The pioneer express., 1908-10-30
By JAMES D. ELLSWORTH
(copyright. By shortstory PUB. COY

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The Pacific Mail steamship Peking,
which sailed for Hongkong last month,
carried S47 passengers of various ma
tionalities. In that whole number
there was one, Chinaman, who left
no friends behind, and yet he will be
missed, from Maine to California.
All Wong, the exceptional man
among several hundred ocean voy-
ayers, would be exceptional in any
community on the face of the globe.
He carried with him, in letters Of
credit, a fortune that will keep him
In luxury for the rest of his days,
earned without work in a unique pro-
fession which he invented himself.
He belongs to race that has long
been credited with a peculiar aptitude
for ways that are dark and tricks
that are vain, but All Wong's ways
have been so much darker than those
OF his fellow-countrymen that he is
the most cordially hated man that has
ever been smuggled over the Canadian
border.
All Wong is the son of an actor,
since dead, who performed in one Of
the minor theaters of Canton Install
ment plays that lasted for month.
All Wong Is also the grandson and
great grandson of actors, and from
his earliest youth has shown marked
ability in the same line, as he made
devil faces at his mother, frightening
her half out of her diminutive shoes,
before he was year old. He soon
became unpopular with his family,
who regarded him as having been
born tired, but it was thought that
his inherited talents could be counted
upon to provide handsomely for his
parents in their old age. But disap-
pointment attended their expectations
at every step. When the boy was old
enough to go to school he began to
limp so badly that he had to be car
ried in the arms of servant. Soon
afterward he appeared to be subject
to sudden attacks of blindness, so
that all thought Of providing him with
a regular education had to be indefi-
nitely postponed. Then his father, in
his leisure time, undertook to teach
him by rote the text Of the ancient
Celestial tragedies, and would
harangue at the top of his voice for
hours together. 1t was all breath
wasted, for after the first few words
All Wong's hearing would become
blunted, and he would sit in passive
somnolence, with curtain of silence
between himself and the noise of talk.
Ah Wong's stomach seemed to be
the only part of his anatomy that re-
mained in good working order, and in
this the family rejoiced, believing that
If his appetite remained good, the
time would come when he would out
grow his physical defects.
Many years passed, the actor
father was. gathered to his fathers and
All Wong, instead of being prop for
the support of his widowed mother,
was troublesome burden. He was
now believed to have been born lazy.
He was more unpopular than when
he made devil faces at her as baby,
so his mother, exercising her right as
head of the house, called family
council to sit upon his case. The wise
old lady strongly limited that it might
be we'll to put him out of his misery
permanently. Possibly she might
have found some one to hold sword,
If he would consent to fall upon it,
but the uncles and causins had an
other plan. They took up collection
among themselves and with this
money All Wong was sent across the
ocean to America. Doubtless he
would be we'll cared for there, and in
any event he would be unable to re-
turn.
1t all turned out as they had said.
All Wong was unloaded in Boston
from the underground railway" like
a lump of lead. Taken to some distant
relatives, he ate their rice, drank
their tea and smoked their tobacco
for several years, and earned the title
~ the LATEST man in the world. When
told that he must go to work he was
too lazy to refuse, but somehow he
never did the work. When he was
kicked out of one store he quietly
settled himself in another. and when
his distant relatives said disgraceful
things, his hearing became dulled so
that he was not disturbed. His needs
were few and the burden of his food
and tobacco was not heavy one, but
his perpetual idleness was constant
annoyance to his cousins, who at last
lost patience and began to talk Of
sending him back to China.
Then the deafness left All Wong.
He did not want to hear that talk, but
in spite of his infirmities he could
not help it. With China came thoughts
of falling on swords and all that sort
of thing, so he promptly told his cous.
ins that he would soon be able to do
something for himself, but he did
nothing until Sam Chin got caught
pounding neighbor with q flat-iron
and was sure to get six months in the
house of correction. Sam Chin could
not afford to waste so much time. as