The record-union., 1899-03-03
RICH All FoNG GIRLS.
THIRTEEN CHARMING DAUGH-
TIERS OF A CHINAMAN.
Among the Richest Residents OF
Hawaii--American
Husbands.

to marry a young American resident OF
that city. The prospective bride 5
mother already has the dowry OF SooO,-
900 in cash, real estate and securities
ready for the marriage day.
This time the bride will be Miss Jes-
sic All Fong, and her choice is settled
upon Howard G. Morton, young news
paper editor, who has lived in Homo
lulu several years. He is a distant rel
ative of eX-Secretary of Agriculture
Sterling G. Morton of Nebraska, and
first cousin on his maternal side tu
Mrs. Andrew Carnegie. He was stu
dent at Cornell University and later at
Stanford University, at Palo Alto, CAL
He inherited a small fortune when he
was %, and, abandoning reportorial
work in San Francisco, sailed on jour-
ney around the world. He never got
any farther than Honolulu. Becoming
infatuated with the climate and easy
life under the tropics, he decided to re-
main. He bought stock in local news
paper, invested in sugar company
stock and fell in love with Miss Jessie
All Fong. The marriage, it is said, Will
take place in February.
The All Fong written Along since
the family became leaders of fashion in
Honolulu) group of thirteen girls is
very interesting from several points of
view. Everybody who has been in Ha-
waii, no matter for how brief a time, III
the last decade has heard much about
| the All Fong family, and how it has
borne the brunt of hospitable entertain
ment of all visiting naval craft in the
harbor Of Honolulu. Early in the 'GUs
a young Chinaman named Wing All
Fong settled in Honolulu. He was an
unusually intelligent and genial China
man, and with a little capital he soon
built up a prosperous business in Chi
nese crockery, silks and bric-a-brac. He
learned Kanaka and English tongues
readily, and before anybody knew he
was the leading merchant in Honolulu.
He spent money freely and was well
liked by whites and blacks in the quaint
old town. He married a young girl OF
uncertain Portuguese and Kanaka an
cestry, but with a dash of English
blood somewhere back in her confused
pedigree. She was an attractive, en-
ergetic and ambitious person for that
land of languor and siesta, and the
young couple prospered. All Fong in
vested in sugar cane plantations, and
in the old times, when sugar plantation
stock paid 30 and 40 per cent. divi-
bends year, he grew very rich. In
ten years All Fong was worth over
100000 and was adding $35,OOO to it
annually. Mr.. All Fong was a careful,
prudent business man and while his
business associates were content to
browse and take no heed of the morrow
he was watching chances to buy plan
tation land cheap from the improve
dent who abounded in Hawaii
In time the All Fong family circle
i numbered seventeen-the parents, TWO
boys and thirteen girls. People who
used to visit Honolulu ten and fifteen
years ago say that it was a memorable
sight to see bowling along any of the
lava made roads in Honolulu Papa All
Fong, with his long queue dangling
down his back, driving the horse that
drew carriage containing his complete
family circle. The girls always dress
ed in elaborate gowns of maroons. ma
gentas and scarlets, and the wagon load
of childish feminine loneliness of every
hue in the rainbow made a charming
spectacle
Mr.. All Fong built the most unique
residence in Hawaii. 1t stands in the
western suburbs of Honolulu on a
slightly knoll. It is an enormous pa
CODA, with the oldest sort of piazzas
about it. There are sixteen of these
piazzas and they are all over twenty
feet wide. Envious parents of other
pretty manageable daughters in Hon
olulu say the All Fong parents had
these many separate and distinct piaz-
zas built in this fashion purposely to let
each daughter in the family have
piazza safely to herself and her par
ticular callers of an evening. Be the
| charge true or false, it is a fact that
all the All Fong piazzas-so famous in
Honolulu-are filed $50 evenings in the
year with companies of young men call
ers, and there are impromptu concerts
with mandolins, banjos and a dozen
reed instruments not known outside the
tropics.
Mr.. All Fong, true to the Characters
| tics of his race, never abandoned his
Chinese mode of life. His wife and
his fast increasing family might think
and do as they liked, for he was an
indulgent father; but he never gave
up his chopsticks and his wooden shoes
and flowing garments of gaudy silks
| Occasionally, when he and his wagon
load of gayly gowned femininity drove
down to the Honolulu wharf to give
welcoming hand to the people from the
steamer or a man-of-war he would
please his daughters by putting his
long black queue under a. Derby hat
He was the soul of hospitality, and he
loved to give big spreads at home
In the spring of 1892 Mr.. All Fong
planned a visit to China with his eld-
est son. about II years old. The man
had become very wealthy-in fact, one
of the four richest men in the Ha-
waiian Islands, His investments in
stock in the sugar companies had paid
themselves out six and seven times
| over. He made over 100000 in one
deal in sugar stock to Claus Spreckels
| of San Francisco. Hundreds of acres
of land on the island of Maui that had
cost him few thousand dollars had
become worth many times more. He
was popularity rated at about 81. 000,-
| 600. with an income Of over $4,000
year. and the estimate seems to have
been just.
| In the summer of 1892 Mr.. Fong so
arranged his business that he and his
son sailed for Hongkong. When six
months passed and the rich Chinaman
had not returned there was some COM
ment. But when a year went by and
he was still a sent all Honolulu was In
terested, Mrs All Fong and Yer lovely
daughtefs never spoke on the subject
at least to outsiders. Then the Chin
csc merchants in Honolulu began to get
news from friends and relatives in
China, and the information became gen
! eral in the city that Mr.. All Fong had