Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1885 — SIAMESE BEAUTIES. [ARTICLE]

SIAMESE BEAUTIES.

A’ Country Where Women Excel the Men in Shrewdness. The Siamese consider themselves to be a handsome race, and in their opinion their women are more beautiful than those of any other country. La Loubere, a French writer, says that he once exhibited to the Siamese the portraits of some celebrated beauties of the court of Louis XIV., and was compelled to acknowledge that they excited no admiration whatever. A large French doll, however, which he presented to one of the princes, was pronounced a model of physical perfection, and he was assured that a woman of such a form and with such exquisite features would command a high price in the royal city. The native women of Siam are certainly remarkably handsome, and, though somewhat diminutive, they are naturally graceful in their movements and excel the men in intelligence and shrewdness. They are cashiers in almost every native establishment, and are considered to be safer guardians of the money-box than the proprietors, or even their own husbands, to whom they dole out the copper ots or silver fuangs with frequent precautions and admonitions. Although, in accordance with Eastern ideas, they are regarded as inferior to men in every respect, there are few countries where they so thoroughly demonstrate and maintain their equality as they do in Siam. In every well-organized and properly conducted business-house they are acknowledged to be indispensable, and nearly all the multitudinous native hongs and retail establishments at Bangkok, as well as those in the remote provinces of the realm, are either owned or managed by them. They seem to possess a genius for trade, and are marvelously successful in all kinds of mercantile pursuits. As saleswomen in the native shops they are precise and persistent in making a bargain, and always win their customers by a genial craftiness that is too fascinating to resist and an unaffected plausibility that disarms suspicion. The Chinese merchants who settle in Siam and engage in trade have a keen appreciation of these qualities, and select Siamese women for their wives in preference to those of their own race, who are seldom capable of becoming anything but toys and menials. Thus, with the Eurasians on the one hand and the Siamo-Chinese on the other, that section of the far East is being gradually peopled by new-formed races in which only a few distinguishing traces of the ancestral types will ultimately be found. Siamese women are an important factor in the body politic. In the state, as well as in the household, she performs a part which commands the respect of even those who pretend to despise her sex. In the palace her will is “the power behind the throne greater than the throne itself.” Her Majesty, the Queen consort, though unproclaimed as the loyal spouse, is, nevertheless, practically supreme in influence, if not in authority. She is less beautiful than some of the inmates of the royal mansion, but more noted for her ability and intelligence than any of the women that surround the court. The'young King has been devotedly attached t© her from his boyhood, and denies her nothing that his generous nature can bestow to complete her happiness. It is even asserted that he would abolish the time-honored custom of the country by casting aside his other wives if she demanded it. She is his constant companion at home, and always accompanies him on every journey, and, I was informed by a missionaiy lady who has been a frequent visitor at the palace for many years, that in the affairs of state he relies more upon her judgment than upon the service of the members of the privy council, who are presumed to be skilled in the subtle art of diplomacy and statecraft. Besides being amiable, intelligent, frugal, and industrious, she is gifted with igood sense and endowed with other admirable virtues. When Mrs. Grant was presented to her in the private audience chamber ■of the royal palace she conducted herself with a simplicity and dignity of manner that could not have been surpassed if she had been a wall-trained scholar in the school of etiquette.— JFomipn letter.