Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-08-17

I@S2&NpX his throne. one reason ih"! nc .''"'
Y HETA% Y King Rama has seen American
ssh w beauties in twenty states OF the
Union.
Rama VI known 10 his own people as SemGet
phra Paramndr Maha Yajiravudh MOngkut hrao'
Somdct Phra Rama Thibodi VI, is one of the most
Interesting monarch, writes Frederick Dean NJ.
A.. in the New York Tribune. The first bachelor
that ever sat upon the Siamese throne. he is said
to be waiting for American girl to share MS
throne The kings grandfather Maha Mongkut,
used To sag that he desired-and had--a MEMBER
of every ftmiIy of note in his kingdom IN his
'househod. No outsider ever knew just now
many wives he did have. His son, Maha Chutl-
Iongkorn the father of the present king had three
wives the day before he made crown
prince. On that day he married ninety-seven
more 10 make up the complement of one hundred,
which the proper number of wives for the
crown prince to have. When he died--ten years
-ago-he had between 1000 and. 5000 When his
son the then crown prince, returned from his long
stay N Europe-he had spent third of his life
in England France, Germany and Russia, and had
made frequent visits to Belgium Italy and Spain,
Norway, Sweden and the Netherands-hiS father
presented him with collection of SiameSe
beauties saying:
My son, here are something a hundred
of the beauties of the court 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
nf his royal father told the monarch that he would
have none of this wholesale marriage business,
AMI added Nllat when he ready he would marry
cone wife and She shall he the queen of my heart
as well as the queen of my realm His father
took the decision of his son very much to heart
and some have gone far as ta say that his boys
stubborn adherence to his word helped to end his
rovaI fathers life. When his majesty Maha
Vaiiravudh-knOwn thereafter Rama VI
r,,me TO the throne as there was no queen and
mo- heir n crown prince, or they say in Siam,
an heir presumptive. had to he chosen, and the
lot naturally fell to the late Prince Phitsanuck,
who was a brother of she king by the same
mother
Siam Is q pOygaHOuS country. According to
SiamrSe law man may have many wives
ne can support The households of royalty ran
into almost countless numbers. Old King Mong-
kut the grandfather of the present monarch, used
TO say:
81 like large families. have eighty-six
children"
The present king has something like twenty
haIfhrotherS and any quantity of ha'fSisterS. In
doing away with the royal harem his majesty
struck blow Mt Of the oldest and most funda-
mental customs of the country. And If he
chooses to step out of the beaten track and marry
q foreigner he will he carrying out but one more
of his unexpected reforms, for which he has been
noted ever since he came to the throne.
Rama VI is a remarkable man in many re-
Srects At the of twelve he was sent to
England where he fitted int the foreign school
rprime in less han six months He played foot
hau at Rugby. learned to fence. ride and swim;
entered into tournaments of golf and tennis frted
and wrote love lyrics Later he went TO Heide
herr where he crossed swords with the daredevils
and drank and sang his way into the hearts of his
fellow workers. Returning to England he entered
Christ college oxford where on graduation he
took the first prize from seven of the brain
lest nj Rrtishers. and then went to Paris. where
Ne wrote a play that produced at the Coincide
Franchise; he returned TO Germany and wrote his
thesis for his doctors degree in German and.
,r,,r visiting every court i'm Europe, returned
bo,na ny wav of America. where he stopped long
enough to pay the president an extended visit and