Tke D «Hy Reporter.
D. C. IRELAND A CO. PUBLISHERS,
McMinnville, Or.
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-
Feb. 23, 1887
THE INSIDE OF SIAM.
An Ex-Governe*. Shows Up the Court and
,
its Wickedness.
Mrs. Leonowens, who was governess
of the young Princes of Siam, published
a sketch of the Prime Minister of that
country as follows. He was the actual
ruler of that semi-barbarous realm and
the prime contriver of its arbitrary poli­
cy. Black, but comely, robust and vig­
orous, neck short and thick, nose large
and nostrils wide, eyes inquisitive and
penetrating; his was the massive brain
proper to an intellect deliberate and sys­
tematic..
WeB foiled ip the best
idioms of his native toffgue, ne expressed
strong and discriminative thought in
wprda at once accurate and abundant.
His only vanity was his English.” She
•Iso sketches his haWffi.
“We discover in the center of the hall
a long line of girls with skins of olive,
creatures who in years and physical
proportion are yet children, some twen­
ty in number, with transparent draper­
ies with golden girdles, their arms and
bosoms wholly nude and covered with
barbaric ornaments of gold. Their on­
ly garments the lower skirt, floating in
hgh t folds about their limbs, is one of
very costly material bordered heavy
with gold. On the end of their fingers
they wear long nails of gold, tapering
sharply like claws of a bird.” She de­
scribes a dance in this harem whil.e the
Prime Minister sits stony and grim, his
huge hands resting on his knees in sta­
tuesque repose. His deportment to hi9
female slaves was studiously ungracious
and mean.
“In the midst of Bangkok is a sort of
sanctuary for criminals, where lurk fugi­
tives of every class. Women in disguise
as men. men in the attire of women,
hiding phases of every vilenoss and
crime of every enormity, at once the
most disgusting, the most appalling and
the most unnatural the heart of man
has conceived. Most of the women who
died in 1868, were of gentle blood, the
fairest of the daughters of the Siamese
nobles and Princes of the adjacent tri­
butary States; the Queen consort was his
own half-sister. Beside many choice
Chinese and Indian girls purchased an­
nually for the royal harem by agents
from Bancock and Bengal, enormous
sums were offered year after vear at
Bangkok and Singapore for an English
woman of beauty and good parentage
to crown the sensual collection. French
women offered themselves for the harem,
but the King would not accept them.”
Although religious ceremonies were
held at this court Mrs.*Leonowens says:
“The King of Siam was more syste­
matically educated, and a more capa­
cious devourer of books and news than
perhaps any man of equal rank in his
time. In inborn integrity and steadfast
principle he has no faith whatever. Hi*
sincerely believed flint every man strove
to compass his own end.-, and when
sometimes 1 ventured to disabuse iiis
mind of his daring scorn for motive and
responsibility I had the mortification to
discover that I had but helped him to an
argument against myself. It was simply
my pecuniary interest to do so. Money,
money, money. That could procure
anything. The love of children was the
constant and hearty virtue of this despot.
They appealed to him bv their beauty
and their trustfulness; they refreshed
him with bold innocence of their ways.
At 9 o’clock he retired to his private
apartments, whence issued immediately
peculiar domestic bulletins, in which
were named women whose preseuce he
particularly desired in addition to those
wjiose turn it was to wait that night
His spies penetrate into every family of
wealth and influence. Every citizen
suspects and fears always his neighbor,
sometimes his wife.”— Cincinnati En­
quirer.
__
A Spoiled Child.
I wonder whether the following
story, which I have come across in the
Presbyterian Monthly Visitor, is quite
correct. That Mrs. Spurgeon should
have had a longing for a piping-bull­
finch and an onyx ring is remarkable,
but still more remarkable is it that in­
continently, these two incongruous
wishes should have at once dropped
down from heaven for her delectation:
“During an illness of Mrs. Spurgeon,
before Mr. Spurgeon left her room for
the journey he was contemplating, she
remarked that she hoped he would not
be annoyed with her for telling him
what had been passing through her
piiud.
hjm. however, prom­
ise tKat he would not t?y io PrbcTTFe
the objects for which she had been
longing. She then told him that she
fora a piping-bullfinch
pi
had been wishing for
and an onyx ring. Of course Mr.
Spurgeon expressed his willingness to
f;et both, but she held him to his prom-
se. He had to make a sick call on his
way to the station as well &s call at
the Tabernacle. Shortly after reach­
ing the sick person's house, the mother
of the patient, to his amusement, asked
Mr. Spurgeon if Mrs. S. would like a
piping-bullfinch, that they had one,
but that its music was trying to the in­
valid, and they would gladly part with
it to one who would give it the requis­
ite care. He then made his call at the
Tabernacle, and After reading a vol­
uminous correspondence, came at last
to a letter and a parcel underlying the
other letters. The letter was from a
lady unknown to him. who had receiv­
ed benefit from his services in the Tab­
ernacle. and as a slight token of her
appreciation of these services asked his
acceptance of the inclosed onyx ring,
necklet, and bracelets, for which she
had no further use. This intensified
his surprise, and he hastened home
with what had been so strangely sent,
went up into his wife’s sick room, and
Elaced the objects she had longed for
efore her. She met him with a look
of pained reproach, as if he had allow­
ed nis regard to override his promise,
but when he detailed the true circum­
stances of the case, she wa^ filled with
surprise, and asked Mr. Spurgeon what
he thought of it? His reply was char­
acteristic: I think you are one of your
heavenly Father’s spoiled children, and
He iust gives you whatever you ask
for/’— London Truth.
A Lake Superior Mounter.
A traveler from the West has been
telling the Observer of some recent oc­
currences that equal anythin,, in Victor
Hugo’s “Toilers of the Sea” for drama­
tic strength and sensationalism. It ap­
pears a party of ooppermine prospectors
were landed on a louely island in Lake
Superior to examine the rock forma­
tions and the bottom of the lake for in­
dications of a oopper mine. They
camped on the edge of the island, and
one dark, dreary night one of the men
g°t up to feed the camp-fire, when he
noticed a beautiful refulgent green light
coming up out of the lake ana covering
an area of thirty feet in diameter. He
remembered the Indians' traditions
about the spot, how they oarefully
avoided landing on the islaud, and told
of a brave who defied the authorities,
went to the island alone and never re­
turned, and the strange sight gave the
miner a queer feeling. Calling the
other four men in the party they re­
garded it with interest, when one fired
a shot into the water and the light at
once disappeared.
Nothing was thought of the incident,
and the next day diving operations be-
5an from a small barge anchored off
lore, the diver going down with a
crowbar and bucket to collect speci­
mens and follow a submarine vein of
oopper. He had been at work a couple
of hours in water about thirty feet deep,
when he went under what appeared to
be an overhanging rock and found
himself in a cavern. No sooner had
the diver passed the entrance to this
cave than all light disappeared and he
knew some large body was in the door­
way. Turning like a flash he confront­
ed a huge-eyed monster with a dozen
legs that grasped him about the body.
The diver s pipe, through which air was
supplied, was twisted, and barely
enough to keep the water out of his
helmet came through. He grasped his
knife to engage in what he knew to be
a struggle for life. One blow of the
sharp instrument severed one of the
monster's tentacles, when another shot
out and grasped the man's arm like a
vioe. He was now powerless, and about
to give up hope when the marine mon­
ster took fright and disappeared. The
diver was at once hauled to the surfaoe,
and positively refused to go down again-
whereupon the party left.— N. Y. Tri-
A Thumb Puncher.
Brown (to his wife)—“Did you notion
that old woman on the corner with a
basket of apples?” Mrs. Brown— “Yes.”
Brown—“She has stood on that corner
every day for ten years with her basket
of apples. How much do you suppose
she is worth?” Mrs. Brown—“H—ml
A thousand dollars?” Brown—“No.”
Mrs. Brown—“A hundred thousand?”
Brown—“No.” Mrs. Brown—“A mil­
lion? She can’t be worth more than a
million, John?” Brown—“Not a cent,
and she owes for the basket”— N, Y.
Sun.
“We don’t mind the men,” remarked
a poulterer Wednesday after the rush
was over, as he rearranged his rather
mixed-rows of chickens, ducks, and tur­
keys, talking the while to a Philadel­
phia Press reporter.
“It’s these ’ere
tarnal women folks as bother us. Some
women is good enough to git along with,
and don’t make no fuss. The worst is
the thumb-punchers. What? You don’t
know what a thumb-puncher is? Well,
if you was in this business, you wouldn’t
want to learn. You see that turkey lay-
in’ there? Well, he looks worse’ll hevd
been knocked out in a prize light, don't
he? He’s all blaek and blue. Thmnb-
punchin’ did that; a little woman—thin
—hpd a nose on her like the beak of one
o’ them ducks bangin’ there, comes up
hud squeals out, ‘Lem'me <<•<• the second
turkey on the third row.’ I puts down
the bird. She rams her thumb into its
side four or live times. ‘How much?”
sez she. ‘Sixteen a pound,’ sez I. Then
she goes at it with both thumbs, right
an’ left, an’ hammers that poor dead
bird ’till it's all off' color.
Then she
snaps out: ‘Put it back, it’s too tough.
Wouldn’t be surprised if its legs were
stuffed with shot to make it weigh heavy,
What's ducks?”
“ ‘Madam,’ I MX, as cool and perlite
as a feller could under sich circum­
stances. ‘Madam,’ sez I, “them ducks
can’t afford to go through no scrim­
mage like that turkey got into.’
She
got mad right off and went away, i lyin’
that poor unprotected widdies had no
rights. ”_______ ____ ________
Speaker Carlisle is making a collec­
tion of the most curious communica­
tions he receives—such, for instance,
as a letter from a Minnesota man, who
wanted an appropriation by Congress
to provide him with a good sleigh. He
told what kind of wood it was to be
made of, how many bells it should
have, and how thick the steel of the
I runners should he; »nd iu a post-
scriptum intimated that the salvation
of the country depended on the ap-
Dropriation.
it is estimated that there are 100,000,-
000 acres of land on the Pacific coast
that are especially adapted to wheat cul­
ture. Of this California has 25,000,000,
or one-fourth of the whole; Oregon has
18,000,000 acres, Washington Territory
has 16,000,000 acres, Colorado and Idaho
10,000,000 each, Montana Utah and
Wyoming 7,000,000 each, and the great
bulk of all this wheat land yet lies un­
touched.
Ex-Assistant Postmaster
General
The following is said to be the set
Brady has a passion for bric-a-brac and form of instructions that Missouri hus­
antique furniture.
bands give to new wives: “My dear.
I’m a bad man from away back, when
The Weekly Reporter, a faithful
Bring on your job work. We are aroused, but, gently treated, I’mas do­
and complete compendium of the now prepared to do job work in the olie as a lamb. You just induce mo to
week’s news, is furnished for 12| cents latest and most approved style of the do always as I please, and there’ll
never be any trouble in the family.”
art.
a month.
NEW TO-DAY.
FIREMAN'S FAIR
—OF THE—
McMinnville Firs Department,
—AT—
Garrison Opera House,
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,
February 22d, 23d and 24th,
1887.
LIST OF PRIZES.
There will be prizes given on the following
named exhibits:
1st and 2d prize for best and 2d best ex­
hibit of Kensington painting.
1st and 2d prize, for best and 2d beet ex­
hibit of Kensington embroidery.
1st and 2d prize, for best and 2d beat ex­
hibit of outline work by a child under 14
years of age.
1st and 2d best, for best and 2d best ex­
hibit of work of any kind by a boy under 14
years of age.
1st and 2d prize, for best and 2d beat ex­
hibit of orayon work.
There will also be a prize given for the
heaviest, lightest and prettiest baby under 1
year of age.
Following is a list of prizes offered: For the
grottiest baby, gold necklaoe; lightest and
eaviest baby under one year of age, eaoh a
?old ring; outline work by a ohild under
ourteen years, first prize, ear rings, second
Srize, scrap book; kensington embroidery,
rat prize, napkin ring, seoond prize, box
writing paper; kensington painting, first
prize, manioure set, second prize, braoket:
orayon work, first prize, paper holder, seoond
Erize, pitcher; boy’s work, first prize, paper
older, seoond prize, inkstand.
Parade of Firemen Tuesday af­
ternoon.
Doors will l»e open at T o’clock,
p. m. dally, during the
Fair.
—All are invited to Attend—«.
Admission 25 Cents.
By Order of
C ommittee .
Now is the time to aubscribe.
JOHN J. SAX,
Has his
Feed Chopping Mill
In Running Order,
—AND—
Will chop Feed for $2 perton
or one-tenth toll.
---------(o)---------
Farmers and others having grain to chop
can come to my mill, and attend to any
business in the oity to better advantage than
driving two miles out of town to get their
chopping done.
JOHN J. SAX.
McMinnville, Or.
The M Hotel,
Dining Station of the 0. C. R. R.
McMinnville, Oregon.
F. Multner, Prop.
(Late of the St. Charles.)
This Hotel has just been refitted and new­
ly refurnished throughout, and will be kept
in a first class style.
The table is supplied with all the market
affords, and guests oaa rely upon good elean
beds, and comfortable rooms.
Special aooomodations for commercial
travelers.