PICTURE OF BANGKOK.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5372, 3 September 1904, Page 10

PICTURE OF BANGKOK.

“VENICE OF THE EAST.” Caspar Whitney, the editor of “Outing,’’ who is now making an extended trip of mingled pleasure and, business iu the Far East, supplies his magazine -with a clear-cut picture of Bangkok, capital of Siam. He. writes: “It is a strange, half, floating city, this Bangkok, overrun with pariah dogs and crows; Oriental despite its improvements, and one of the most interesting cities in the Far East, Yet a sad city for tho visitor with mind apart from margins and money-saving machinery. At every turning are evidences of decay of native art, and in thoir stead tho hideously commonplace things that bear the legend ‘made in Germany.’ One would .scarcely believe to-day, after a visit to Bangkok, that at one time the Siamese .wore distinguished, even among Asiatic artisans, in silk - wear-: ing, iu ceramics, in ivory carving and in silversraithing. Yet tho royal museum discloses treasures not found elsewhere in tho world, which serve to remind how-far Siam has fallen from the ■ place she puce occupied among tho art producing nations of the world. When therefore we behold a people discouraging and losing their splendid’ancient arts and giving instead a ready marketto tho cheap trash, that comes out- c.f the West, wo may hardly look for native industrial development. Tho day is probably not far off when Siam’s industries will depend upon foreign guidance; and if England, not France, supplies tliat impetus—the* world will be the gainer. “By thoso travellers who delight in comparisons—and read, travellers’ folders especially compiled for tourist consumption—Bangkok has been variously: called the Constantinople of' Asia and tho Venice of the East. True, there is much pertinence • in' bath comparisons. Certainly Bangkok is tho homo of thoi gaunt and ugly pariah dog, which spends its days foraging to keep life in its mangy carcass) multiplying mean- ■ while with the fecundity ■ of' cats in’ a tropical clime, because the Buddha faith forbids its killing. Nor are outcast dogs tlio only pests of Bangkok, to grow numerous because of native roj ligious prejudice; more noisy crows porch of an early morning on your -window casing and the tree immediately beyond it than in the’space of a day hover near the ‘Towers of Silence’ at Bombay awaiting the pleasure of the vultures feeding oil’the earthly remains of one that has died in the faith of the Pavseo.

Some people-fancy Bangkok a city of islands; hence. I suppose the comparison 'with Venice. Bangkok has, indeed, a very large .floating population, and the city is intersected with many ‘klawnga’ (canals); at certain times of tho year 1 , too, perhaps half the’ city and tlie surrounding country is under a foot or more of tide water. Yet the largest half of Bangkok’s 400,000 citizens lives on land, though the easiest means of travel throughout much of: the ■ city is by boat, and, in fact, half of it is reached in no other way. Tho Siamese woman of tho lower class daily paddles her.own canoe to the market; or, it in the better class, sho goes in a Tua chans:,’ the common passenger boat, which, together with the jinrikisha-, the land passenger carrier throughout the Orient, is included among tho household possessions of every Siamese who can afford it.”