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CARL SMITH
son, who passed through San Francisco in the 1870s, reported that his father was still remembered by the community with gratitude and respect.
WHEN FAME HAS ITS HAZARDS
The position of leadership is one of prestige and honour, but as a public figure the leader is also open to criticism by disgruntled members of the community. Tong A-chick, as leader of the Chinese community of California in the 1850s, experienced such attacks.
In one case a husband charged him with harbouring his runaway wife. The background of the story indicates some of the difficulties Chinese women had in California. Many of them had been imported as prostitutes. Some had been abducted from their home villages, others had been purchased, and still others had been deceived by false promises. Their lot was not easy.
The background of Too A-sung, the woman in the case, is not clear. She had been married in Sacramento to Fong A-lai in September 1856, by the Rev. Lewis J. Shuck, a former Baptist missionary in Hongkong. After the marriage, the couple went to live at Marysville, California.
Here A-lai, the husband, began to mistreat his wife. He beat her, threatened to sell her, and, so she claimed, "forced her into the lowest depths of degradation.” He kept her in "constant misery, anxiety and wretchedness."
Finally, she was able to run away through the assistance of some friends. She arrived at San Francisco and sought shelter at the business premises of Tong A-chick.
The premises were also used as a branch of the Yeung Wo Association, as the association's house was on the slopes of Telegraph Hill some distance from the centre of the Chinese settlement.
Tong A-chick was a director of the association, and Too A-sung