The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-08-25

horrible Sights About tho Afflicted
sandwich Hslnndcrs.

Horrible Sights About tho Afflicted
Sandwich Islanders.
The native population of Hawaii is rapid.
Up dwindling away. Thirty years has seen
1t cut down one-half. In 1850, which is
the first year in which any accurate census
was taken, the native population is given at
81, 45S. 1t has since regularly decreased,
until in 1884 the census showed only AZ, Ola
natives. The half-castes, who numbered
only $50 in 1850, had increased TO 4,21S,
while the Chinese, who were represented by
only 300 Coolies thirty-six years ago, in
1884 numbered 1889. OF these only s71
were women. The last census gives 1917
Portuguese ON the island, 2,066 Americans,
1889 British, 1,600 Germans, 1872 French
and ! $50 other foreigners. The chief vice
which has swept off the natives needs not
10 be named. The missionaries did much
to stay the ravages of this disease by theii
strict enforcement of the law against the
sale of liquor, but the King, ever on the
alert for an opportunity TO coin money out
Of the misery of his people, secured, about
four years ago, the repeal of the law against
the sale Of intoxicants to natives. The re-
suit has been deplorable. The natural tend
sncy of the people toward drunkenness has
received great impulse and the best OBJ.
servers declare that under the present con.
iitions the next decade will see the native
Hawaiians reduced to beggarly 10000 OF
$1,000.
VI the horrors of leprosy, which plays nc
insignificant part in the ruin of the native
race, no one perhaps can get any adequate
conception from mere description. / have
seen in Honolulu Chinese lepers so loath-
some, SO unspeakably hideous and inhuman,
that their faces haunt ones dreams for weeks.
Dr. G. l.. Fitch, who served for five years
as head of the Leper Hospital at Honolulu
and of the leper settlement at Molokai, re-
Gently came to this city TO make it his per-
mnnent home. He has large number of
photographs of lepers in all stages of the
disease, a collection probably without
parallel in this country. He Is firm be-
lever in the theory that leprosy is not con.
| tagious, and he demonstrates the truth O:
incubation for leprosy has failed. native
murderer, under life sentence, agreed to be
inoculated. The doctor raisen blister on
his arm, and then, after making the surface
raw, he rubbed in matter from sore ON q
little girl, congenital leper, and also trans
planted leprous tubercale. The tuber-
Gale grew but the man failed to contract the
disease.
The natives are extremely careless in re-
gard to lepcrs, and they regard the transfer
IF patients to the Molokai settlement rs ar
act of great cruelty. Hence it is very diff
suit for the physician in change to segregat,
the lepers from the healthy people. Thh
difficulty is increased by the corruption OF
officials. wealthy leper receiving immunity
denied TO his poorer neighbor. On the set
Element at Molokai there are now about
900 lepers in all stages of the disease
Good buildings have been erected, and the
sufferers are made as comfortable as posi-
BILE. Under the old system they We're ac-
,ustomed to drink liquor and hold their
native dances-two practices which greatly
| aggravated tilo Disease. Now they are com.
PEELED to conform to certain regulations
and they are given by the Government GER
tain rations for their support The Govern.
ment physician calls Mt the settlement every
week, and preseribes for such rs need hil
services.
The spiritual and temporal needs of the
1nfortunates have been closely looked after
for many years by Father Damien Dever.
ster, who has devoted his life to their care.
Charles Warren 'Stoddard, who embodied
his Sandwich Island experiences in his
charming South Sea Idyls," has recently
issued from the press of the Notre Dame
College, Indiana, little brochure of the
lepers of Molokai, in which he pays an elo-
| luent tribute to the heroism and single
minded devotion of Father Damien. The
priest ministered to these wretched beings
when they were in a state so terrible that not
even their leper companions would go near
| them. He was repeatedly warned that his
constant association with the extreme cases
would end in his contraction of the fatal
| disease, but his reply was: If it is Gods
will so be il and cannot neglect these
poor souls" For eleven years he escaped
all contageon he ministered to the dying
wants of 1000 lepers in that time, aud
buried them in tho little cemetery of the
settlement; he visited the houses of lepers
daily and used many articles which they
handled. But finally, and within the last
six months, the awful doom has fallen upon
him. He is known to be victim, and in n
recent letter he pathetically describes the
rapid progress of the disease, which now
shuts him off from all communication with
the outside world.