The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-06-27
IN
HIS ERRAND
Mr.. Seng Could Not Get
Bride for Royal
Master.

SO of Siam, passed through Honolul
yesterday on the Korea. In appear
ance Mr.. Seng is about 40 years ole
spare in frame and most excenen
|conversationalist. He is a man wit
a most remarkable story. If ALADDIN
and his lamp were here they woul
not be out of place in company witt
Mr.. Seng.
| Primarily Mr.. Seng went to Americ;
in the interest of his great rubber plan
tations in Singapore, and has man!
wealthy correspondents in the East
with whom he has been comforting re
Icently
| 1t is of his special mission, however
that he thinks and talks most. He
was special envoy from the Prince OF
Singapore, Sarong Tabek by name, sc
the Salt Lake Tribune said, to procure
as his wife Miss Adele Ritchie, play
ing at the Casino in New York, and
whose picture the royal lover saw in
a magazine in his native country.
woman, he fell in love with the origi-
nal, and straightway commissioned
Mr.. Seng to find her, and propose mar
riage with the Prince to her. 1t is well
to state just here that polygamy is the
common custom of the people in the
Straits settlements, and even Mr.. Seng
believes in and practices it. The Prince
has q harem of sixty-two wives, so
rurnor has it, and would make Miss
Richie No. 63.
When Mr.. Seng left home, about
is physician to the royal house of the
court of Bangkok. in Siam, commits
stoned him to propose for him to Miss
Richie, as he desired to make her his
sixty-third spouse.
when laid the proposal of my
Prince at her feet in her dressing-room
at the Casino in New York. said Mr..
Seng, ''she cried, 'Twenty-three for
your and it was some time before
learned that meant skidoo.''
There is quite romance surround
ing this whole strange affair. Mr.. Seng
said: My Lord, the Prince, first con-
ceived a great passion for the lady
while reading in the garden one sum-
mer afternoon. It was a case of love
at first sight, but not so, alas, on hers.
He noticed her picture while reading,
and he must have her at any cost.
When he heard 1 was coming West he
made me his emissary to win her for
him. So far 1 have failed. I saw her
first myself in her play, and she is
of the Prince.
But when 1 proposed to her in his
name she only laughed, and said she
might have been my lords first wife,
out his sixty-third, never. She had
asked me if the Prince were fancy
,ree. In the East my Princes sixty
md two wives would prove no objection
% a fair lady, but here it is very diff
'erent. The worst of it all is my |
Prince does not UNDERSTAND the ways |
If Christian countries.
1--WE are a polygamous people in the
there, and these things do not
bother US. The Princes harem is such |
| one as BELTS his dignity. 1t is COM
,lete except for the American beauty
lie wants so much. In the one great :
louse lives his chief wife, and all the
,ther wives live in bungalows all
round i.
They are pretty women, of course; /
.ou can see the flower of the beauty of
Siam among them. Each afternoon
Prince Sarong walks in the garden, his
ixty-two wives with him. Each wife
years a distinguishing flower. The
Prince taxes the flower of the wife who
trikes his fancy that day, and the
ortunate woman dimes with him in
tate.
Il have another mission which seems
qualIy difficult, and that is to get an
English governess for my Princes
hildren. When a capable woman
earns he has two hundred children she
rops the proposition. That mission L
must also fulfill or return in disgrace,
% longer the favored courtier."
In his own right and person Mr.. Seng
5 a manufacturer of rubber in Singa-
ore In that interest he promoted a
recently in London capitalize
d for 81 500 00O His business brought i
i'm in contact with New York's lead
1g merchants. He has been studying
he rubber interests in America and
rflI return with some new conceptions
f its possibilities.
IkHRHIH DkTtOAI Dill