The San Francisco call., 1904-07-24
Venice of the East.

Caspar Whitney, the editor Of Out
ing, who is now making an extended
trip of mingled pleasure and business
in the Far East, supplies his magazine
with a clear-cut picture of Bangkok,
capital of Siam. He writes:
1t is a strange, half floating city,
this Bangkok, overrun with pariah
dogs and crows; Oriental despite its
improvements, and one of the most in
teresting cities in the Far East. Yet
a sad city for the visitor with mind
apart from margins and money-saving
machinery. At every turning are evi-
dences of decay of native art, and in
their stead the hideously common
place things that bear the legend
made in Germany One would
scarcely believe to-day, after visit
to Bangkok, that at one time the
Siamese were distinguished, even
among Asiatic artisans, in silk weav-
ing, in ceramics, in ivory carving and
in silversmithing. Yet the royal mu-
scum discloses treasures not found
elsewhere in the world, which serve
to remind how far Siam has fallen
from the place she once occupied
among the art producing nations OF
the world. When therefore we be-
hold a people discouraging and losing
their splendid ancient arts and giving
instead a ready market to the cheap
trash that comes out of the West, we
may hardly look for native industrial
development. The day is probably not
far of when Slams industries will de-
pend upon foreign guidance; and If
England, not France, supplies that i'm
petus-the world viii be the gamer.
by those travellers who delight in
comparisons-and read travellers fold
ers especially compiled for tourist con-
umption-Bangkok has been variously
called the Constantinople Of Asia and
the Venice of the East. True, there is
much pertinence in both comparisons.
Certainly Bangkok is the home of the
gaunt and ugly parah dog, which
spends its days foraging to keep life
in it's NANCY carcass, multiplying
meanwhile with the fecundity of cats
in a tropical cline, because the Buddha
faith forbids its killing. Nor are out
cast dogs the only pests of Bangkok,
to grow numerous because of native re-
ligious prejudice; more noisy crows
perch Of an early morning on your win
dow casing and the tree Immediately
beyond II than in the space Of a day
hover near the Towers of Silence at
Bombay awaiting the pleasure of the
vultures feeding on the earthly remains
of one that has died in the faith of the
Parsee.
Some people fancy Bangkok city
of islands: hence I suppose the COM
parison with Venice. Bangkok has, in
deed, a very large floating populs ton,
and the city is intersected with many
'klawngs' (canals): at certain times Of
the year, too, perhaps half the city and
the surrounding country is under a foot
or more Of tide water. Yet the largest
half Of Bangkok's 400 900 citizens livcs
on land, though the easiest means of
travel throughout much Of the city is
by boat, and, in fact, half Of 1t is
reached in no other way. The Siamese
woman Of the lower class daily paddles
her own canoe to the market; or, If in
the better class, she goes in a 'rua
chang the common passenger boat
which, together with the jinril1isha, the
land passenger carrier throughout the
Orient, is included among the house
hold possessions of every Siamese who
can afford it,