The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1907-06-12

king desires to take his ease within 1t,
accompanied by his harem favorites,
he enters the single door, which,
when closed. is air and water-tight.
At signal certain valves are opened
and the hCuss OF glass descends to the
bottom OF LAe lake. The arrange
ments for supplying fresh air are per-
feet In the hot summer weather 1t
affords deIiclously cool retreat. and
there Chulalongkorn is accustomed to
while many idle hours away, rejoic-
Ing doubtless that fate did not sum-
mon him to reign over a progressive
and civilized people. That famous
saying of Shakespeare's: Uneasy
lies the head that wears a crown"
does not apply to him,
In accordance with eastern custom
he is much married man. He has a
score or two Of official wives, and no
body knows Just how many hundreds
Of what might be termed courtesy
wives, though In Solomon's time they
we're known by another name.
How far contact with western civ
ilization has modified Chulalongkorn'
religious views nobody knows. but
nominally, at least, he adheres to the
state religion. which is a decadent
form Of Buddhism on which many su-
perstitlons have been grated. The
huge palace is girdIed by holy rope
which has been blessed by the priests
and is, therefore, supposed to form
an effective barrier against the fiend-
ish host whose special prey is roy
atty and its multitudinous offspring.
It is the siamese custom to scare de-
mons by demons, somewhat on the
principle Of setting a thief to catch a
thief. The demons employed are
huge and hIdeous etIigies. The priests
wanted Chulalongkorn, when he
ascended the throne, to permit the
erection OF two OF these monstrosities
outside the palace gates. But they
| compromised on the holy rope Op-
| poosite the palace, on the western
bank Of the river. stands temple
known as Wat Chang, or the Temple
Of Dawn which the king attends for
public worship. The wardens are two
gigantic stone figures. male and fe
male, wearing nightmare masks. And
the king, skeptloal thoughehe may be
| as to their efficacy, deems it prudent
to make an obeissance when he passes
between them.
He has visited England once before
That was in 1897. He wasn't feeling
particularly comfortable at that time
for France was threatening to gobble
up the biggest portion Of his kingdom
and he didn't show himself much il
public. It was supposed then that the
chief purpose OF his visit was to gel
England to block the Franch game
On that occasion he paid visit L
the queen at Windsor Castle. He was
assigned to a magnificent suite d
rooms on the first floor. which CORE
spends TO what Americans would cal
the second floor. But despite theil
sumptuous furnishing, 1t became ap
parent that his dusky majesty was fal
from comfortable In them. Then th'
truth leaked out It is customary il
Siam for the monarch to sleep at thu
top OF the house, nearest heaven,
and that anybody should occupy apart
ments nearer the realms Of the blessed
than himself did not accord with hi
notions Of what was due his rank ant
dignity. SO he was shifted to an al
tic room, and though of necessity, 1
/, was a far meaner apartment. he wa
.. . more than pleased with the change