The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-05-11
THE LEPER's HOME.
A scene In q Hospital In Havana.

Correspondence of the Philadelphia Times.l
HAVANA, April "a matter which, from
its peculiar horror, l am not likely readily to
forget. was a visit made to the hospital de San
Lazaro, at Havana, the home of the leperS.
This ancient and terrible disease finds many
victims among the low-caste Cubans and the
overty-stricken Chinese, though it reaches
its .gaunt fingers into better society some.
times. Leprosy is either inherited OF induced
by poor food, and especially by the eating of
stale fish. 1t seems to be a fish-eaters' dis
ease, in fact, seldom prevailing at any great
distance from the sea. Leprosy, as seen in
the West Indies, is simply a dry-rot. The
soul of man is imprisoned in his body long
after lie is, to all intents and purposes dead,
and, with all his mental faculties intact, he
must endure the gradual falling apart of his
earthly tenement, awaiting with what philos-
ophy he may the hour when the cancerous
agent shall touch a vital point. This may
not occur for many years; it may happen on
the morrow. The traditions of the hospital
do not point to any individual case of cure
whereby the patient may gain even so faint a
hope. 1t might well be inscribed over the
portal !: Let those who enter here leave all
hope behind.'
There were five of us in the party which
drove through the hot streets toward the for
bidding suburb facing the sea-Dr. Burgess,
an American resident physician and United
States sanitary officer; an invalid doctor
from Hartford, and three journalists. San
Lozaro is located just where, in a more mod
ern city, we might look for a big and prosper
our hotel. 1t looks out across a few low
houses upon the fair prospect of the harbor's
mouth, and the sea sends its unfettered waves
straight in from the %northward, dashing up
the spray almost 10 its walls. The place was
founded by "a philanthropic Spsniard within a
trlt1e of two hundred years ago, and was res
tOred in 1878. A liberal bequest of neighbor-
ing property has always afforded an ample
revenue for its support, but within a short
time the government has converted a portion
of its property, and, as one of the officials of
the institution remarked, matters were not
so good" In form the hospital is a large
quadrangle, centering upon a chapel. high
wall divides the wards of the men and
women. We entered the male department
first. The leading popularity of the first
patients met lettering in the corridors was a
clay like appearance of the skin and a depres-
sion or caying in of the nasal portion of the
face. The nostrils and lobes of the ear were
globular and boles were formed over the eye
brows. The voices of the men were nearly
all changed, sounding indistinct and painful.
Patients were hidden to approach, who hob
bled to us OH the stumps of limbs long since
IODUtu, ny JiC plOCcoS u ulocdsCs VI lCCI dlu
ankles, and they held out for our inspection
miserable remnants of arms, shriveled, warp
ed and d~ecayed, and yet these arms found
cunning enough to grasp and remove hats
from matted heads of hair when we rendered
a few bits ofSpanish currency.
We saw in these lower corridors perhaps
forty men. Some were new corners, upon
whom the disease had put but few marks as
yet. Others were almost ready to go to the
-l r1-.n VIVA onNp u
climbed. Here, upon beds in a double row,
were the vestises of what had once been
men-corpses which breathed in speeches.
agony through the long week and which yet
chung to life as though even under these con-
dititions it was sweet to exist. TatJered drap-
ings hung from the breathing skeletons, whose
every pose was the attitude of despair. No
picture of Dore's illustrative of tie Inferno
could overdraw a scene like this. 1t was
with great relief that we walked across a
pleasant garden, planted with bananas and
t figs, and entered the women's ward, under
} the guidance of fat but devout mother SUI
periOr. All respect to her AVID her staff OF
t nuns, who labor here among the hopeless,
} pointing their faintins steps upward and slav-
ing through the heat of years to alleviate the
sutlerings of those with whom they are ap-
pointed to live. The scenes among the
3 women were but a repetition OF those across
1 the rectangle. A few were tellingthe beads,
some sewed and all were neat in person and
2 surroundings to the last degree. A bright lit
! tie boy ran toward lis with an orange in either
| hand. He was the pet Of the hospital. What
a pity this bright little chap is not taken as a
e subject for scientific experiment. Can 1t moi
be that there exists some means OF driving oul
!, the veyem and building the system OF the un-
happy progeny of lepers with healthy tissues :
v
IN CUBA.