Hide Article Text (OCR)
FORMER KING OF SIAM WANTED TO AID U, S.Offered to Send Elephants to Lincoln to Improve Transportation Here.From the Boston Transcript.■Rev. Lewis A. Eaton, now pastor of the East .Ttaynham Baptist church, of Faunton vicinity, after graduating: from the Newton seminary, was appointed 2. foreign missionary by the American Baptist Missionary union to labor imong the inhabitants of Siam, leaving America for Siam in the year 18S2. He labored there for 13 years, residingat Bangkok.After industriously plodding along in his wrork for the larger part of his career in the country, he was appointed as an American vice consul, as a result of the death of Col. S. H. Boyd, of Springfield, Mo., W'ho had been vice consul up to that time. Mr. Eaton served as vice consul for one year, during which time he came across many old, interesting and important documents In relation to the country of Siam with other countries, and after Berving that time he was succeeded by John Barrett, of Oregon, who now has charge of the bureau of South American republics.Among the various articles whichAir. Eaton found while he was vice consul were two letters one written by the king of Siam to the then president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln; the other was President Lincoln’s reply to said letter.The reigning king of Siam at that Lme was Somdeck Phia Paramendi Maha Mongkuk. who up to the age of 56 was a Buddhist priest, during which time he followed the usual solemn customs of the priests. But when he became king he practiced the cu stomas} habits of kings in the form of polygamy. He died at the age of 76, leaving sever a1 wives and 87 children, tne oldest of which succeeded the father as klngr.Th£ «hen King Mongkuk. who had heard that In America the inhabitants Imported camels for use in the deserts, and being full of sympathy for the united States, and desirous of offering a reasonable addition to our m.eans of transportation, proposed to supersede our present Imperfect system of rail-road service by the use of elephants, which he was desirous of presenting to the United States government. Following Is the letter, the exact words and language, of the then king of Siam to the then President Lincoln of the United States:rrt RaT'°k, Siam, Jan. 10, 1S62.To His Respected Excellency, the President—Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States:It has occurred to us that If, on the continent of America, there should be several pairs of young male and female elephants turned loose In the forests where there was abundance or Water and grass in any region under the sun’s declination.' both north and south, called by the English the torrid zone, and all were forbidden to molest-them, to attempt to raise them'would be
Newspaper Details
Milford Mail
Milford, Iowa, US
Thu, Dec 25, 1913
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
FL, USA 17 Dec 2018
Other Publications Near Milford, Iowa
Dickinson County Mail News
Milford Mail and Terril Record
Milford Mail
