Short Stories
Several, having so desired, had had the finishing touches put on
in Europe. And from all the world Ah Chun's sons and daugh-
ters returned to him to suggest and advise in the garnishment of
the chaste magnificence of his residences. Ah Chun himself pre-
ferred the voluptuous glitter of Oriental display; but he was a
philosopher, and he clearly saw that his children's tastes were
correct according to Western standards.
Of course, his children were not known as the Ah Chun chil-
dren. As he had evolved from a coolie labourer to a multi-
millionaire, so had his name evolved. Mamma Ah Chun had
spelled it A'Chun, but her wiser offspring had elided the apos-
trophe and spelled it Achun. Ah Chun did not object. The
spelling of his name interfered no whit with his comfort nor his
philosophic calm. Besides, he was not proud. But when his chil-
dren arose to the height of a starched shirt, a stiff collar, and a
frock coat, they did interfere with his comfort and calm. Ah
Chun would have none of it. He preferred the loose-flowing
robes of China, and neither could they cajole nor bully him into
making the change. They tried both courses, and in the latter one
failed especially disastrously. They had not been to America for
nothing. They had learned the virtues of the boycott as em-
ployed by organized labour, and he, their father, Chun Ah Chun,
they boycotted in his own house, Mamma Achun aiding and
abetting. But Ah Chun himself, while unversed in Western cul-
ture, was thoroughly conversant with Western labour condi-
tions. An extensive employer of labour himself, he knew how to
cope with its tactics. Promptly he imposed a lockout on his re-
bellious progeny and erring spouse. He discharged his scores of
servants, locked up his stables, closed his houses, and went to
live in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, in which enterprise he hap-
pened to be the heaviest stockholder. The family fluttered distra-
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