The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 31, 1898, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, [OXONOXC] Years ago Ah Fong came to the islands a poor trader. He quickly amassed a great fortune and attained wide influence, married ‘and raised fifteen children; several of the daughters ried prominent Causasians. One day Ah Fong took his eldest son and left for China and there he has remained. His wife and children were fett in Honolulu in affluent ©® have mar- ® circumstances, HOPPPPANAANPARAPIPONPEIOOOO®® out gnd and he be- wealthy e ted mone sugar plantation, and this in too, proved a paying one Mr. Fong was also prudent and provident, and, although hospitable, he was very different from his Hawailan brothers who lived in the happy, easy to-day, gave no thought to the morrow and sold a piece of land when he wanted to give a “luau” with attendart hula and other adjuncts, of a munificence that comes high. Mr. Ah Fong married a girl in Ho- nolulu whose parents were of Hawalian BHERR URRRRUUBRURRR NE day last week Edward Fenn had abdut-as narrow. an ‘escape from death as ever mortal man has had. While out fishing in a small -boat he was attacked by an enormous seal that threw him into.the water-and deliBerately at- tempted to drown him. “I don't .go out.. very .often,” ¥enn, when speaking.of the ' fight, ‘but fishing makes- a. good change from Kunting, even if it isn’t very exciting. “On .this’ morning I rowed eut to a spot over a sunken reef, where.I had often fished béfore. It was as pretty a day as I ever saw. . The water and sky were blue as indigo and_there was hardly enough breeze.to ruffie the sur- face. There was hardly any swell and such a thing as a whitecap couldn’t be seeri; even close up to ‘shore. “I"was enjoying myself: to the ut- most.. The fish bit fairly- well, and after I had caught a pretty.good mess T 1aid@ back in the boat, lit pipe and didn’t care whether I ever nt ashore again or not. Y “Once or twice I nearly fell asleep, but the movement of the boat rocking with the swell gave me a sudden bump . that roused me in an instant. After an hour or so had been spent this way and it was.getting along toward noon I thought of going ashore. Then I concluded that it was too pleasant and 1 would walt until the breeze sprang up. So I.commenced to doze again. This time I was awakened by a terrific splash near by. My first impression was that the wind had come, but on starting up and looking about I saw only a round circle of bubbles and foam .about twenty-five feet off on the right side. “What was that?” I thought to my- self, and Instinctively I put my hand down and felt for my revolver that unintentionally. I had brought along. “Now the ancher was in and 1 would soon be aghore. I sat down and started to pull. > “ ‘Splagh!® 1 looked around quickly. ° “Pshaw! It was only a seal. All my nervousness left me, for I had not the least idea that he would attack.me. He was not over ten feet from me. and I could see hie eyes and teeth as he oked his head high above the.water. e looked at me and snapped his jaws and then dove bepeath the surface of the water. = “Then I started to pull ashore, think- ing I had =een the.last of Mr. Seal. In fact T had almost forgotten him before I gone 200 feet. All at once I'thought an earthquake had struck me. My boat was boosted high in the air’at the stern and came down on the water agaln with a loud splash. Almost instantly this was re- peated and then before T could realize what had happened I saw the seal pok- ing his head over-the side of the hoat. He was snapping his jaws and bellow- ing like a whole herd of bulls, His eyes were close to me and I could feel his breath as I sat too stunned with amazement to move. . “For an instant I was powerless. Then I began to think of the proper way to kill seals. ‘I had never had the u}ponunlty before, but I had hunted FIVE OF HIS and Portuguese ancestry respect With a-dash of English sonfewhere the remote past, a happily together. n nd the couple lived Gradually th ily grew until thirteen daughte two sons clustered about the Ah Fong knee. e on Mr. Ah Fong built a beautiful Nuuanu avenue, the most pic- turesque portion of Honolulu, with its palm lined roads and wealth of tropi- cal foliage. had reason to be, for & ily was united in lov sarily divided by its house was very handsome goda form of architecture two stories and each running about it with ggestive of China, a T from the neighbors. The Ah Fongs had a Chinese coachman. in the back seat when The house ordinary was large; it n- neces- The of the Pa- there w had a pointed effe very diffe: lanal of its re carrjage and a Mr. Ah Fong sat being driven to the wharf for a first call on a newly arrived man-of-war, function. or other formal At other times he sat by the coachman, and to the uneducated American eye this was disastrous, al- though with familiarity c e the knowledge of a distinction; the coach- man sometimes did up his cue, and Mr. Ah Fong's was always left hang- ing. Mr. Ah Fong's affairs prospered. He was lucky and he was wise, He was respected among the merchants of for- eign-birth and looked up to by his own countrymen. nRRERERN % FIG said:, % He employed one of the HT SR s "THE SEAL POKED HIS HEAD OVER THE SIDE OF THE TIPPING BOAT. best lawyers and he had the caution and calm judgment of his race, joined with their Indomitable energy and per- severance. And he began to send money to China. He bought a summer place for his family at Waikiki, where the surf rolled up to his door, and where could the carriage filled to overflowing and looking like an animated, brightly col- ored bouquet, its load of occupants gay with their vivid pink, blue, green and vellow sashes and ribbons; for the Ah Fong girls did not care for pale col- ors. Their pinks were all magentas and their reds of scarlet hue. be found any attraction that might be And the Ah Fong name became lacking in his city house. And Mr. Afong. Ah Fong was recognized as one of the The naval officer was sure of a wealthy men of Honolulu. Then, one morning, the Isles of Ha- wail awoke and they learned that Mr. Ah Fong was to be known no mo: forever in the land where he had ac- quired wealth and position—not * to speak of family. He had taken his oldest son and returned to the land of his forefathers; to the fortune he had sent before him, and—Hawail whis- pered—to another family, which was “though lost to sight, to memory dear,” after the manner of the Orfent. And Mrs. Ah Fong pursued the even tenor of her ways; she smiled as pla- cidly, brought up her daughters as ad- mi , kept open house as hospita- bly and spent the Ah Fong money, set- tled upon her, as judiciously. As the girls grew up they were brought out in turn, and it was a remarkable fact word was sald against one , in spite of their number and in a place where the half whites or Hawallans were 8o often open to sus- picion, and often the subject of gos- sip. The girls would drive to the open air band concefts Saturday afternoons, hearty reception and an appreciative audience in the Afong mansion; in fact, the family kept open house and the of- ficers were welcome to breakfast, lunch or dinner—or, if between meals, to cooling drinks, cigars and always warm-hearted cordiality. There was sure to be a certain coterle of officers on each ship that were at home in the Afong house, devoted themselves to the Afong girls at dances and escorted them to teas, tennls, or wherever it might be. They were a nice, unaffected, jolly set of girls, admirably brought up, with well-bred manners, always ladylike and not at all boisterous or hoydenish. Marie, one of the older daughters, played the ukulele and sang fetching Hawallan songs and she jwas always in demand for moonlight boating par- ties; the others were variously attrac- tive by reagon of youth and a warmth of hospitality imbibed from the islands and alluring to the stranger. The Afong girls were not beauties, but they were petite of figure and pi- quant of feature. They had not the JULY 31, 1898. THIRTEEN DAUGHTERS OUT FOR THEIR DAILY DRIVE ALONG THE BOULEVARDS OF HONOLULU. brightness and quickness of the Amer- ican girl. They were just pliable, am- iable, docile, well mannered and good natured young women. They never took exception at fancied slights. Their position was assured, as far as it went, and they did not seek to penetrate into the most intimate dally life of the “old families,” or the fashionable new ones. They went to all the larger entertain- ments, and if they were not bidden to exclusive lunches, dinners or other smaller functions it did not seem to trouble their girlish hearts. None the less, it was an eye opener to all the easy-going isles of Hawali, to conservative naval circles, and to Captain Whiting’s friends, when Etta, a round-faced, pink-cheeked, almond- eyed bud of seventeen, just out of school, met and conquered the able officer, gray-haired man .of the world, and traveled gentleman, Captain Whit- ng. ge\'eral of the Afong girls had mar- ried by this time; one was the wife of J. Alfred Magoon, an auctioneer, who had settled in Honolulu; the eldest married Mr. McStoeker, a dry goods merchant, and the younger one was married to a dentist named Hutchin- son, and left Honolulu with her hus- band for a time. This was an unhappy match, however, and Mrs. Hutchinson procured a divorce and returned to her home alone. She has since become engaged to the doctor on a man-of- war recently in Honolulu. Marie Afong, who was perhaps the brightest of all the girls, married a R ETEETE LT T EEEL TR F R RAEARUARRURARBEIRLIARRIRRRIREEERRRERS BETWEEN A HUNTER AND A SAVAGE SEAL . ING LIKE A 23 young lawyer named Humphries, a new- comer in Honolulu. All fair matches from .a wordly point J)f view, but upon Etta’s young brow rested the laurel wreath; she was to marry in the navy—and a commander at that. Speculation was rife as to the ultimate effect of this match on Cap- tain Whiting’s position in the navy, while it was openly wondered if Mrs. Whiting's lot would be a happy one when she found herself transported to some naval station, where her ancestry was not the accepted old story that it had become in the land of her birth. And it was remarked that after the marriage the choice naval stations did not seem to come into Captain Whit- ing’s way, as they had heretofore. But they were content for all that. Captain Whiting’s devotion to his yvoung wife was unmistakable, and she proved a nice, good, little helpmate to him. Their small daughter. not yet three years ol4, is the pride of the cap- tain’s heart, and all went well in the Whiting family. Then the villain, without whom no romantically happy couple can do, appeared upon the scene in the verson of Paymaster Wilcox. But the tropics is no place for a trag- edy, so the -curtain will fall upon his discomfiture and the Whitings will live happlly forever after. There are plenty of Afong girls still left uhmarried to gladden the hearts RURUUBURIBURRREIRRRINS S HE WAS SNAPPING HIS JAWS AND BELLOW- WHOLE HERD OF BULLS. of SHawai youth and and- homes of plently of chivalry. In the preparations to welcome our “Boys .in Blue” they have each taken 4 prominent part, and who knows how many more Afong girls will, in the fu- ture, sayl through the Golden Gate to look for the hospitality here that they have always been ready to accord the stranger in their tropical home, At a dinner given in honor of the Monadnock’s officers by J. R. Burns at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Mr. Wil- cox, while flushed with wine, spoke dis- paragingly of the Ah Fong family, and especially of Captain Whiting’s wife, who was a Miss Ah Fong. He went so far as to charge Mrs. Whiting with having addressed him (Wilcox) in lan- guage such as no lady would utter. The conduct of his subordinate was reported to Captain Whiting, and for a time it was thought that a duel be- tween the men was unavoidable. The counsel of friends prevailed, and the monitor’'s commander was induced to give the paymaster a chance to résign from the service. Should Wilcox not do so, charges of drunkenness and con- duct unbecoming a gentleman will be preferred against him sRRRLYRR enough to know how to tackle any ani- mal of his size and style of fighting. “I reached for my revolver, but before I could touch it the gave a splash and flopped onto the boat, upsetting it and throwing me into the water. “I came up gasping for breath and instinctively I began to fight for my life. I am.a flne swimmer and diver or I wouldn't be here to-day. I made up my mind to swim-ashore if-the seal would let me alons. I felt sure I could put a-few holes into him if he inter- fered, “But Mr.. Seal was bent on a fight and he made at me. I pulled my re- volver and shot him in the neck, but he only bellowed and came at me with gaping jaw: When ten feet away he made a dive and came up just behind me, seizing me by the shirt just back of the left shoulder. Fortunately he didn’t get ahold of any of my bone: “Down the big fellow* went, taking me with him as easily as if I were a shrimp. I had kept my eyes open and could look up through the blue water and s the sun gleaming through. All at once we touched bot- tom. 1 wondered if the seal intended to hotd me there until I was drowned. I made up my mind to hold my breath as long as possible. It seems now as if it must have been ages, but I sup- pose it was only a few moments. Then, to my surprise, the seal came to the top, when I took in a good long breath before I even thought of anything else. “Then I saw what was the matter with the seal. The blood was flowing in a stream from the wound in his neck. Evidently my first bullet had interfered with his breathing appar- atus. This gave me hope and instinc- tively I took a firmer clutch on my re- volver and was glad that it was a Colt 44, and hoped the water would not hurt the cartridges. I now felt that I had a show. “After a moment down we went again, but this time I had my senses about me and began punching my an- tagonist in the neck with the muzzle of my revolver. ‘“He did not expect this nor like it either, for he let go his hold and I shot up to the surface. He followed and grabbed me again. “This time, however, he grabbed my shirt under the left arm, leaving my right free and in a position where I [ , could use it. “There was another short ‘dive, and when we came to the top again I watched for my chance. I was in hopes that the seal would drop me, but he didn’t. He only took a firmer grip, drew in a longer breath and seemed to have made up his mind to go below again. But I stopped him short. I put the revolver close to where T thought the seal's ear ‘ought to.be. Then, be- fore I could ‘pull the trigger, we both rolled over in the water again and 1 got a mouthful of brine that pretty nearly choked me. . “Again my chance came and when my revolver cracked it almost deafened me. But the seal let go his hold and rolled over in the water like a log. In a moment he sank to the bottom and I was safe, except for the fact that I was several hundred feet ffom shore and quite tired from my ducking. But I managed to get ashore somshow,”