Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/38

 pursuits, and has collected in his palace much machinery, including a small steam-engine built by himself. He is fond of entertaining European guests in European style; his reception-room is brilliantly illuminated with innumerable little cocoanut-oil lamps.

The Krung Charoon, or main highway of Bangkok, is several miles in length, and used by the nobility and foreigners for driving, except during the high tide of the river, when it is often partly under water. The liveliest quarters in the capital are those mainly occupied by the Chinese, with their eating-houses, pawnbrokers' and drug-*shops and the ubiquitous gambling establishments, and with a Chinese waiang, or theatre, near by.

The finest view of the city and its surroundings is from the summit of Wat Sikhet.

The summer palace recently erected by His Majesty, a few miles below Ayuthia, is a large building in semi-European style, standing amid lovely parks and gardens, ornamented with fountains and statuary, with streams spanned by bridges, and a fine lake with an island on which is built a most delightful Siamese summer-house. The royal wat (temple) opposite this palace is a pure Gothic building fitted with regular pews and a handsome stained-glass window.

"There are a few houses in Bangkok, occupied by the 'upper ten,' built of stone and brick, but