Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1880-04-29
The Homo of the Lepers.

HAVANA, April "a matter which,
from its peculiar horror. am not likely to
readily forget, was visit to tho Hospital
do San IIazaro, at Havana, the homo of the
lcpcrs. This ancient and terrible disease
inds many victims among tho low caste
Cubans and the poverty stricken Chinese,
though it reaches its gaunt fingers into
better society sometimes Lcprosy is either
Inherited or induced by poor food, and cs-
pooially by the eating Of stale fish. 1t
seems to be II fish, eaters disoasc, in fact
seldom prcvalingat at any great distance from
the sen. Leprosy, as seen in tho West Ins
dies, is simply dryrot. Tho sou! Of a
man is imprisoned in his body long after it
is, to all intents and purposes, dead, and -,
With all his mental faculties intact, he must
endure tho gradual falling apart Of his
earthly tenement, awaiting with what phi
losophy he may the hour whom the cancer,
Gus agent shall touch vital point. This
may not occur for many years: it may hap,
pen on tho morrow. The traditions of the
hospital do not point to any individual case
Of cure whereby tho patient tnoy gain ever
SO faint hope. 1t might we'll be inscribed
over tho portal: eliot those who enter hero
icaYe Ill uopo Denlnu'
VISITING THE HOSPITAL.
There werc five of us in the party which
drove out through the hot streets toward
the forbdding suburb facing tho sca-Dr
Burgess, an American resident physician
and United States sanitary officer, an in
valid doctor from Hartford, aud threo jour
nalists San Lazaro is located just where,
in a moro modern city, we might look for
big and prosperous hotel. It looks out
across fow low houses upon tho fair
prospect of tho harbor's mouth, and the
sea sends its unfcttcrcd waves straight in
from the Northward, dashing up tho spray
almost to its walls The place was founded
bye philanthropc Spaniard within trihc
of two hundred years ago, and was restored
in 1878. A liberal bequcst Of ncighboring
property has always afforded all ample rcye
nuo for its support, but within short timo
tho government has converted portion of
its property, and, as enc Of tho officials of
the institution remarked matters wcro
"not so good" In form tho hospital as a
largo quadrangle, ccntcring upon ohspcl
A high iwall divides tho wards of the
mon and tho women. We entered the mao
department first. The leading peculiarly
of the first patients met lottoring
in the corridors was clay.liko appearance
Of tho skin and depression or cayino in of
The face. The nosris aud lobcs of tho car
wcro globular bolcs were formed over tho
eyebrows. Tho voices of tho mon were
nearly all changed, sounding indistinct
and painful. Patients wcro biddcn to ap
proach, who hobbled to US upon the stumps
of limbs long since robbed, by tho process
OF disease, of feet and ankle, and thoy held
out Tor inspection miserable remnants Of
arms, sIriyclcd, warped and dcoayed, and
yet these arms found cunning enough to
grasp anu remove hats from matted hoads
OF hair whom wo rendered few bits Of
Spanish currency.
DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE DISEASE,
We saw in these lower corridors PERHAPS
forty men. Some wero newcomers, upon
whom tho disease had put but fow marks as
yot. Othors were almost ready to 90 to the
hopeless ward above, whore We presently
climbed. Here, upon bods in dou Bile row
wore tho vestigcs of what had once boon
lncn--corpscs which brcathcd in spccchlcss
agony through tho long week, and which
yet clung to life as though even under these
conditions 1t was sweet to exist. Tattcrod
drapIngs hung from these breathing skclc-
tons, whose every poso was tho attitude of
despair No picture of Dorc's illustrative
OF the Inferno could overdraw sccno like
THIS. Enough OF this. 1t was with great
rolief that We walked aoross pleasant gar
don. planted with bananas and figs, and en-
tered the womcp's ward, under the guidance
OF fat but dovout Mother Superior. All
respect to her and her staff of nuns, who
jaoor here among the hopeless, pointing
their fanting steps upward, and slaviug
through the heat Of years to alleviate tho
suhorInes OF those with whom they are
appointed to live The scenes amid the
women were but repetition of those across
tho rectanglo. A few were telling their
beads, some sewed, and all were neat in
person aud surrounding to tho Inst degro,.
A bright li'tIo boy ran toward us with an
range in either hand. Ho was the pet of