Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-07-27


wreaths Of vine, and under leafy cata
racts breaking into a foam Of blossoms {
thousand feet below; swinging aside the
hanging parasites that obstructed the
narrow way-entering the valley o.
DEATH and the very mouth of hell, by
these floral avenues.
A brisk ride of couple of miles
across the breadth of the peninsula
brought me to the gate Of the keeper Of
the settlement, and there / dismounted,
and hastened into the house, to be rid OF
the curious crowd that had gathered to
receive me. The little cottage was very
comfortable; my host and hostess friends
OF precious memory, and with them !
felt at once at home, and began the new
life that every one begins when the earth
seems to have been suddenly transformed
into some better or worse world, and he
alone survives the transformation.
Have you never had such an expert
ence2 Then go into the midst of com
munity Of lepers; have ever before your
eyes their gorgon-like faces; see the hor-
rors, hardly to be recognized as human,
that grope about you; listen in vain for
the voices that have been hushed forever
by decay; breathe the tainted atmos-
phere, and bear ever in mind that, while
they hover about you-forbidden to touch
you, yet longing to clasp once more a
hand that is perfect and pure-the insid-
ious seeds of the malady may be gener-
ating in your vitals, and your heart, even
then, be drunk with DEATH
j might as well confess that slept in
differently the first night; that | was not
entirely free from nervousness the next
day as j passed through the various
wards assigned to patients in every stage
of decomposition. But recovered my
self in time to observe the admirable
system adopted by the Hawaiian Gov
ernment for the protection of its unfor-
tunate people. | used to sit by the
window and see the procession Of the
less afflicted come for little measures of
milk, morning and evening. Then there
was a continuous raid upon the oint-
ment-pot, with the contents of which
they delighted to annoint themselves
Trihing disturbances sometimes brought
the plaintiff and defendant to the front
gate for final Judgment at the hands of
their beloved keeper. And it was a con-
slant entertainment to watch the pro-
gress of events in the singular little
world of doomed spirits. They were not
unhappy. | used to hear them singing
every evening; their souls were singing
while their bodies were falling rapidly to
dust. They continued to play their
games, as well as they could play them
with the loss of fnger.joint or toe,
from week to week; it is thus gradually
and thus slowly that they died, feeling
their voices growing fainter and their
strength less as the idle days passed over
them and swept them to the tomb.
Sitting at the window on the second
evening, as the patients came up for milk,
| observed one of them watching me in
tently, and apparently trying to make
me understand something or other, but
what that something was i could not
guess. He rushed to the keeper and
talked excitedly with him for moment,
and then withdrew to one side of the gate
and waited till the others were served |
with their milk, still watching me all the
while. Then the keeper entered and
told me how had friend out there who
wished to speak with me-some one who
had seen me somewhere he supposed, but |
whom ] would hardly remember. 1t was
their way never to forget face they had |
once become familiar with. Out ] went.
There was face | could not have reeog-
nized as anything friendly or human.
Knots of flesh stood out upon it; scar
upon scar disfgured it, The expression
was like that of a mummy; stony and
The outlines of youthful
figure we're preserved, but the hands and
feet we're pitiful to look at. What was
this ogre that knew me and loved me
still?
He soon told me who he had once been,
but was no longer Our little unfortu-
nate Joe" my Lahaina charge. In his
case the disease had spread with fearful
the keeper thought he could
hardly survive the year. Many linger
year after year, and cannot die; but Joe
was more fortunate, His life had been
brief and passionate, and death was now
hastening him TO his dissolution.
Joe was forbidden to come near me,
80 he crouched down by the fance, and,
pressing his hands between the pickets, /
Iifted the dust at my feet, while he
vailed in low voice, and called me,
over and over, dear friend" good '
riend," and master" ] wish ! had
never seen him SO humbled. To think |
If my disreputable little protegs, who I
vas wont to lord it over me as though he
lad been born chief; to think of Joe as
icing there in his extremity, groveling
n the dust at my feet, forbidden to climb
he great wall of flowers that lowered he n
ween him and his beautiful world, while j
he rough sea larhed the coast about
i'm, and his only compslilps we're such
ideous foes as would irighten one out of
dream.
How wanted to get close to him-but
dared not-so we sat there with the
Iats of the fence between us, while we
liked very long in the twilight; and /
as glad when it grew so dark that
Ould no longer see his face--his terrible
ice, that came to kill the memory of his
,rmer beauty
And Joe wondered whether | still re-
embered how we used 20 walk in the
ght, and 60 home, at last, TO our little
1use when Lahaina was still as death, H
i'd you could almost hear the great stars
robbing in the clear skyl How well !
membered it, and the day when we =
ent long way down the beach, and :
oking back, saw wide curve Of the =.
nd cutting the sea like sickle, and M
rning up white and shining swath. u
hen, in another place, a grove Of cocoa
Inns and a melanch holy, monastic-look-
z building, with splendid palm-branches
its broad windows; for il was just after
lin Sunday, and the building belonged
a Sisterbood. And ] remembered -