San Andreas independent., 1858-06-26
A Chapter from Yusef.
THE LEPERs OF JERUSALEM.


In my rambles about Jerusalem, 1 passed
on several occasions through the quarters
of the Lepers. Apart from the interest
attached to this unfortunate class of be-
ings (arising from the frequent allusion
made to them in the scriptures there is
much in their appearance and mode of
pathy of the stranger. Dirt and disease
so revoltingly together here; gaunt fam
Inc stalks through the streets; constant
moan of 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 sight
less eyes are turned upward skeleton
arms, distorted and feted with the rava-
ges OF leprosy, are outstretched from the
foul moving mass; and a low howl is
heard, the howl of the stricken, for aims;
aims, y stranger, for the love of God !
aims to feed the inexorable 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 heaven; YOU
who have never known what it was to be
Stunned by your fellow-man as a thing
unclean and 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 misery beyond
all that you have conceived in your gloom
lest hours-a misery that can still be en-
dured learn that even the Leper, with
death gnawing at his vitals and unceas-
ing tortures in his blood, cast out from
the society of his fellow-man, forbidden
to touch in friendship or affection the
hand of the untainted, still struggles for
life, and deems each hour precious that
keeps him from the grave.
The quarter of the Lepers is sad and
impressive place. BY the laws of the
land, which have existed from scriptural
times, they are so isolated from all contact
with their fellow-man; yet there seems to
be no prohibition to their going out beyond
the walls of Jerusalem and begging by
the roadside. Near the gate of Zion, on
the way to Bethlehem, l saw many of them
sitting on the rocks, their hideous faces
uncovered, thrusting forth their scalv
hands for aims. Their huts are rudely
constructed of earth and stones, seldom
with more than one apartment, and this
so filthy and loathsome that it seemed
unfit to be occupied by swine. Here they
live, whole families together, without dis
tinctlon of sex; and their dreadful malady
is perpetuated from generation to genera
ton, and the groans of the aged and the
dying are mingled with the feeble wall of
the young that are brought forth branded
for life of misery. Strange and mourn
ful thoughts arise, in the contemplation of
the sad condition and probable destiny of
these ill-fated beings. Among so many.
there must be some in whose breast 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 untaiEted are capable of feel
ing; yet doomed never to exercise the af
fectlons without perpetuating the curse
some, too, in whom there are hidden pow
ers of mind, unknown save to themselves:
ambition that corrodes with unavailing
aspirations; thirst for action that burns
within increasingly, yet never can be as
suaged; all the ruling passions that are
implanted in man for great and noble pur-
poses, never to give one moments pleas
ure unmixed with the perpetual gloom of
that curse which dwells in their blood.
As | plodded my way for the last time
through this den of sickening sights,
vision OF human misery was impressed
upon my mind that time cannot efface. I
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
hldeous 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 tho
shapeless mass, shrieked for aims. An
was disease and sin and sorrow wherever.
| went and as passed on, unable to re-
lieVe thousandth part of the misery,
means of despair and bowling curses fol-
lowed me, and the Lepers crawled back
into their novels to rot in their filth and
die when God willed,