The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-03-05
San Francisco Chroniclc.

Humanity breads nothing more than il
does an incurable and loathsome malady
With such disease the people of SaE
Francisco and of the whole United States
are threatened. Its name is leprosy and its
home is the Hawaiian Islands. That this
loathsome scouree has had foohold in
Kalakaua's pigmy kingdom has long been
an accepted fact, but it is not generally
known that within the last five years il
has spread with such frightful rapidity
that at the present date the highest medical
authority of Honolulu must acknowledge
that there is not one native family which
has not been contaminated. They all have
it. from the king down." has become a
common saying. Europeans could view
this state of affairs. perhaps. with indfffer
ence. were they themselves proof against
the insidious attacks of the pest and the
people of the United States would then
need feel no personal concern in the mat
ter. But horrible as the statement may be.
the whole population of Honolulu has the
poison in its blood, and cases of leprosy
among white people have become common
: occurrences More horrible still, several of
these leprous persons, being given their
choice of ending their days in the leper
valley of Molokai or TO leave the country,
have preferred the latter. and some of
them have preferred Americas hospitable
San Francisco, among them two young
ladies; another, a middle aged man. went
from here to Massachusetts, where the ia
ture of his disease was soon suspected, and
Were he now lies isolated; two others ar
rived with the steamer City of New York
on the 23d ult., and are mingling among
our people somewhere to-day. Several
others. despairing of gaining an entrance
into the United States, have undertaken to
81 ~, A-.z H.
married couple whose story is exception.
ally pitiful. The husband has long been
resident of Honolulu, and before he mar
ried sustained relations with a native
woman. Two years ago he came to San |
Francisco and succeeded in gaining the |
affections of an estimable young lady. the |
niece of prominent Catholic clergyman. |
With this lawful wife he returned to Hon |
olulu, where both have Just been discov- |
cred to be lepers. They had before them |
the choice of going to the leper valley or
leaving the country, andr of course, chose |
the latter. But wherever they go they are |
going TO horrible and certain death.
UNIMPEACHABLE TESTIMONY.
The truth of the above statements is be- |
yond question. They have been gathere,
from willing and IN Wiling witnesses;
among whom is the wife of the American
residing ia San Francisco who left the Isl /
ands in company with her daughter in
order to escape the dangers of infection
To the information given by this lady is
due the discovery that two Americans in
fected with 1eprosy were sent home ON the
City of New York on her last in
ward trip. It seems that the men +
had been under the treatment of DR.
Fitch, of Honolulu, the government
physician who has charge of the Molokai
leper colony. When there was no longer
any debut that they were affected; that
they must die inch by inch and see the
of their bodies fall into dust and
corruption before their souls would take
flight, they desired to come home. The
consul, to whom they applied for pass
ports. was doubtful whether he had the
right TO issue them. But considering that
the disease was still in its first stages; that
Dr. Fitch would send them to a living
grave on Molokai if they were refused
and that he himself did not pos
sess the power to refuse American citizens
ihe right TO re-en their country he per-
mItted them TO go. The afflicted men
were broDght aboard ship in secrecy, and
no one knew of their presence until Mrs
Mckinley, who sailed on the same vessel,
divulged the secret Even then the pas
sengers knew not how were the lepers, and
when the vessev arrived at quarantine
Officer Lawlor was Informed Of the matter
He ordered the vesse l TO quarantine and
began search for Inc lepers. He could
not find Them and remembering that there
is state commissioner of immigration
for this very end. one c. D. Bunker he
took him aboard and together they made