Chinese of wealth often become favorites with the rulers and receive titles of nobility, and these noblemen in return present their daughters to their majesties. Thus we find Chinese blood flowing in the veins of the royal family of Siam. [Illustration: HOME OF RICH CHINAMAN.] Although a Chinaman may have left a wife in his native land, that does not prevent his taking as many others as he can support. The first Siamese wife is supreme, and rules the many-sided household without opposition. Intermarriage with the different tribes found in Siam does not change to any extent their native characteristics. The children inherit the same peculiar traits of character. They have the same almond-shaped eyes and copper complexion, cultivate their hair in queue style, and wear the same fashion of dress which their Chinese ancestors wore centuries ago. The Chinese element in Siam is a powerful one. No other race can compete with it, not even excepting the Caucasian. We find the Chinese in every department of business. They are extensive ship-owners. In the days when Siam had a sailing fleet of merchantmen the owners were principally Chinese, as were also the shippers and crews. Even when commanded by a European captain, the supercargo on board was a Chinaman and had chief control. Since steamships have been introduced we find that the owners and agents of some of these are Chinamen. The saw-mills and rice-mills worked by muscle-power are all owned by Chinese, and since the introduction of steam-mills they are not slow to adopt these modern improvements, so that now several steam saw-mills and rice-mills are owned by enterprising Chinamen. When business was dull and Europeans stopped their mills, the Chinese kept theirs running. One reason for this is that the Chinese can live more cheaply than Europeans, and are satisfied with smaller profits. They are our gardeners, shopkeepers, carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, sailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, fishermen and washermen. All the mills employ Chinese coolies; all cargo-boats for loading and unloading ships are manned by these coolies. Europeans prefer the Chinese for servants: they are cleanly and quick to learn, frugal in their habits, utilizing everything. In the possession of all these traits they stand alone amidst surrounding tribes. But the curse of opium-smoking and _shamshu_-drinking has followed them to this sunny land, and makes shipwreck of many thousands of lives annually. When they once become addicted to the use of opium they neglect their business and families and spend every cent they can find or steal for the poisonous drug, and finally, in a crazed state, their bodies mere skeletons, they lie down and die or put an end to their own lives.