The morning call., 1893-07-02

they tie about their waist and tuck in at
the back. takes their place. The King wears
silk stockings, shoes which are pointed like
those Of the Turk and his costume is
beautiful one. He is not bad looking
man. His face is olive brown, his eyes are
black. his forehead is high and his eyes are
signify almond In shape. He has little
mEstache and tnickest of stiff black hair.
He Is very fond of his wife, mean his
half sister wife, and he makes great deal
is still boy. but he has been shown q
mum Der of times to people. and he is said
to have remarkably good sense. Just out
side OF Bangkok there is palace which
belongs to him. and the boy is being edn-
Gated in such a way that he will probably
make fit successor of his father.
l wonder whether the members of the
leg alton will ever bring their wives to
Washington? If they do we will have q
decided sensation, provided they come in
their native costume. The common SIAM
csc women wear only surong and a
her waist and between her legs and the
turkish towel is wound about her bust
and shoulders. Now and then she takes
off the towel and is satisfied with the
surong. She rarely wears shoes, and girl
under oyears old rarely wears anything but
string around her waist. The better
classes wear more costly clothing, and
some of the ladies haveia strip of thin cot
ton. which they wear tightly around the
body under the armpits and fasten with a
knot just over the bust. leaving the shoul-
ders and neck entirely bare. Some of the
ladies OF the harem wear, upon state occa-
sions. European clothing and others add
to the surong loose jacket, trimmed with
Swiss embroidery and covered with bows
of ribbon set on in rows. They all wear
bracelets on their wrists and anklets on
their legs, and not a-few OF them are quite
pretty.
The Siamese girls are the most graceful
women in the world. Their joints are
very supple. and part of their education
is made up of bending their joints back
aud for h to make them so. They are all
short-haired, and when young they are as
plump as cartridges and as straight the
ralm trees of their own beautiful land.
As they grow older they become wrinkled
and ugly, and the most of them ruin their
teeth from chewing the betel. Only the
fewest OF them are educated, and l don't
think they would be happy in our high
French-heel shoes and they would die
bound in by our corsets and crinoline.
One OF the PROTEST women in Siam is the
Queen. She has short hair like her Siam
csc sisters, and her teeth would be pretty
if she were not addicted to betel-nut chew
ing. She is of nearly the same age as the
King. and it is said that her marriage was
to certain extent marriage of love.
should fall in love with his sister, but you
must remember that the King of Siam
came of family of eighty-four children
and he had thirty-four half-orothers and
forty-nine half-sisters. The custom of
Siam requires that the royal blood shall
be kept pure, and for years the kings have,
| am told, married their sisters. LII con-
sidered an honor among the noble families
| of Siam to have u daughter in the harem
of the King, and the only woman that the
King cannot marry by the laws of Siam is
his mother. His court is one OF intrigue and
plotting, and Government officer who has
daughter in the harem can thus better
hold the friendship Of the King and can
keep himself posted on all that is going on
in the palace. The last King had wives
from China and India, and he wanted to
add an English girl to his gallery of beau
ties. The women of the harem live to
certain extent together in the palace, and
they are considered passe at the age OF %.
At this time, ii they have no children.
| they become the waiting maids of the
younger wives of the King. and the stock
| is replenis he'd yearly with the flower Of
the beauties of Siam.
FRANK g. CARPENTER. :.