The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-05-13
The Lepers' Home.

to forget, was visit made to the Hos
pital 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
poverty stricken Chinese though it
reaches its gaunt fingers into better So
ciety sometimes. Leprosy is either in
herited or induced by poor food, and es-
pecially oy the eating of stale fish, 1t
seems to be fish eaters disease, in fact,
seldom prevailing at any great distance
from the sea. Leprosy, as seen in the
West Indies, is simply dry rot. The
soul Of a man is imprisoned in his body
long after he is, to all intents and pur-
poses, dead, and, with all his mental
faculties intact, he must endure the grad
ual falling apart of his earthly tenement,
awaiting with what philosophy he may
the hour when the cancerous agent may
touch vital point. This may not oc.
cur for many years; it may happen on
the morrow. The traditions of the hos
pital do not point to any individual case
Of cure whereby that the patient may
gain ever so faint hope. 1t might
we'll be inscribed over the portal: "Let
those who enter here leave all hope be-
hind"
There We're five of us in the party
which drove out through the hot streets
toward the forbidding suburb facing the
sea-Dr. Burgess, an American resident
physician and United States sanitary Of
fcer; an invalid doctor from Hartford,
and three journalists. San Lazaro is
located just where. in modern city, we
might look for large hotel 1t
looks out across a few low houses
upon the fair prospect of the harbor's
mouth, and the sea sends it unfettered
waves straight in from the northward,
dashing up the spray almost to it's
walls. The place was founded by
philanthropic Spaniard within trihe Of
two hundred years ago, and was re-
stored in 1873. A liberal bequest of
neighboring property has Away afforded
an ample revenue for its support, but
within a short time the Government Las
converted portion of its property, and,
AS one of the officials of the institution
remarked, matters were mot 50 good"
In form, the hospital is large quadran.
gle, centering upon Il chapel. A high
wall divides the wards of the men and
the women We entered the male de
partment first. The leading popularity
of the first patients met lettering in the
corridors was a clay-Gke appearance of
the skin and depression or caving in
of the nasal portion of the face. The
lokes of the ear were globular and boles
were formed over the eyebrows. The
voices of the men were nearly all
changed, sounding indistinct and pain
full. Patients were hidden to approach,
who hobbled to us upon the stumps of
limbs long since robbed, by the process
of disease, of feet and ankles, and they
held out for our inspection miserable
remnants Of arms, shriveled, warped and
decayed, and yet these arms found cum
ming enough to grasp and remove hats
from matted heads of hair when we
rendered few bits of Spanish currency.
We saw in these lower corridors per-
maps iHCls 'ooAAiC "CtO iiC" SOii-
ers, upon whom the disease had put but
few marks as yet. Others were almost
ready to go to the hopeless ward above,
where we presently climbed. Here,
upon beds in double row, were the
vestiges 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 conditions it was sweet to exist.
Tattered drapings hung from these
breathing skeletons, whose every pose
was the attitude Of despair. No picture
of Dore's illustrative of the Inferno
could overdraw scene like this.
Enough Of this 1t was with great re-
lief that we walked across a pleasant
garden, planted with bananas and figs,
and entered the women's ward, under
the guidance of fat but devout Mother
Superior. All respect to her and her
staff OF nuns who labor here among the
hopeless, pointing their fainting steps
upward and shaving through the heat of
years to alleviate the sufierings of those
with whom they are appointed to live.
The scenes amid the women are but
repetition of those across the rectangle
a few were telling their beads, some
sewed and all were neat in person and