The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 19, 1902, Page 7

BY SARAH COMSTOCK. HE young Crown Prince of Siam is «the United States. s native city of water eets, of floating palaces, of tropi- dens, of gorgeous tropical of languor and color and splendid y summer that/ mever ends, and me into the midst of our strenuous- our hustle, our bustle, our un- | enterprise, to see how we do it stands to reason that the young sce is surprised at what he sees be sure, the ice had been broken to He knows a world outside Siam. He has been educated in England, has traveled through Europe. But Europe is not America. It is a far cry from a conservative English university to Cali- fornia. He has much to learn that will open his eyes. The Prince is only 22 vears old, which is unusua voung for a man to start out on an impression tour. But that is his object. He is shading his mind’s eye with his hand to see ag far as may be seen Into the mew world's ways. He claims that he has come without old world prejudices; he promises graciously, uth of 22, that he will give us a chance. If we have anything worth e to ghow him he will incorporate it his volume, *“The Impressions of a He mede a concession when-he cut the proposed title of the volume down to this. He wanted to call it “The Impressions of Prince Somdetch Chowfa Maha Vajira- L CROWN IEINGE AT THE A *7J6. wvudh,” but his publishers considered. this too long to be practicable. Even Som- detch Chowfa Maha Vajiravudh is a mere nickname. His own is tén times as much as that. He thought he was cut- ting the thing almost too far for dignity when he proposed that. So it went hard with him to have those four delightful rolling nouns blue-penciled. But he has lcarned a Western' thing or two in the eight years that he has-been studying away from Bangkok, and he gave in to the experience of his publishers. The young Prince has always shown & literary tendency. He published a little volume called “The War of the Polish Succession” when he wae a good bit younger than he i{s now. It is a text book ictended for the use of students who are following in the path of learning that he has already trod. All these facts which we are hearing about him give us the impression that he is a painfully goed hoy, who never did anything but learn his lessons as he was told to do. We look anxiously to see if he be not human after all. The only good, healthy scrap that he has been re- ported ‘as concerned In° was the saber duel at Pottsdam, in the gymnasium of the military school, where he was study- ing for @ while. He and a German officer disagreed, met, fought. The Prince re- celved a severe wound on his head. The affair was reported to papa, the King, and it pretty nearly cost the youth his crownship. In the end papa, the King, decided to forgive. But it was probably a lesson to the youth. He has contrived to keep his ) . @ /207 LOANED THE my CRLL BY Y scraps and his other good times dark since that—if he has had any. 1t was partly luck which made him Crown Prince in the first place, and as he has one hundred and thirty-one brothers, all quite willing to step into his ghoes should he be rash enough to kick them off, it behooves him to held them surely. For the King of Siam has the right to choose any one of his plentiful sons whom he likes best to succeed him on his throne. The death of an elder brother, the favorite, gave. this nity to be chosen, and youth to hold his with. the King. ./ ' - His little boyhood ‘was all spent in Stam, that land that is so littie known to our travelers, and most of the time he lived In his native city of Bangkok. The great Menam River, Mother ‘of Waters, was Market streét to him. Alligators played in that street “and monkeys frisked in his ‘back yard. The boy Prince’s life was a ‘s ‘wise enough ‘very persistently DAITOW one. In those days he usea to wear his hair in a droll little topknot, surrounded by a miniature crown of dlamonds. It looked like & small jeweled pagoda on the top of his little brown head. The hair was black and bristly. and ungraceful, knotted by the skilled hands of the harem women into the style of knot that befits one of his rank. Still there was a Prince above him, for Maha Vajirvunhis lived. The little Prince @1d not as yet have to bother about being 80 particularly good, for he had nothing to lose by being bad occasionally. When his hair was cut a great festival was made. Halrcutting is ‘the greatest thing that can happen to a man In Siam. It marks his copming of age. Little boys have to wear the topknot; when they arrive at years of discretion a religious ceremony and much feasting occur and the bristly black topknot is sheared in the presence #f as many guests as his father can af- ford to entertain. ‘When Prince Somdetch had his hair cut thers was a festival of several days to do honor to the occasion. A little mountain ‘wal erected in the palace gardens and the mountain . was landscape-gardened and outfitted with the most wonderful caves and grottoes and waterfalls and cliffs and ravines. “Thousands of people witnessed the .ceremony as they had that of his father before him. There were Amazons who attended the King in the procession. There were priests who acted as Buddhist ‘When the présent King Had his hair cut he was Crown Prince at the time, so the cereimoniés were even more splendid than those in homor of Prince Somdetch. He was borne iu a golden chair, as is the cus- tom for & Crown Prince. His fatier, the high priest, satd:" ““Thou Who art come eur of pure waters, be thy offenses washed away. Be thou relieved from other births. "Bear thou In ‘thy bosom the brightness “of that light which shall lead thee, aven as it led the sublime Buddha, to Nirvana at once and forever.” Then the golden shears and razor were applied to him. In America when a boy first has his hair cut he is taken to the nursery, a mush bowl is fitted over his head and his mother clips it around with the shears from her work basket. Prince Somdetch has much to unlearn as well as to learn. When he was 14 years of age he was sent away to school. The present King of Siam {8 more advanced than any of his predecessors and he grows more interest- ed in Europe and her methods of educa~ tion the more he knows of them. He wanted Prince Somdetch to have every advantage of them, so he put him under a private tutor In England. From the hands of this tutor he went to Sandhurst, then to Oxford. So he is full to.the brim with book learning. He is just beginning his Search for world learning. The Prince had been one year in Engw land when his brother, the Crown Prince, died. He was proclaimed heir to the throne in; the elder brother's place. So ever since 1895 he has been a personage instead of a person. As soon as he was well settled in Eng- land he took up the English style of dress. He lald aside robes that wers stiff with Jewels. He took to dapper boots—infinite- ly small they are—crisp coflars and wag- ging coat tails. His silk hat glitters with a European silk finish. When he goes home for his vacations he weard s gold pagoda upon 1, which is #0 over- burdened already with the weight of his varsity learning that it is a pity to add & gold pagoda to it. He Is a small man and he fairly topples when dressed in his princely regalia. Moreover, if he happens to feel the pagoda slipping he is mot per- mitted to put it it or even to catch it if it threa to fall upon his toes, for only ene ofti the realm is pérmitted tc touch the crowns of royalty. The King himself may not touch his own. But for the last eight years the Prince has not worn t spiendid and barbar- ous adofnments nearly as much as he h worn a dress suit. He will come to us in ordinary ling costume and will at- tempt ‘while in San Francisco to do as the San Franciscans do. How well he will Bucceed rem seen. He has a falr If to conditions, as e manner in which he English schools, with the boys, who to exactly what Is in has been shown by t he has gone through making his way we sift g fellow down him, Last year his father proposed a trip to America, but as his reception could not be arranged to suit him the plan was given up, He demanded ceremony such as he was accustomed to, and as the United States’could not stop working just to do him honor it was decided that he had better stay at home where he owns everything (n sight. Siam s his. The people are his. Three months of thelr work In every year is given to him. The Prince is willing to come and take us as he finds us. So this visit bids falr to be successful. Siam and the United States are on polite terms, and there is to be much glad-handing all around. The Prince will acquire many impres- sions and some wives. He is collecting & harem with as much care and extrava- gance as other tourists exhibit in collect- ing porcelain and paintings. He will ac- quiré many facts worth taking home, and when Be goes back and discusses matters withhis father there may be mere inno- vations In the customs of Siam. The pres- ent King has made great progress by shaking hands with men subjects and al- lowing them to interview him on their feet instead of on all-fours, as was the custom: before him. Little Somdetch will introduce still more advanced ways when he comes to the throne. But, in the main, he will go back to Siam and be a Siamese. He will have & harem of three hundred, as has his father. These women will be more varied than those of his father’s harem, for he will have gathered them from all portions of the world. Some of them may intro- duce-modern methods of shampooing and hairdressing into the palace, for it is the duty of the King’s many wives to attend to these matters for him. But it will take many generations of Kings to make over Siam. ‘What will become of the American wives, should he acquire any, whe return with him? They will live in the palace on the Mother of Waters; they will take to chewing betel nuts mixed with lime and tobacco; they will be in almost all respects Siamese wives. The King will leave off his dress suit and return to the jeweled robes and the golden pagoda. p He will leave off brisk cross-country rides and mount his white elephants, that live in state in the royal stables. In the end he . will have a cremation that costs. an entire fortune, having palace built especially for the ceremony. The performance will be more elaborate and widely attended than was his hair- cutting, his ashes will be interred in & golden urn and he will lle with his ances- tors. But step, slow old Siam will have made & mfinitely small in the records of the ages, but a step ahead for all that. Because Prince Somdetch Chowfa Maha Vajiravudh is visiting America.