The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-11-06
KING NoRoDoM's COURT.
A Curious Country in the East and Its
Queer Old POtentate.

| A Curious Country in the East and Its
Queer Old Potentate.
The night after my arrival in Prom
PENN there was a reception in state at
the French residency. 1t was known
that the king was to be present, and %
of his loyal subjects crouched in the
shade opposite the residency to wit
ness his reception. A body of native
militia, the Milliciens Cambodians, kept
untidy guard in the street, and when
the king drove mp in victoria, escorted
by II Cambodians on ponies and fol-
lowed by the victorias of a selection of
his sons, there was considerable enthu-
siasm. His majesty was received with
present arms!" and the fanfare of d
cornet that was not in tune. Music was
played during the reception by the
royal band of Manila-men who would
have played, perhaps, with more spirit
had their wages been less in arrears.
King Norodom is quite a curiosity.
He is little, wizened-up mar, with gray
hair and a stoop, and with that peculiar
expression of feature which is usually
i write with respect-associated with
the higher anthropoid apes.
All the royal family live in Prom
PENN, in a kind of mock palace ram
bling pile of disjointed buildings of diff
ferent shapes, scattered over large in
closure, surrounded by a wall of brick
and plaster. Where there is plaster it
| is falling off in flakes; where there is
wood it is worm-eaten and rotten;
where there is aRy iron it is rusting and
useless. 1t is a palace fit for such a
king. At the main entrance to the pal
ace two Cambodian militiamen keep
guard, with their hats awry, their
khaki coats in rags, their rifles held like
brooms. On the river bank in front of
the palace there is an old flagstaff, while
drawn above the water line there is a
royal state barge, with dragon head
and seven-forked tail; but the paint has
| peeled off and the craft Is no longer sea-
worthy.
King Norodom has reigned in his own
peculiar way in Cambodia since 1860,
but since 1867 he has had the advantage
of being directed and protected by the
French. 1t was in 1867 that France en-
tered into treaty with Siam, by which
she agreed that the two provinces of
| Angkor and Batambang should remain
| in Siamese possession, and by the same
treaty Siam formally recognized the
| French protectorate in Cambodia. Since
| 1867, then, we are always told that
| Samese influence was withdrawn from
| the councils of Cambodia. AS an actual
fact, however, Siamese influence still
4e 4bo11rh bn
French will not allow that it is SO in the
| Cambodian court. Norodom passed his
early years in Bangkok and spoke ST.
amese before he spoke Cambodian. 1t
was Siam that gave the crown of Cam
| bodia to his father, Ang=Duong, and it
was Siam which elected him king on
! the death of his father. The king is not
a prince of high moral character; he
has probably never attempted to es-
| cape from the trammels of his environ
ments; he will even on occasions mock
at Buddha; but none the less he cannot
| forget that for him the highest living
| object of religious veneration must be
| the king of Siam. In Pnom-Penh there
are nearly 40 Siamese employed by the
| king in positions of more or less conf
| dence, and l have it on authority which
| is beyond cavil that the most intimate
| personal friends of the king and his
only confidantes are siamese, and that
Siamese is the language which the royal
lips speak from choice.
King Norodom is a very much-inar-
ried man, his establishment comprising
at least 300 wives and concubines. He
has Sc sons and daughters who are rec
| ognized by the French as his lawful
progeny. Of this number more than
half are sons, so that the succession, if
ever the French permit him to have a
successor, is well assured. King Noro-
dom came to the throne in 1860, and the
same year statue in his honor was
erected in Pnom-Penh. 1t is an eques-
trian statue, and is the only public
monument in the city. 1t was, of
course, made in France, and represents
the king dressed as French general,
mounted on q charger and saluting the
armed hosts of Cambodia. Rarely have
1 seen a more impressive work of art;
and it is unfortunate that, left neg
lected in some waste land, it has become
overgrown with Jungle. On the pedestal
there is an inscription which testities
that the statue was erected to Norodom
by his grateful mandarins and sub
jects." The statue, we are told, was the
spontaneous offering of grateful peo-
Pile, and one can we'll believe it, though
it surely has not often happened that
indigenous tribes in Asia have ordered
from Paris equestrian etflgies of their
newly-crowned king. - Cor. London
Times.
Chimneys Are Tickle.
"The hardest problem the builder has
hnd To r,,rnStl with ;, onid q ,,roll