The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-07-26
WERE ONLY HALF Welded.
YONG HANG HADN'T SEEN HIS
wIFE'S FACE.
Kan You Deported in Spite of Her
long Distance Wedding and Claim
of Hawaiian Birth.

United States Judge Estee this morn
ing decided that the young woman
Kan You must go back to China. Hel
hasty marriage after she arrived here
availed nothing except to call forth
severe roast of Attorney Tom Fitch
from the bench, and the alleged mar
riage in China, according to Chinese
CUSTOM" was decided to be incomplete.
The alleged husband Yong Hang was
in HOnOIulu and had been mere for nine
years, al the time of the wedding"
Estee thought that even according to
Chinese custom, the marriage was not
complete until the couple met and
drank the necessary cup of wine to-
getner and the bridegroom was allowed
to see the face of his bride. After dis
cussinE the Honolulu marriage Estee
said
1T is impossible for a rational mind
to believe the testimony upon the point
of the birth of the defendant in these
Islands. Kan You swears in her an
swer that she was born in Honolulu in
1883; that she left Honolulu for China
with her mother in 1895, leaving her
father in the Islands, and who still re-
mains here according to the testimony.
She would then have been about seven
years of age. and twelve years old when
the alleged marriage occurred in 1900.
She alleges further that she came here
one year after the Chinese marriage to
join her husband, namely on the
steamer 'Doric' in June, 1901 which
would leave her just thirteen years of
age.
Yet on the trial. she swears she
was born in Honolulu and does not
remember the year, but that she is
twenty-three years of age now. By
what process of reasoning she arrives
at this conclusion or how this is to
be reconciled with the sworn allega-
tions of her answer is not clear.
She further testifies that although
she was six years of age when she left
Honolulu, she remembers nothing of
Honolulu or of any one living here
but that she knows China is her home.
And again while she sets up in her
answer that she is the daughter of one
Chuck See, now in the Islands and as
appears from the testimony, at present
on the Island of Maui, yet the said
alleged father was not produced to
identify the woman as his daughter or
to offer what would seem to be the
strongest evidence that could be ad-
| duced to prove her birth, namely, that
of parent.
THE circumstances attending the al
| legged Chinese marriage of this defend
| ant and Yong Hang, he being in the
! Hawaiian Islands and she in China at
| the date of the marriage as testified
| to in this case, are unusual and not
in conformity with the customs attend
! ing a Chinese marriage. There is nc
| proof as to what those custom are. but
| according to a very interesting articl'
found in the Encyclopaedia Britain.
Mica, Vol. 5, page go, it appears that
! Chinese marriages are solemnized as
! follows:
The bridegroom prepares two
| large cards on which are written the
particulars of the engagement &" =
one of which is sent to the lady. :
! Following the exchange of cards, pre-.
sents of more or less value according
to the wealth of the parties pass be-
tween the households, and at last wher
the happy day arrives, the bride sur.
| rounded by her friends. starts from hei
| fathers house in a sedan chair for hel
future home. y = Half way between
the two houses she is met by a party
of the bridegrooms followers, who es
cort her the rest of the way. *OI
alighting from her sedan chair she i,
4 led with her head covered into thu
room where her future husband awaits
her. Without exchanging a word, the!
sit down side by side, and each trie!
to sit on a part of the dress of tn,
other, it being considered that the on,
who succeeds in so doing. will rule il
the household. = They then adjourn
to the reception hall where stands tn
family altar, and where they worship
Heaven and Earth and their ancestors
This done, they drink glass of win
together, when for the first time. tn
bridegroom is allowed to see the fac
of his bride. Here the marriage cere
mony ends.
"Conceding that in this case all of tn
preliminaries have been gone throug
with Git being in evidence that the par
ties were married ACCORDING to Chi
nese Customs yet as Yong Hang wa
here, and the woman in China, it wa
impossible for the necessary ceremonie
of a marriage of this character to b
! completed, until the alleged bride ha
: reached the home of the BRIDEGROOM
In this instance, fully a year elapse
before the bride attempted to ioin he
so-called husband. Until she did joi
him and complete the marriage cere
monies, the marriage remained in a
: incomplete. and inchoate state, accord
I ing to the Chinese custom.
"Such was it's condition when tn
: defendant Kan You reached Honolulu
1t is evident the attorney for the de
fendant realized this fact and tacitl
admits It by his conduct in having
new ceremony performed here betwee
the parties according to American Law
But the status of the woman whe
she reached Honolulu is the statu
which the Court must take into cor
sideration i'm deciding this case. Sh
came into the country under the frau
dulent allegation that she was the vii
of a domiciled Chinese merchant.
"The Court therefore is Of opinio
that even if the testimony relative
the Chinese marriage is to believed, "
such marriage is incomplete the cor
tracing parties at the time living
different Jurisdictions and the marriaf
never consummated before the W.
mans entrance into this Territor
The defendant was therefore not Il
,o wife of Yon- Hang when she reach'
United States territory, and any SUI
sequent marriage cannot be fact'