The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-20
$4,000 and 100000 annually in the same

OrOAleF.
$50. 900 and 100000 annually in the same
way.
Meanwhile the All Fong family circle
widened There were four children, a
boy and three grls-in the home by
1870 Ten more girls were born dur
ing the next twenty years. Wing An
Fong was an ideal father. He was
delighted to see how each child resem-
bled the mother in facial expression
He hired servants galore, enlarged his
house every few years, and thought
nothing too good for his babies. he
used to find no greater joy than to get
his wife and all his numerous girls IN
a great numbering open carriage IKE
a Concord coach, that he had built, ac-
cording to his own ideas, and with
himself as driver on the front seat, TO
go rolling slowly over the roads about
Honolulu for a few hours at time.
He was passionately fond of song, ana
motioning cheerfully to his black-eyed
girls all about him he would say, You
singee allie velly fine song, you know.
L give you heap money" Then away
the family would go down the road
with the girls singing in chorus med
ley of all popular songs of the day. Ii
used to be a memorable sight to see
bowling along any of the lava-made
roads in Honolulu, Papa All Fong, with
his long cue dangling down his back
driving in a carriage containing MS
complete family circle all singing,
Laughing and having a noisy good time
all by themselves.
True Chinaman that he was, Wing
All Fong never gave up his idea that
the Chinese ways of living and doing
things were a little superior to any
others. He let the wife run the home
and dress and educate the daughters
as she saw fit The All Fong boy,
however, was the fathers to educate.
SO, while the All Fong girls dressed ana
were brought up according to the
American ideas, their brother wore
cue. had his head shaved and wore
flowing silken garments like his father.
once his oldest daughters got him 10
don a black dress coat and vest, when
a party of naval officers came to the
mansion to dine, but the father after
ward declared he would never again
so discredit his race as to appear IN
other garb than that of Chinese. Oc-
casionally, when he and his wagon load
of gayly-gowned femninity drove down
to the Honlulu wharf to give welcom-
ing hand to the people from the steam
err or a man-of-war he would please
his daughters by putting his long,
ebony cue under his Derby hat.
The All Fong home in Honolulu is
one of the sights that tourists are taken
first to see. 1t stands in the western
suburbs of the city, amid the most
beautiful grounds in all the south seas.
There are avenues OF palms, Winning
roads of lava, scores of beds OF flow
ers, numerous fish ponds, a wealth
of tropical shrubbery and dozen foun-
tains and half-dozen artistic grottoes.
The house itself is a composite sort
of pagoda and American seashore cot
tage. 1t is an enormous affair, with
the oldest sort of piazzas. Envious pa
rents of other pretty marrlageaDle
daughters in Honolulu say the All
Fong parents had these many sep
arate and distinct piazzas built in
this fashion purposely to let each
daughter in the family have piazza
safely to herself and her particular
callers of an evening. Be the charge
true or false, 1t Is a fact that all the
All Fong piazZas-so famous In Homo
lulu-are dear to the hearts of many
a naval officer and American young
man tourist in the islands.
In 1890 Wing All Fong was supposed
to be worth over $3,000,000 He refused
some 5000, 900 for his holdings on the
Island of Maui alone. There has al
ways been mystery about the reason
that Mr.. All Fong left Honolulu and
sailed for a visit at his boyhood home
in China in June, 1892. He spent months
getting his enormous business in shape
to leave it, and he sailed away with his
boy. When months pasesd and All Fong
was still unreturned there began to
be rumors among the Chinese in Hon
oi,lu that the millionaire merchant
had been detained in China. When a
year went by and he was yet absent,
H. taav,
ever. Mrs. All Fong and her daughters
kept closely at home for long time
and never spoke on the subject to out
siders.
The Chinese merchants in Honolulu
began TO say that Mr.. All Fong had
secretly gone on visit to a former
wife and her two sons in Pekin, and
that by the laws of China he had be-
come very near going to prison for
a long term for deserving his family
in China and going to a foreign land.
The gossips had ii that also Mr.. All
Fong had paid a fine of many thou
sands of dollars, and had settled down
with a good-sized fortune to live all
his days with his first family in Pekin.
No one seems to know how much OF
this is gossip or fact. The All Fong
family in Honolulu has, however new
er seen its father since that day in
July seven years ago. Every one in
Honolulu believes the gossiply story
as to the fate that befell Papa All Fong
in Pekin. Moreover, the Honolulu
newspapers have several times pub
llshed the gossip about Mr.. All Fong
without contradiction.
The hospitality of the All Fong man
sion has never waned during the years
of absence of Mr.. All Fong. The fam
lily business affairs have been kept IN
fine shape. while the real estate and
shipping interests have largely in
creased in value since the annexation
of Hawaii to the United States.
-Brander Matthews, who. after eigh-
teen years of waiting. has just been
elected to the London Athenaeum Club