The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-08-26

Hdu alIeauN maze It's marx on the con-
stantly-gloved hand, into which knife
could be plunged without inflicting the
slightest pain. Poor Ragsdale gave him
self up to the authorities, and asked to
be sent at once TO the leper settlement
on Molokai. His example in surren-
dering himself probably induced scores
of lepers, hiding from the authorities
on all the islands, to do likewise He
went to Molokai and lived the ruler of
that CHASTITY community until about three
years ago.
-Four years ago friend of mine visit
ed him there. lie was living in COM
Portable cottage, attended by all the
| servants he wanted, ruling the 700 poor
wretches around him in a just, honora-
BILE manner. Pointing to a room in
which no member of the settlement
ever entered, Ragsdale said to his visit
ors You will find wine there, gentle
men. 1t was brought here by friends
and no lepers' hands have defiled it. Go
in and refresh yourselves. You cannot
be waited on, as my servants are all
lepers." He inquired after friends in
Honolulu, to whom he sent messages
and aloha. When my friend left he in
CURED of Ragsdale if there was any
thing he could do for him. Eyes, keep
me supplied with reading matter. That
4 is all ask for or wish in this life now
something to read and think about;
something to shut outfgom my mind this
life. 1t IS only a short time more with
me now"
1t was only, a short time more, for
soon news came that poor Bill Ragsdale,
a volunteer exile in a leper settlement,
had shut out from his mind forever this
life NN~grgfav a. XVI
went with'Dr. Fitch to the branch
settlement for lepers. 1t is an Enclosure
of several acres on what is called Fisher
mems Point, on Honolulu Bay. Scat
tered over the grounds are scores of
cottages, some connected, others de-
tached, and the offices and buildings
used by DR.. Fitch's assistants. I'M
agine, If you can, settlement of
| Anglo aXons, or people of any other
highly civilized race, all of them af-
ilicted with, and all more or less de-
formed, by an incurable and horrible
disease-knowing it to be incurable,
and seeing themselves and each other
dropping to pieces from its dreaded eff
fects. | cannot imagine such picture,
because | honestly believe that suicide
would make a settlement impossible
among any other than people still
barbarians, or else in the childhood of
civilization. Such was the settlement |
visited. There were men, women and
children living in a world apart from
ours, having nothing worth living for
save mere existence, succession of
days, marked only by slow consumma-
ton of the death that had already
seized upon their bodies, and had al
ready deprive them of portions, which
were already returned to dust.
There were in that strange and I'M
natural community marriages. births.
deaths. | would not attempt to describe
in detail the unrelieved ghastliness of
the sights there, vet not one of the in
mates who helped tomake up the abso-
Lutte dreadfulness of the scene failed to
greet us with a smile and cordial aloha.
That only served to emphasize the
darkness OF, the picture. said not, one;
yet there. was one. On bed in alittle
cottage room, whose open door faced
the dark, cool canyons back of the city,
and whose window looked out upon the
lovely bay and let in the lazy murmur of
waves breaking over theseoral reefs, lay
nativewoman, dying. Nearly all her
right hand had dropped off, but in the
remnants other fingers she held feather
fan, which she family waved across her
distorted face, to cool the hot, aching
eyes that had not been closed for
months, the palsied muscles of her eve
lids refusing their duty. Il
las the doctorspoke pleasantly to her,
she turned her glaring eyes toward us,
but did not speak. ''Her mouth is af-
fected, too" the doctor said. We
stood aside from her door to admit a
cooling breath of air that just then came
down from the mountains. The swoll-
en- face rested, and the feebly moving
hand fell, in gratitude for the mountain
breeze, yet, when it died away, the
hand did not move again. it was her
last moment The mountains gentle
breath had comforted her, and when it
died away her breathing ceased, too.
In one cottage we saw little girl
whose fingers had been drawn ND I'M
til her hand was half closed. She had
experimental with novel cure by
calmly stepping on the bent fingers I'M
til she had Strengthened them out. She
exhibited the result with pride; four
fingers straight and stiff, and as useful
as so many wooden pegs would have
been.
Out ON what is called the play ground
were some boys playing ball, one with
useless hand, another with palsied !
leg, another with a foot partly gone,
and others with swollen, senseless faces.
On the veranda of cottage sat two old
natives, both with useless legs, but
neither of whom showed any trace of
in