The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-06-05
ROYAL PALACE OF SIAM.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SIAMFSE
KINGS HOME IN BANGKOK.
or European Architecture, but
Adorned With Oriental Magnifi-
cence-IIl-Kempt White Elephants

| cCuSc-lii-heInpJ w nlte elephants
The palace of the King at Bangkok,
Siam, was built only a few years ago,
writes Frank G.. Carpenter. 1t looks
much like one of the great palaces of
Europe. 1t has several stories, and under
the bright rays of this Siamese sun it
seems to be made of marble. A closer
inspection shows that the marble is stucco,
and the golden elephants, each about
half life-size, which guard the entrance
change as you come near them from mas
sive gold TO iron gilded. Wide stairways
lead by marble steps through these into a
great vestibule, the ceiling of which is
about forty feet high and the walls of
which are hung with old Siamese armor.
At the right of this is the Kings audience
hall. His throne is a bed and he lies on
his arm or sits Siamese fashion, a la Turk,
while he receives hisroyal Council and dis
cusses matters of the kingdom. The
Ministers and mobiles sit on leather-cush-
ioned benches, and the portraits of Siamese
heroes, in oil, by European artists, look
down upon them from the walls. Just
back of the King there is portrait of a
shaved-headed, crooked-mouthed, pale
faced, half-naked Buddhist priest. 1t is
the high priest of the kingdsm, and thus
the proceedings go on under the very
shadow of Buddha himself The priests,
by the way, claim that the royal family
are lineal descendants of Buddha.
On the other side of the vestibule is a
grand reception-room fully as wide and
nearly as long as the East Room of the
White House at Washington. This is
paved with marble mosaic, and its high
ceiling, twice as high as that of the East
Room, is gorgeously decorated with
carvings Of gold. Brilliant chandeliers
hang down from it, and about the walls
are oil paintings of the royal family, and
the only woman's face among them is that
| of the present Queen, whose sweet face
looks down beside those of the Kings
brothers, and has the best light and the
! place of honor of the whole room. The
furniture of this room is European, and
the treasures of Europe have been ran
sacked to fill it. There are rare vases from
Dresden, filigree work from Venice and
richly-carved gold from Siam. Through
this room and on into a third grand re-
ception-room we went with the Siamese
noble. This room is full of beautiful
things. Two of the largest elephants
tusks, wonderfully carved, stand beside
the mantel, and an album on a little stand
at the back of the room has a medallion
portrait of the King painted on porcelain
and set in the richest of diamonds. The
corners of the room contain large cabinets
filled with curious works in gold from
card-cases up to betel-boxes, and l no
ticed fine portrait of Frederick, the late
Emperor of Germany, among the many oil
! paintings on the wall.
The audience chamber, or rather the
throne room of the King, is a grand hall
with a ceiling made of many colored
pieces of glass and producing the same
effect as the glass wall which Tiffany
built between the vestibule and the long
corridor of our White House. The light
shining through this makes it look as
though it was made of jewels and the
room is lighted from the top. This cell
ing is, judge, fifty feet from the floor.
1t is vaulted and the walls below are fres-
coed in gold. Three immense glass chan
deliers like those of the East Room of the
White House, hang down from this cell
ing, and these were made for the palace
of the Emperor of Austria, but were
bought by the King of Siam. The floor
is of marble mosaic and the King sits on
great chair or rostrum at the back Five
steps led to it, and beside him are the
kingly umbrellas and over him nine
story pagoda-like crown of white and
gold. Around the room there are gold
trees and gold bushes, and the>leaves of
these are of pure gold, while their trunks
are heavily plated. There were, perhaps,
a dozen of these on each side of the room,
and they ranged from the size of Christ
mas tree down to that of a small currant
bush. These are the offerings of the
rulers of the various provinces under the
King. They make these presents of gold
trees every year, and some of them are
worth fortunes. Not few were of sill
yer, and the silver trees were placed on
one side of the room, while those of gold
were placed on the other.
Siam is known as the land of the white
elephant. The elephant is the imperial
animal Of the country, and you see his
| picture upon All Ol INC lidShs L ne 0td
coins of the realm have an elephant upon
one side of them, and the white elephant
is here sacred. He is supposed to be the
embodied spirit Of some king or hero,
and the people formerly worshipped him,
and they do so to some extent now Be-
fore going to see the palace l had read
a glowing description Of the white ele-
plant of Siam. Iexpected to see his tusks
bound with gold, to find golden chains
about his neck and a superb velvet coat
Of purple, fringed with scarlet and gold
over his snow-white body. What l did
find was four wild-eyed, scraggy-loolxing
elephants with long tusks and with skins
not much whittier than those you see in
the American circus. The only white
part about them was their long tapping
ears, which seemed to be afflicted with
the leprosy The remainder of their
skins had the whiteness only of disease,
and was told, as a rule, the white ele-
plants of Siam are mad elephants
These beasts were in dirty stables and
they were chained by the feet to great
wooden posts. They had dirty keepers
and there was no sign of royalty about
them. Their keepers fed them some grass
while we were present and they performed