Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1852-12-04
The Lepers in Jerusalem.

l
! In nv rambes about Jerusalem passed, on
several occasions, through the quarter of the
| Lepcrs Apart from the interest attached to
this unfortunate class Of beings, (arising from
the frequent allusion made to them in the
Scriptures,) there is much in the appearance
and mode Of life to attract attention and enlist
the sympathy Of the stranger Dirt and dis
ease go revolving y together here gaunt IA
mine stalks through the streets; constant
moan suffering swells upon the dead air, and
sin broods darkly over the ruin it has wrought
in that gloomy and ill-fated spot. Wasted
forms sit in the doorways; faces covered with
white scales and sightless eyes are turned up
ward; skeleton arms, distorted and fPtid with
the ravages Of leprosy, are outstretched from
the foul, moving mass and a low howl is heard,
the howl Of the stricken for aims; aims, oh
stranger, for the love of God aims to feed the
memorable destroyer! aims to prolong this
dreary and hopeless misery. Look upon it,
stranger, you who walk forth in all your pride
and strength and breathe the fresh air Of hea-
ven; you who have never known what it is to
be stunned by your felIow-man as a thing un-
clean aAd accursed; you who deem yourself
unblest with all the blessings that God has
given you upon earth; look upon it and learn
that there is a misery upon all that you have
conceived in your gloomiest hours-a misery
that can still be endured; learn that even the
Leper, with death gnawing at his yitals and un-
ceasing tortures in his blood, cast out from the
society of his fellow-man, forbidden to touch
IN friendship or affection the hand of the un.
tainted, still struggles for life and deems each
hour precious that keeps him from the grave.
The quarter of the Lepers is a sad and iul-
pressve place. BY the laws of the land which
have existed from scriptural times, they are
isolated from all actual contact with their fel-
low men; yet there seems TO be no prohibition
to their going out beyond the walls of Jerusa-
lem and begging by the road side. Near the
gate of Zion, on the way to Bethlehem, | saw
many Of them sitting on the rocks, their hide
Gus faces uncovered, thrusting forth their scaly
hands for aims. Their huts are rudely con-
structed of earth and stones, seldom with moro
than one apartment, and this so filthy and loath-
some, that they seemed unfit to be occupied by
swine. Here they live and propagate, whole
families together, without distinction of sex;
and their dreadful malady is perpetuated from
generation to generation, and the groans Of the
aged and the dying are mingled with the feeble
wall of the young that are brought foIth BRAN
ded for life of misery. Strange and mourn
ful thoughts arise, in the contemplation of the
sad condition and probable destiny of those
ilI-fated beings. Among so many, there must
be some in whose breasts the power of true
love is implanted; love for woman in its purest
sense, for offspring, for all the endearments Of
domestic life which the untainted are capable
of feeling; yet doomed never to exercise the
affections without perpetuating the curse; some,
too, in whom there are hidden powers of mind,
unknown, save to themselves; ambition, that
corrodes with unayaiiing aspirations; a thirst
for action that burns within increasingly, yet
never can be assuaged; all the ruling passions
that are implanted in man for great and noble
purposes, never, never to give one moments
pleasure unmixed with the perpetual gloom of
that curse which dwels in their blood
AS plodded my way for the last time thro'
this den of sickening sights, a vision of human
misery was impressed upon my mind that time
cannot efface | passed when the rays Of the
sun were cold and the light was dim; and there
came out from the reeking novels leprous men,
gaunt with famine, and they barred their hideous
bodies, and howled like beasts; and women
held out their loathsome and accursed babes,
and tore away the rags that covered them, and
pointing to the shapeIess mass, shrieked for
aims. All was disease and sin and sorrow
wherever went; and as passed Ell, unable to
relieve thousandth part of the misery, means
of despair and bowling curses followed me,
and Lepers crawled back into their hoveis to
rot in their filth and die when God willed.-
Correspondence Of the National Intelligencer.