Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-07
THE RUIN OF THEDAW
Cold Blooded Massacre Of ALI
His Relatives.
WORK OF HIS QUEEN
DECLARATION MADE OF WAR ON
ENGLAND.
Rulers Deposed in Consequence and
Given Pensions, Living in
Retirement.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record-Heraid.
MANDALAY, April 6, 1904.
From what l told you yesterday and the
| day before of the royal residence and ar
rangements at Mandalay you must have
concluded that the late King of Burma was
preposterous person, as he was, and that
puts it very mildly. No comic opera ever
presented more fantastic monarch, and
there was great deal of tragedy mixed
up with the comedy performances of this
depraved and degenerate creature. At the
same time you will find missionaries and
military men here willing to declare that
Thebaw was not altogether bad, and that
his amiable queen No. 1 was responsible
for the blood shed in his name. The mas
sacre Of all his relatives is said to have
been her own gentle conception and was
so shocking that Great Britain was finally
obliged to step in, take charge of affairs
and Danish Thebaw and the demon he mar
ried, without doubt the wickedest woman
since Jezebel. Instead of hanging both of
them to the nearest telegraph pole the
British authorities sent them to Putna-
ghuri, small town near Madras, India,
where Thebaw and his harem have since
been living in great luxury with palace
them.
Theblw has three queens. One of them is
his own sister The others are his half
sisters, daughters of his father. King Min
don Min. His mother was his fathers sis
ter, and that delightful couple had only one
grandfather between them They had two
grandmcthers, however. which was a liberal
allowance, for the family was a very close
corporation, limited. II has always been the
habit of the kings of Burma to take their
sisters, and their cousins and their aunts
as conSortS, because nc other family than
their own good enough to marry into,
but there was no limit to their harems. In
order to keep the royal blood untainted an
ancient custom required that of the
daughters of the reigning king, known
the Tabin-laing princess, should remain I'M
married in order to become the wife of his
successor, and thus make 1t unnecessary for
the latter to seek a wife outside of the fam
lily. AMI in order to prevent any failure in
the line, two mere of the kings sisters or
half-ssters. were usually reserved for his
harem. Sometimes they were meek and mild
willing to remain in The background. and
gratefully accept a share of the kings ca
reSSeS, but several of the queens of Burma
have been women of remarkable spirit and
iEflammsble temrers. They have often con-
trolled affairs and, as a rule, have made
| their brother-husbands step around lively.
Experience of Mindon Min.
Mindon Min, who was king from 1853 to
1873, had plenty of sons, thirty altogether,
His life was made unhappy by the jeal-
ousies of his royal consorts, and by the
rivalries of his sons all of whom took
what he considered an unnecessary amount
of interest in the nomination Of his sue
cessor. If he had named the heir-apparent
| at an early day, he should have done,
| the king might doubtless have diverted
| their attention from himself to that indi-
vidual, and made the latter's life wretched
| by constant attempts at assassination but
bp a fraid n daoido hatxU for
fear of the vengeance of the disappointed
and his cowardly procrastination caused
continual intrigue and turmoil.
In 1866, to assist him in reaching a de-
cision, two of his sons seized his royal
person and locked him up while he was
| taking a vacation at one of his country
palaces. He was rescued, but in the shindy
| three of the brothers, the minister of war
and fifteen or twenty of the guards We're
| killed. The conspirators managed to es-
| cape and fed to India, where they con-
| tinued plotting. In 1870 another of the
kings sons attempted to dethrone him, but
failed and there were half a dozen or
more similar conspiraces within as many
years. Yet he continued to neglect his
constitutional duty probably from personal
fear Some people think he desired to
| avert fratricdal strife, but he only pro-
voked it, and at last four of his thirty
sons were killed in their futile efforts to
get him out of the way.
On his death bed he is believed to have
formally nominated the so-called Nyan-
guay-an prince--the most intellectual, re-
spectacle, honorable and progressive men,
Der of the family. The selection would
have given universal satisfaction to for
signers and the people at large, for he was
highly esteemed, well educated, honest in
all his dealings and conspicuous for his
exemplary life. In this he was an excep-
ton to the rest of the family.
How Thebaw Was Chosen.
One of Mindon's queens. however, who
=. a-&xr
at that particular time, and was in charge
of the sick mans chamber, induced the
prime minister to insert in the place of
Nyan-guay the name of her son, The
baw, one of the youngest of the family
who was still in school and never had
been mixed up with court intrigues.
When Thebaw was proclaimed there was
great surprise as he had not been reck-
oned as a candidate for the throne, and
his nomination was considered a clever
diplomatic move on the part of the dying
king. Before the proclamation was issued
Thebaw's mother ordered the arrest of his
brothers. They were all seized and i'm
prisoned except two, including Nyan-guay-
an, who received timely warning and fed
to the British legation for protection. He
was cordially welcomed there and means
were found to send him quietly out of the
country. After the coronation ceremonies,
| as soon as Thebaw vas firmly seated upon
| the throne, his brothers were released and
allowed to return to their palaces, but
| close watch was kept over them.
Following the ancient custom, Thebaw
| married two of his half sisters. and through
| thesinfuence of his mother, one of his own
| sisters Supayalat by name, who inherited
| her mothers courage, determination and
| ambition The mother and daughter at
| once took command of affairs and forced
| the son, brother, husband to act as a pup
| pet lin their hands. You must admit that
| il was an extraordinary situation, and even
/ If Thebaw had been what ne was not, a
| man of nerve, intellect and strength of
| character, he would have had difficult
1 task to perform, But, making all allow
/ ances for what people say of him. he was
1 not the same stuff as his wife was made
/ of and submitted to her will in every mat
| ter of Importance.
Thebaw as a School Boy.
Thebaw spoke and read English quite
| well, having been educated at the Manda-
| lay Mission School of the Society for the
| Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
| Lands" Some of his teachers are still iiv-
| ing in this city. They remember him as an
| apt pupil. with obedient, industrious.
| amiabIe disposition. He was quite well
| known in the English colony also, as he
| was accustomed to visit the homes of sew
| eral of his schoolmates He dressed In
| Ei,ronaau clothing. was fond of Etfroraa, >,