Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1919 — ROYALTY IN JAVA [ARTICLE]

ROYALTY IN JAVA

Pomp and Majesty Always Ao- , company Sultan. Gold Umbrellas an Indispensable Adjunct of Procession With Which Ruler Dazzles the Eyes of His Faithful Subjects. __ The most cherished batik day in. my memory was the day we went to see the palace of-the- sultan of Djokjakarta, who has an establishment of 15,000 wives, children, grandchildren, soldiers And servants. An old Dutch official showed us everything except the old sultan Wlmself. A gold umbrella, the insignia of Javanese royalilty, always accompanies the sultan and his family wherever they go. On state occasions many gold umbrellas are carried behind the sultan or held over him by his maids of honor, who live in one of the shedlike entrances to the private apartments of the sultan. These maids of honor, to whom we talked through an interpreter, were handsomely dressed in the finest batik sarongs and wore glittering jewels on their bare necks. No one can be admitted to the honorable post of maidof honor until she has reached the secure age of "70 years, and those we saw, to judge by their wrinkled faces md bony shoulders, must have held the position from twenty to forty years. The royal batik workers in the | palace also are old hags, so that there may be no grounds fcr jealousy op the part of the sultan’s 300-odd wives. The soldiers guarding the entrance to the different courtyards were as finelooking men physically as one might see in Java, In spite of their perfect comic-opera uniforms. They seemed taller than they actually were, because each of them wore a black fez tall as a chimney-pot and held himself as straight as a ramrod, as he marched across the plaza with slow, majestic step, which was not unlike the ritualistic walk of a high church acolyte or a stately Shinto priest. The soldiers as a rule wear nothing above the waist, but, in deference to the "cool” season, perhaps (the temperature had dropped to only 95 degrees or so) they were, when I saw them, wearing blue and black jerseys with broad stripes running around their muscular torsos. Their brown batik sarongs were not trimly and tightly folded about the waist, as most Javanese wear them, but were bunched up in a fantastic way like a huge bustle or pannier over one hip, to allow them, I inferred, to get at the kris, which was always worn on the tucked-up side. Their feet were bare, yet I noted that several of them were wearing puttees above their shoeless feet. When on guard at the entrance they do not stand as our sentries do, but squat in Javanese style or sit cross-legged in semi-Turk-Ish fashion. Their officers, rich young noblemen, were obviously elegant dandies, wlro disported with an indescribable grace and air the most wonderful cream and chestnut batik sarongs.— Asia Magazine.