A WEALTHY CHINAMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 100, 28 April 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

A WEALTHY CHINAMAN.

Ha EZarries & Beautiful Cr.eole and

liivea in S\ne Styie!

' For many days,' writes A. J. Howe, of the Afcchison ' Globe' from El Paso, ' I passed on my way up and down town a large, sad, elegant mansion and wondered whooccupied it. I imagined the occupant to be a rich and childless banker and his wife who were retiring in their disposition, for I never saw anyone go in or out of the house except a Chinaman, whom I suspected to be the cook. I envied the old couple their apparent wealth and luxurious home, They did not know what it was to deprive themselves of the comforts and luxuries of life. They could afford a Chinese cook and live upon the very best of everything. Yesterday I asked a resident the name of the banker who occupied the house, and he told me it was not a banker — that it was a Chinaman named Sam King. ' Sam's wife,' said my informant, ' is a beautiful Creole, and he married her in New Orleans under rather romantic circumstances. Her father was a wealthy doctor, but.late in life he lost his fortune. On his death-bed, Sam, between whom and the doctor there was great friendship, proposed that if he wouJd give him his oldest daughter in marriage, he would take care of the mother and soven children. The father consented and the marriage took place. Sam has for eight years faithfully carried out his contract. He educated the children and started them in the world for themselves, for ho was very wealthy. He not only has a great fortune in this country, but he is heir to great wealth in China. In deference to his wife he has conformed to all the American customs except wearing short hair. He still wears a cue, but says that he will cut that off when he goes home and sees his mother, who is very old, and who would die of grief if she should see him without his cue. Besides, if he should cut it off his estate in China would bo confiscated by the crown. His house is supplied with all the modern improvements —steam heats, grates, bath, telephone, etc., and is most luxuriously furnished. ; He has in all ten children, who look like him, and of course are'not very handsome, for he is a very ordinary-looking Chinaman. He is one whom I took for the cook of the banker. lam told he is a sort of king of the Chinese in thi3 part of the country, and that he collects a certain part of the earnings of every Chinaman and appropriates it to his own use.—'Omaha Bee.'