The Sunday Oregonian., October 13, 1901, PART FOUR, Page 32, Image 32

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32
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAK, PORTLAND', OCTOBER 13, 1901.
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H FAMILY, AND THREE. OF HER T0
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?HAT has become of Wlngr
Ah Fong? Here is an
Oriental romance of to
day, -with the middle of
the story reading :lear in the perpetnal
sunshine of the enchanted Islands of
Hawaii, and the beginning and the end
lost in the Impenetrable shadows of
mysterious China.
Everybody has heard of the 33 beautiful
Ah Fong girls, of Honolulu; of the mar
riages they have made and of those they
are going to make; of their charms and
talents and of bthe great dowries which
go with each daughter of the house, when
the time comes for her to choose a hus
band. There is plenty of romance in the
story of the All Fong girls, but no mys
tery. The mysterj' all clusters about
"Wing Ah Fong, the father. Mysteriously
he appeared in Honolulu from China,
created a vast fortune, and then was
mysteriously reabsorbed into the Celes
tial Empire.
The girls have married into our Army
and Tavy, and the Ah Fong home in Hon
olulu having been for a long time the
center of social life for American Naval
officers visiting Hawaii, the family is
well known in both services; and when the
allied forces went to Pekln it was hoped
that the entry of the - hite barbarian into
the ancient city would result in some
word being obtained of the fate of Wing
Ah Fong. But not the faintest rumor of
he existence of any such person as the
great millionaire, once of Honolulu was
brought back from the 'Sacred City."
A'Ine Yearn Ago.
From the day, now over nine years ago,
when the rich planter and merchant said
good-bye to one of his married daugh
ters and her husband at Hong Kong, and
passed over Into Chinese territory with
his only son, nothing definite has been
known of his fate; or, if anything is
loiown, it is known only to a few who
have steadily kept their counsel.
At first there were many rumors as to
what became of the millionaire, after he
set foot again in his native land, but the5r
were contradictory; they ceased to be
circulated, and his fate is accepted as one
of the inscrutable mysteries of the Far
East. He came out of China young and
poor, dressed in the garb of a Chinaman
of the ordinary class; he returned into
China rustling in silks and possessed of
"vast wealth a man past middle age. In
what palace or what prison, in what gar
den or what grave, does the father of
the 13 beautiful daughters and the master
of many millions take his rest?
It was in 1S58 that a ship laden with Chi
nese immigrants, most of them coolies,
sailed into the harbor of Honolulu and
discharged its living cargo. Among the
immigrants was a young man whose bear-.
ing and intelligence of speech and coun
tenance singled him. out from among
those who were his companions of the
voyage Wing Ah Fong, he called him
self. Goes Into Business.
He did not go to the plantations with
the imported laborers, but stayed In Hon
olulu. He had brought some capital with
him, and he went into business. There
was a considerable and a growing Chi
nese population in the Hawaiian Islands,
and Chinese merchants did a good busi
ness in supplying their countrymen with
articles of luxury and use of Chinese
character.
It was not long before Ah Fong was one
of the leading Chinese merchants of the
Hawaiian capital. A few years more and
he was the foremost Chinese merchant
there. His wealth increased rapidly, anu
his Investments returned a profit many
fold. He bought sugar plantations and
extended his business operations in every
direction. He had been in Honolulu three
years, and was prosperous, but not of
great wealth as yet, when he fell in love.
Years before there- had appeared in
Hawaii a sailor, half Portuguese and half
English, who had left his ship and chosen
the islands of the sun as a place in which
to make his fortune. To the shores of
those lands of the South Seas drifted the
flotsam and jetsam of the world. Strange
people with strange histories, from many
lands gathered together and formed a
community of the most gorgeous possi
bilities, in the way of romance. Kobert
Louis Stevenson had just begun to give
us an idea of the life of the. South Sea
Islands when he died. In the days of
'61 Hawaii, was the center of this life a
life which now. In those islands, has given
place to a most prosaic one and been
transferred to islands further away.
There was mystery, of course, about the
sailor who had taken his chest ashore,
"for 1 full due" and set up in .business in
Honolulu. On his father's side he was
said io belong to a wealthy English fam
ily, and on his mother's side it was said
he inherited noble blood. The sailor mar
ried a Hawaiian woman, and Tiis business
prospered. He was thrifty, like Ah Fong,
but he had not yet made a great fortune,
and he put his only daughter out to serv
ice in one of the families 6f the "mission
ary set." She grew to be a young woman
of great -beauty and more than ordinary
intelligence. x
Inheriting from her mixed ancestry all
the most charming physical atrlbutes of
.each race, and developing an intellect and
charm of manner which added to her at
tractiveness of person, she became a com
panion rather than a servant in the fam
ily where she was employed, and was ed
ucated almost as a daughter of the house.
Fayerweather was the name of her father,
the Anglo-Portuguese sailor, and when Ah
Fong asked him f6r the 'hand, of his beau
tiful daughter, he held a long conversation
with the Chinese merchant, atthe close
of -which he 'gave his consent to the mar
riagea marriage to which ' the . young
woman was anything but averse.
,What secr.ets Wing Ah Fong told to his
prospective father-in-law of his birth and
station In -the Flowery Kingdom, what he
showed him of the sure paths to wealth
upon which the feet of the young China
man were entering will never be known,
but Fayerweather was satisfied that the
future of his daughter was secure in the
hands of the rising merchant, and the
wedding took place according to the ritual
of the Episcopal Church.
Not long after the marriage a relative
of the bride's father died in -England and
left him "a considerable fortune, so that
he needed no longer to struggle in busi
ness, but ended his life in peace and
plenty. His daughter, Mrs. Ah Feng, in
herited his wealth, and with it her hus
ba.nd was able to increase his business
and embark'in new ventures. Wealth and
children multiplied in the Ah' Fong house
hold until the merchant was the father of
13 'girls and one boy and the master of
millions of dollars.
It wag in the "days of the reign of King
Kalakaua the early days of his reign,
when the little kingdom joined its mon
arch in a wild debauch that Ah Fong
saw his millions roll up most rapidly. It
was in 1874 that Liunalllo, the last of the
direct line of Kamehameha the Great,
joined his ancestors in the realm of the
shades, and David Kalakaua was elected
to fill the vacant throne. Upon the acces
sion of Kalakaua began the revel of the
South Seas the great Hawaiian spree.
The Importation of Chinese coolies was a
gold mine, the Importation of opium a
mine of silver and rubles. And both of
these mines were worked to the full by the
opportunist, Ah Fong.
It Is said that at one time, out of sheer
loyalty and affection, he made his dusky
Majesty of Hawaii a present of 570.000.
But to cast one's bread upon the waters
In those days, especially if the waters
flowed toward the royal palace, was to do
so with an assurance that the "many
days" mentioned in Scripture would not
elapse before it was returned again.
Ah Fong built for himself and his family
a splendid residence on the outskirts of
Honolulu, which soon became known for
the lavish hospitality dispensed there. As
the girls grew up they were sent abroad
for their education, and as they became of
a marriageable age they married and mar
ried well. The wife of Ah Fong presided
over the entertainments, as if she had
been born in a palace, and the family
especially delighted In entertaining
naval officers whose ships touched
at Honolulu. Wonderful Oriental
dinners were served in the Ah
Fong house, with covers laid for 50 or
more guests, and great "balls were given
In the celebrated "bamboo-room." The
broad verandas of the house were gay
with music and laughter day and evening,
and the place was a fairyland of Oriental
delights and unbounded hospitality.
For some unknown reason. Wing Ah
Fong now began to call himself Ah Fong.
Ho joined in the merry-makings at his
house with all the grace and courtesy of a
mandarin of the "first chop," and seemed
a devoted husband and father, a prosper
ous gentleman whose life had done with
all struggles and was destined to pass on
in uneventful peace and luxury to its end.
In 1S91 'King Kalakaua died, and his sis
ter, Xillluokalanl, reigned In his stead.
The fortune of Ah Fong was now esti
mated to be over $30,000,000. In the year
of the death of his friend and patron,
Kalakaua, Ah Fong began to set his
house in order. He was preparing, he
said, to pay a visit to his childhood homo
in China, and wished to have his affairs
In such shape that, should anything hap
pen to him on the journey, things would
go along as usual with his wife and fam
ily. Arranges IIli Affairs.
He spent a year In arranging hla affairs,
and then, taking with him his son, set out
upon what. It was supposed, would be a
visit of a few months to his old home.
One of his daughters had just been mar
ried to an English dentl3t, and, with her
husband, was to make a tour of the world
by way of a bridal trip. Ah Fong sailed
with his daughter and her husband as far
as Hong Kong, and then, bidding them
farewell passed over into Chinese territo
ry, ostensibly with the intention of pro
ceeding to Pekln. This was in June of
1S92. Did he ever reach the Chinese capi
tal? And If he did, what happened to
him there?
As the months passed and no word came
of the millionaire, rumors began to grow
as to his fate. Finally the Ah Fong fam
ily. In Honolulu, withdrew from society for
a while and kept In strict seclusion. Then
they reappeared, and life went on with
them as before. But from that time to
this Ah Fong has been seen no more In
his Honolulu home, nor has the world
been Informed as to his fate.
One rumor has It that he was arrested
on landing In China and taken to Pekln,
charged with having violated the Chinese
emigration laws, and was sentenced to
death. It was further said that he had
bought his life by the payment of $100,000.
Another rumor had it that he was in high
favor with the Imperial authorities and
was a Mandarin living in regal style In
the Chinese capital. Another rumor said
that he wis a Mandarin by birth, but
that his family, being In reduced cir
cumstances, he had gone to Hawaii, as
a young man, to make his fortune and
had returned home to enjoy It.
Of course, there were stories of an early
love affair, and It was even said that ho
had a Chinese wife whom he married be
fore going to Hawaii, and by whom ha
had a son, of mature age at the time of
his disappearance, but everything seems
to have been gues3 work. The subject is
one upon which the Ah Fong family never
have touched in private conversation or
public statement, and one upon which, of
course, they cannot be questioned. Amid
all the varying and contradictory stories
which have been published, they have re
mained silent, neither contradicting nor
affirming any of the statements made.
So the romantic life and adventures of
Wing Ah Fong remains a most fascinating
Oriental mystery, and Is likely to remain
so forever.
C
ALATESTA. CRAFTY HEAD OF ANARCHISM, IN HIS LONDON LAI
1
J
ONDON, Oct 3. So much has
been written lately about Mala-
testa that one needs a good ex-
cuse for saying more about
this remarkable anarchist. The ex
cuse offered here is that much of what
bas been written about him wasn't true,
and also that much that is significant has
never been told about him, although it is
true.
There is reason to suppose that this gen
uine, bona fide Italian. Count, who appar
ently earns a modest living in .London bj
mending bicycles and by doing odd jobs of
plumbing and mechanical tinkering, occu
pies a much more Important position than
lias been generally assigned to him and J
knows considerably more than Emma
Goldman about the murder 'of President
McKinley.
Errlco Malatesta his name invariably
has been printed Enrico, which is wrong
is considered by the Department of Crim
inal Investigation at Scotland Yard to be
the real leader of the organized anarchists
in England, a band numbering between
2000 and 3000 -members. He 'is "known also
to be in close touch with the anarchist or
ganizations in America, France and Italy,
and he is suspected by the London police
of being the actual head and moving spirit
of the International affiliations of anarch
ists. He has a few Intimate friends her1
outside of anarchist circles or outside of
the Inner circles, at least and from talks
with fiome of these I gather that they i
Xully believe Malatesta to be the anarchist
director-general.
"Watched Continually.
He Is not only watched continually by
the police today, but any one who un
dertakes to -see him is followed. Since he
settled in London four years ago he has
been so cautious that no definite charge
of inciting to violence could be brought
against him, but personal liberty is not
so great In "France and I,taly, and in either
of those countries he would be arrested at
once If he could be caught.
The-.facts concerning this Italian noble
man born to wealth and, title, who sits in
a, wretched little back room in London,
suspected of weaving vast plots while de
tectives representing at 'least four nations
lurk outside watching him in vain for
some clew on which to hold him, are more
strange and dramatic than any of the fic
tion that has been written about him.
Malatesta is his own name; and his fam
ily is one of the oldest and most respected
in Italy today. As the eldest son he' in
herited the title of Count and would have
come into a considerable property, ,if his
family had not dltowned him on account
of his revolutionary tendencies. He has
a brother Henry who is in the public
service in Italy today.
Malatesta was intended by his father to
be a scientist, and after an excellent edu
cation under tutors, he was sent to Milan
University to prepare for the stud' of
medicine. He was a turbulent, head
strong youth, and soon became the leader
of the more restless spirits at the uni
versity. Before he had time to graduate,
he was arrested a9 the leader of a revo
lutionary movement, and although his
family managed to get him out of jail,
they informed him that henceforth they
would have nothing to do with him un
less he changed his views about the in
iquity of all forms of government. Mala
testa promptly refused, and was Invited
by the family to go and be hanged.
Visits America.
He plunged into all sorts of plots against
the Italian Government after that, and
for his complicity in the riots of 1893 was
imprisoned again. After his release he
"went to, America. He seems to have spent
most of his time there in quiet confer
ences with anarchist leaders. Emma
Goldmann and Johann Most were his Inti
mates, but, unlike them, he kept himselr
in the background as much as possible.
Malatesta went to London four years
ago, and his headquarters ever since has
been at 112 High street, In the rather
squalid district In the north of London
known as the Islington. His place is not
far from the lodgings of the famous or
gan grinder, , who Is unquestionably the
eldest son of the. late Earl Poulett.
High 6treet, in the neighborhood where
the famous anarchist's lair is situated,
narrows down into a shabby little lane,'
flanked by unprepossessing shops and a
few slatternly dwellings. It Is in a room
over a little wine shop with the name De
fendl over the door that Malatesta lodges.
Defendl is said to be an intimate friend
of the anarchist leader and is declared
also to be a revolutionary exile from Italy,
and his son, a boy of 17, has been infor
mally adopted by Malatesta and is his
closest companion.
Two women who live opposite -Defendi's
shop positively declined to allow my pho
tographer to obtain a picture of the shop
from their first-story window's, though
they were obviously poor, and the request
wa9 accompanied by an offer to pay for
the privilege. One of them said:
Afraid of Them.
"They are queer people and I don't want
to do anything to got their Ill-will. They
seem peaceable enough, but we all know
what they are. and we don't know what
they might' do if they took a grudge
against any one. I'd like to oblige you,
but it's better not." Her neighbor, who
said practically the same thing, added
that the people round about there were
opposed to letting their children play J
with the Defendl offspring, and that the
few mothers who did permit it did so
rather than risk Mrs. Defendi's ill-will
for the snub.
Defendl himself is abroad most of the
day,- making deliveries, leaving his wife
and children in charge of the shop. It is
a squalid, ill-smelling little pen and the
family room in the rear is not a pleasant
place. Malatesta's landlady, In the per
son of a small Italian woman with sus
picious eyes, who appe'ared with two of
her tabooed progeny 'clinging to hersklrt,
admitted that the anarchist made his
homo with her, but said that he was
there only in the evening. He was, how
ever, in his room at the time.
The Count he is called by that title
sometimes by his companions lives In
a 12x14 room at the rear of the second
floor. His bed, a bookcase, a table and
some cheap chairs that have seen Tiard
service, are the only furniture. It is the
bookcase only that reveals the tenancy
of a man out of the common run at
Islington. l contains something like a
hundred-books, and besides 'the .works of
akunln.'the apostle' of anarchy, and oth
er revolutionary books in French, Italian,
German and Russian, there are volumes
by Herbert Spencer, Huxley, Matthew
Arnold. John Stuart Mill and Carlyle.
. Cnrlyle His Favorite Author.
Carlye Is Malatesta's favorite English
author, and .Huxley comes next. He will
talk throughout an evening -on Carlyle,
whose grumpy discontent with almost all
creation seems to find an echo In Mala
testa's heart. The anarchist stumbles now
and then over Carlyle's English, and has
to call onshls friends to help him out, but
he has spent much of. his spare time in
studying the language) and can write
It fairly well now.
The Count was to have Inherited a good
bit of money, and apparently he did get
a little, for his trade would hardly keep
him alive, even in his extremely "modest
way of life. The neighborhood ;wlll have
nothing to with him, and he will have
nothing' to do with strangers. 'The only
odd jobs he gets are from 'foreigners who
know him, or are in the confidence of his'
friends. At present, as was, the case
after the murder of King Humbert, any
communication with him is more than
likely to lead to surveillance by Scotland
Yard officials.
Malatesta's shop Is a bare little place
with one or two broken bicycles about,
odds and ends of lead pipe and a few old
gas meters. He Is a keen student of
chemistry -and electricity, and Is said to
have made one or two electrical Inven
tions that would have brought him mon
ey, if he had not been opposed to the
idea of patents. If' he had 4not been so
busy promoting anarchy he might have
been as useful a citizen as , his fellow
countryman. Marconi.
Those who believe most firmly that
this man Is the leading spirit of an
archists all over the world, deny strenu
ously that he gets a penny of salary.
"He works too hard . to be on salary,"
observed one of them.-
Only 30 Years Old.
Malatesta's hard life and prison experi
ences make him look much older than he
really is. Although his age usually has-
been given as 50, I am told that he is j
only 36. He has a heavily lined face, jet
black hair and beard, and piercing black
eyes. He is a teetotaller, or the next
thing to jt, and has vigorous views on
the subject of strong drink. His only
dissipation, sa far as known, is a 'cheap
pipe.
To all seeming he Is one of the most
quiet, mild and peaceable of men. He is
known to have expelled from authority
among London anarchists one or two
men who talked too violently. His voice
is soft and pleasant, and it Is said of him
that he wouldn't personally kill so much
as a fly. His former roommate at De
fendi's, a chum of his at college and a
companion in many revolutionary adven
tures, was dropped by him and requested
to move elsewhere because, he kicked up
a row In Soho one night, flourished a re
volver and talked about slaying some
body. NOjthe soft-voiced Malatesta declarea
that he doesn't hellpva In killing people.
He disappeared from his London haunt
just before King Humbert was slain, and
turned up In Italy, although the police
there didn't know of it then He was
back in London by the time Brescl had
fired his fatal shot. Malatesta, of course,
disavowed all knowledge of this deed, but
had to admit that he was well acquainted
with Brescl, for the fact was generally
known. He was watched by London de
tectives and by Italllan spies, his letters
were opened, all sorts of traps were laid
for him, but nothing could be found that
definitely connected him with the crime.
In the same way detectives did their
bestjo connect him with the murder of
thefEmpress of Austria. He was known
to have been in touch with her slayer,
but there was nothing to prove that Mala
testa had planned this crime from his
little back room In Islington.
Malatesta and Czolgosz.
I Did Errlco Malatesta plot the death of
President McKinley? It is safe to say that
no document- will ever be found to prove
it. But this soft-spoken anarchist seems'
to have had an especial grudge against
the conditions in America, apparently be
cause of the number of rich men there.
He declared recently to one of my in
formants that there were more anarchists
In America today than In any other coun
try In the world, and that the number
would increase steadily. He ranted bitter
ly about oppression there. He was espe
cially solicitous about the Filipinos, and
said President McKinley was as much an
Imperialist as any European monarch.
"There is in America," ho said, "a
despotic monarchy that rules by gold."
and1 he' went on with exactly the sort of
talk that -is familiar in the columns of
yellow journalism. "America," he said,
"is producing more real anarchists than
any other country." In Malatesta's view,
a "real" anarchist is one who acts and
doesn't talk. t '
It would be interesting to know whether
Emma Goldman denies that 'she1 was as
much influenced by Malatesta as Czolgosz
declared himself to be influenced by Em
ma Goldman. Despite the "best efforts of
the London poilce,. Malatesta. and Emma
Goldman were In t frequent close com
munication during her .stay in London
as they were when the Italian was In New
York. , ' y .
I was told yesterday,, on what seemed
good authority, that Malatesta made the
acquaintance of Czolgosz ,,at the time of
his visit td America. That was four or
five years ago, and, owing, to the "youth
fulness of the assassin, the statement
seems Improbable; but the' bare "possi
bility of Its being true makes it worth
giving. If it could be proved. Its Im
portance obviously would be" great Indeed.
This Italian, whom no self-respecting
London journalist ever mentions In print
without calling him "the stormy- petrel of
anarchy," seems to be as crafty as Pro
fessor Morlarlty In "Sherlock Holmes."
The Italian poilce are even more anxious
than the Scotland Yard folk to get a hold
on him.
Under Italian Surveillance.
At the Italian embassy, in London, it
was admitted, in answer to my queries,
that the man has been under constant
surveillanqe In their behalf ever since he
came taXondon. In spite of this, how
ever, he not only 'slipped over to Italy
just before King Humbert's death, but
three years ago he had gone over and
even taken with him his adopted son.
By the time the detectives got tfn his
track, however, he was back safe and
sound in London. Some time ago the
Embassy was notified that Malatesta had
gone to Canada, but satisfied itself that
he had not left England.
The secretary said that the various Ital
ian Ambassadors had orders to keep un
der surveillance such notorious country
men of theirs as Malatesta, and added
that theCohsui at New York kept a care
ful watch over several of them. He said,
too, that the Italian Government, since
the assassination of King Humbert,, has
increased ,. the, rigor of its precautions
.against anarchists, and that the Ministry
Is preparing to adopt drastic measues to
wipe them out. The staff of detectives
whose business It .is to guard the King
has been greatly Increased.
The secretary of the Embassy confirmed
the statement that the Malatesta family
was one of the oldest and most honored
in Italy. He "refuSed to say definitely
that the anarchist was a scion of -he
family, but assurance on that point la
hardly ..needed.
Although Malatesta keeps profoundly se
cret whatever connection he may have
with the violent side of anarchy, he
makes no mystery of his adherence to the
philosophical side of it. He even wrote
an article on it not long ago, In the hope
of getting It printed In one of the most
staid and dignified of the English maga
zines. The magazine, however, wasn't
going in for that sort of thing, and tho
article never got Into print. It was not
rejected for lack of literary ability, how
ever, as one may judge from this con
cluding paragraph of it, which I copied
from the original manuscript:
"We anarchists regret violence and de
plore its sickening consequences, but we
don't shut our eyes to the true condition
of the struggle. We only ask for liberty
of propaganda and organization, expect
ing the triumph of our Ideas not by a coup
de main, not by the employment of force,
but by the full consent of the people. Let
us have liberty; It will be the safest way
for all concerned. CURTIS BROWN.