Connecticut western news., 1875-08-20
A SAD PICTURE.
The Sandwich Island Lepers nnd Their
 Home.

The Sandwich Island Lepers nnd Their
 Home.
 The horrible disease of leprosy is ex- tending it's ravages in spite of every care of prevention. The island of Molokai is set apart as quarantine, where the le- pers are isolated as fast as they are dis covered, and the living foci of disease thus segregated. The natives seem per fectly reckless about the risk of con tagion, and the gregarious instinct is so strong that they will smoke the pipes, wear the clothes, and sleep on the mats of lepers Indeed, they conceal the victims of the disease as long as possi- ble, and the government officials have great difficulty in ferreting out the in- fected persons.
 Let us take 6 rapid glance at the leper settlement of Molokai, which is alike hospital and 8 charnel house; for there. is no cure for the awful pestilence. It is the duty of the sheriffs of the island, on the certificate of doctor that man is leper, to commit him to death in life at Molokai. Here he slowly rots away in terrible exile, for there is no release for him except the merciful hand of death. The agonized parting and the woe of the friends as they cling to the bloated limbs and kiss the glistening, swollen faces of those who are exiled from them forever, are said to be some thing almost heartrending. There are no individual distinctions among the sufferers. Queen Emma's cousin, man of wealth, and MT. Ragsdale, the most influential and eloquent lawyer among the half whites, share the same. doom as stricken Chinamen and laborers from the plantations. The necessity is terrible, but no less necessity and, in the case of MT. Ragsdale, who gave him self up voluntarily, the case was aggra- vated by the fact that he is man of great accomplishments and almost un- bounded control over his countrymen, one who, had it not been for his fearful disease, would have risen to very prominent position in state affairs. -
 Molokai, the island of exile, is land of precipices, with walls of rock rising two thousand feet above the sea in ex- treme grandeur and picturesqueness, but slashed, as in Hawaii, by gulches opening from natural lawns down to the sea. The road from the sea-landing is zigzag bridle track, which winds over the face of the precipice, and this abode of death is in all respects worthy of the grim functions to which it is devoted. Three miles inland from the port is the leper village, the home of hideous suf- fering, where science is unable to grap- pie with despair; where the only busi- ness of the community is to perish l; where there are husbandless wives, wife less husbands, children without parents, and parents without children, condemned to watch the loathsome steps by which each of their doomed fellows glide down to death.
 Most of the victims live in brown huts, but the more wealthy ones have white cottages, where every comfort is pro- vided for them. The hospitals, twelve in number, are roomy and we'll arranged, built on am airy height. In the center of the hospital square are the dispen- sary and the office buildings, where the statistics of the settlement are kept, and the leper governor holds his leper court for all the officials, even to the doctor and the chaplain, are the victims of the disease. The rations of food are ample, and the contributions of the benevolent suffice to provide little luxuries and extras, such as tobacco, pipes, knives, toys, books, pictures, and working i'm plements and materials for amusement; !; for the lepers become pauperized when they are sent into exile, and no longer have any claim on their property. q
 The sensibilities of the visitor are shocked when he sees the throngs of active looking exiles, who shrink away from the profered hand, as if abased at the thought of what they are. But what shall be said of the awful spectacles in the hospitals, wherein everything is per vaded with the sickening odor of the grave; where all around, crouched on their mats and shivering with despair, are seen the yet breathing corpses of the poor wretches who leer for a moment out of their ghoul-like eyes, and then shrink into themselves again, caricatures of life, masses of rotting flesh with but little semblance of humanityl Though the mystery of death which hangs over the valley of Molokai discloses some of the more woeful features of the curse, it is pleasant to know that the poor out casts are as kindly cared for as the re- sources of the government will permit. The most strenuous efforts are being made to stamp out the disease and pro- vide for the comfort of those who are isolated.
 Sergeant Bates,s Latest Project.