighty lake, and the
people move here and there from one city
TO another III boats. I ne greatest river Is
the Menam, which the Siamese know by the
same name as the Indian knew the Miss
issippi 1t is "the father Of waters" and it
forms the greatest highway OF the kingdom.
This river flows into the Gulf Of Siam at
its head and it is about forty miles from its
mouth that ! sit here on its banks and
write this letter in this floating city of
Bangkok. Imagine city as large as Chi
cagO, of which ninety nine hundredths of
the people live on the water. There are
FIFTEEN 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 600 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. 1t is
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 Feb
ruary, but long to go as naked as the
SiameSe themselves and it makes me per
Spire to think of American OyercOats and of
the clothing which you people wear as l
write. 1t is too hot to go 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.
AN INSPIRING RIDE.
1 wish could give you a picture of our
ride up the Menam to BANGKOK The sides
of the river are lined with small floating
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
OFF into the jungle and the houses On it
make this floating street. These houses
are made of bamboo with their sides and
their roofs matched 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 fail
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 ploughed it looks as
black as your hai. The only beasts upon it |
are ugly water buffalOs. There are no
fences, no barns, and only these matched |
houses on piles.
The river is winding. It is perhaps a |
quarter of a mile wide and every turn |
brings new surprises AS we near Bangkok |
the waters are alive with crafts of all
kinds. Little, naked, brown, shOck-headed |
feet wide and so sharp that the least bal |
ance would unseat the rover. There are |
half naked women with great b, IS Of straw, |
which look like inverted work baskets, sit |
ting barelegged and re-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, |
gray haired women of sixty. As you enter |
Bangkok the crowd increases. Instead Of |
one line 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 each turn.
BLUsHING CORRESPONDENT.
What curious crowd it is and how
queer are the peoplel feel myself blush |
ing as look at the women. Young and |
old, the most of them have nothing but a |
strip of cotton cloth yard wide and per-
haps three yards long wound around their |
nips and the ends pulled through between
the legs and tucked into the belt at the
back. The dressy people among them add
to this another strip of equally thin cotton,
which they pull tightly around the bare
body under the arm pits and fasten with
knot Just over the bust. There is three
inches of bare skin between that and the
waist cloth, and the neck and the shoulders
are decidedly bare. The bust is always
QGGOleGge anu lllS CDIJOu HUGS uOLG u IIlc
outlines of beauty. There is beauty, too,
in the outlines of these plump, straight,
lithe-limbed Siamese maidens. A part OF
their education is the bending the joints
back and forth to make them supple and
they are as straight as so many pine trees
and they move with the grace of the India
rubber man in the circus. Their step is a
Light one, for they walk without shoes and
all native Siam goes barefoOted. They are
all sbort-haired, and these Siamese girls
have heads which seem to be afflicted with
a perpetual cOW-lick and their short wirey
hair black and oily, stands up like shoe
her face She has adark brown complexion.
Her forehead is square, her cheek bones
are high, her nose is half fat and it turns
slightly upward over
PAIR OF RIPE, LUSCIOUS BLACK LIPS.
She opens her mouth and the black of her
lips is equaled only by the Jet of her teeth.
The sight is disgusting. She has a quid of
brown stuff between the lips and the teeth
and thick stream the color of blood is seen
on her tongue. She squirts it forth and
wipes of the saliva on the back of her hand.
TINS maiden, like all the men, women and
children in Bangkok, is chewer of the .
Detel nut, which turns the teeth black, |
puffs out the lips and makes them crack I
The betel nut is a native of Siam, and i'm {
mense quantities of them are exported to
India and other countries where the chew ;
ing of il prevails 1t has green skin and ;
is of the size of black walnut 1t is sold !
in pieces the size of a hickory nut and it is /
Of soft SDongy nature, having bitter
astringent tas5es The q lese mix it with
Iime, od0rsd red, and q bit of tob go. The
red lime Is wrapped up In green leaves, and
Aha try hoe ha+o I,r,,~ Z,