The Cordova daily times., 1920-08-27
KING OF SIAM
 HOLDS THRONE
 FOR TANK GIRL

throne, King Rama VI, is said to be waiting for an American girl to share his throne
 The kings grandfather, Mana Mong- kut, used to say that he desired-and had-a member of every family of note in his kingdom in his house hold" No outsider ever knew just how many wives he did have. His son, Maha Chulalongkorn, the father of the present king, had three wives on the day before he was made crown prince On that day he married 97 more to make up the complement of 100, which was a proper number of wives for the crown price to have. When he died-1O years ago-he had between 1000 and 5000. When his son, the then crown prince, returned from his long stay in Europe-he had spent a third of his life in England, France, Germany and Russia, and had made frequent visits to Belgium, Italy and Spain Norway, Sweden and The Meth erlands-his father presented him with a collection of Siamese beauties saying:
 My son, here are something over a hundred of the beauties of the court x for you to start light housekeeping with and to these you may add as you see fit
 But the young prince, much to the discomfort of his royal father, told the monarch that he would have none of this wholesale marriage business, and added that when he was ready he would marry ''one wife, and she shall be the queen of my heart as we'll as the queen of my realm" His father took the decision of his son very much to heart and some have gone so far as to say that his boys stubborn adhe- royal fathers life.
 When his majesty Mana Vajiravudh know thereafter as Rama VI, came to the throne, as there was no queen and no heir a crown prince, or, as they say in Siam, an heir presump- tive, had to be chosen, and the lot naturally fell to the late Prince Phit- sanulok, who was brother of the king by the same mother. And there is another curious phase of Siamese royalty law.
 Many years ago Siamese monarch found himself among a people with out a women of high enough rank for him to make his queen So he mar ried his own sister. Since that time the custom has prevailed that the ruling monarch must marry at leasi one of his half sisters, for the heir must be possessed of royal blood on both sides. The queen mother, who, was cremated in May was the half sister of his majesty, Mana Chula 1ongkorn
 When the young king overthrow all precedent and declared that he would not marry any of his half-sisters- that he would not tolerate the royal harem-and that rather than this he would remain single, it was the queen mother who stood by him and who as- sisted him in bringing out the "wom- en of the court and compelled them to be recognized as a part of the new scheme of things. B. At his majesty's coronation ceremonies the young women of the court-the kings half ally have become members of his old-were, for the first time in Siamese history, seen at the royal ball in the theaters, at dinners and other royal public functions. It was the young king who decreed the new order, but it was the faithful queen mother who made the new order a practical factor in the life of the Sim csc court.
 S1aI IS pOlySd1nOuS country. AC- cording to Siamese law man may have as many wives as he can SUD- port The households of royalty ran into almost countless numbers. Old King Mongkut, the grandfather of the present monarch used to say:
 'I like large families. I have 86 children"
 The present king has something like 20 half brothers and any quan- tity of half sisters In doing away with the royal harem his majesty struck a blow at one of the oldest and