Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-06
LATE WING All FONG
Builder of HonoIulu's House of
Thirteen Balconies.
HAD A DAUGHTER FOR EACH
Along Girls Noted for Their Beauty
and Wit.
EDUCATED IN THE STATES
Seven Of the Daughters Married Prom
inent Americans-Father Re-
turned to China to Die.
HAD A DAUGHTER FOR EACH
EDUCATED IN THE STATES

thirteen balconies died last week His name
was Wing All Fong and he was a great
Chinaman who made his own greatness.
There are a good many reasons why the
bare chronicling.
Hawaii OF the sapphire skies and the
whipping seas is possession Of the United
States and Hawaii was the scene of the
amazing activities of Wing All Fong. Again.
on all Of the seven seas today. at this hour.
there are thoroughbred men who bark back
with wistful gratitude to the hospitality
and the Joy and the comfort Of the enter
tainment bestowed upon them at that Hon.
olulu house Of the thirteen balconies. build
ed by Wing All Fong. Finally. of those
thirteen curiousiy beautiful and brilliant
Afong-as girl tor each Of the thirteen bal
conies-of whom Wing. All Fong was the
father. no less than seven Of them married
Americans-and 7 hear from persons lately
arrived from Honolulu that the roll of
Along girls with American husbands is like
ly to be added to by more than one at a
near time.
It seems impossible to suppose that the
whole world has not heard Of the Along
girls of Honolulu, daughters Of Wing All
Fong, the Chinaman. and a serenely lovely
and noble MISUNDERSTANDING English
Kanaka mother. No more extraordinary
weave of blood strains ever entered into the
composition Of family Of noted women
than that which gave these thirteen Along
girls of Honolulu an overwhelming world
name for beauty and wit and amiability.
The American Husbands.
Rear Admiral Whiting Of the United
States navy. then a captain was the first
Of the Along husbands to create a vacancy
in the house of the thirteen balconies. He
married Miss Eta Along in 1894. amid a
pomp and nuptial pageantry that will not
be forgotten in Honolulu as long as Oahu.
on which Honolulu Is situated. is an island.
Howard G. Morton. one of the best known
men of Seattle. married Miss Jessie Along.
and they are living in Seattle now.
Lieut.. Andrew ]. Dougherty OF the United
States army met Miss Martha Along at a
dance at the house of the thirteen balconies
one evening. A few months later they were
united in union which has proved ideal.
Then J. Alfred Morgan. a prominent mer-
chant of Honolulu, an American In spirit
and a descendant Of Americans, married
another of the sisters whose name has es-
capped me.
James W. W. Brewster of Elizabeth, N.
J.. man Of wealth and character, who
was attached to the cruiser Harvard during
the Spanish war; married Miss Melaine
Along.
William A. Henshall, a clever young law
yer of San Francisco. married Miss Helen
Along.
Finally, Arthur tombstone. distinguished
Honoluluan OF American antecedents and
a thorough American himself, married the
most beautiful of all the sisters-her Chris
tian name, too has escaped me. Unlike the
hair is of a warm. FURNISHED chestnut. and
she has big blue eyes. set with the slightest
imaginable but withal bewitching slant.
Most Of the Along girls are tall. 1.-THE.
slender, OF a distinct sinuous gracefulness
of carriage. with great masses of dark hair.
brown, hazel or black eyes-although two Of
them are grayeyed and one of them blue
eyed-and matchless olive complexion. They
ov 1oh fogr fhn
ish or Cuban women. and not one of them
was ever known to use the slightest arti-
fee in an attempt to enhance her beauty.
They even went the lin1it-a strange and
unusual thing among women of any race in
the tropics-of eschewing face powder.
Beauty such as all of the Along girls, with
out exception possess demands no heighten-
Ing by means OF makeup.
All Fong Was Giant in Strength.
The girls resembled their father In gen.
eral physique and their mother faciauy.
Wing All Fong arrived in Hawaii with a
cargo OF coolies, but 1t seems impossible
to suppose that he was not really Of the
mandarin strain. In stature he lowered
head and shoulders above every other
Chinaman in Hawaii his head was fine, and
his face handsome. He had the thews and
sinews Of a giant, and in his younger day
his feats Of sheer strength amazed even
the Kanakas. themselves men of immense
muscular power. The Honoluluans know
the Chinese well, and nobody in Honolulu
ever believed that Wing All Fong sprang
from an ancestry of coolies. The stamp Of
age-old Chinese nobility was printed upon
the man head Is stamped upon a coin.
often saw the mother of the Along girls
in Honolulu in 1S95-96. She had something
Of the look of the Roman matron about her
without any Of the Roman matron's asper-
ity of exterior disposition. She was
then fine, buXom, handsome woman in
temperament as placid as mountain pool.
with a pair Of quite unforgettable antelope
eyes, cultured. happy in the happiness of
her children. a moving example of calm
ness. and considered a paragon among
mothers.
Wing All Fong began to WOO her away
back in the sixties. He had arrived in
Honolulu with consignment of celestials
in the latter fifties. The shop for the sale
Of silks and souvenir bric-a-brac and wares
Of every Chinese Sort which he presently
opened in Honolulu, throve from the outset,
and when Wing All Fong set his frank
gaze in the direction of the Conception girl
he was in such way Of business that his
bank account footed up something close to
half a million of dollars.
The young woman toward whom his mind
and gaze was directed was in humble cir
cumstances She was the daughter of a
Portuguese sailor who had settled in the
islands. This Portuguese fathers mother
was a Spaniard The sailor had married
in Honolulu half-Kanaka woman. whose
father was an Englishman Thus the Con-
Spanish English-Kanaka. Old Honoluluans
have told me that at the time of her mar
rage with Wing All Fong, Sonora Concep-
cton was lovelier than any Of her daughters.
but it does not seem as II this could well
be. The marriage took place in the year
that Sumter was fired upon
Grappled With Sugar.
Wing All Fong began to look into this
matter of sugar in the sixties. He grappled
with the growing of sugar as a high-grade
Chinan1an grapples with everything-wi
an almost Uncomfortable thoroughness, that
is to say. His wife aided him. She devel-
oped skill in business and Sac was pos
sessed of remarkable energy and executive
ability. Sugar wasn't much in Hawaii in
the sixties, but Wing All Fong foresaw that
1t was going to be good deal. and he fore
saw it before many of the white Hawaiians
had even dreamed it. He invested a mere
1.-THE of his money for thousands upon thou
sands Of the choicest sugar land on the Is
land Of Maui.
A little while after that one Claus
Spreckles, destined to become king of sugar,
drifted along to Hawaii with sugar plant
ing ideas, and Claus was compelled to buy
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