The Irish standard., 1886-09-11

LlaI appears W QuCAStA OH01J Ae's"
raj affection and every humane
feeling.
"Children are thrust out by their pa
rents, and parents by their children
without the slightest hesitation or re-
morse. In q report OF Her Majesty's
Commissioner in Cyprus, published sc
recently as 1882, we read that when q
man is first suspected Of leprosy the
people go to the Mukhtar OF the village
ant! accuse him of the plague. y coun-
Gil is held, examination is made, and ii
the suspicion is pronounced TO be We'll
founded, a man is Immediately torn
from his family who, as a rule, at
once become his readiest enemies. Ills
goods are divided among his relatives,
and he is banished from their presence
forever.
N;sHis clothes and a. cotton quilt are
given him, and q guard conduct him to
the lepers' farm at Nocosa, and there he
is left to live Or die. In the Sandwich
Islands the case seems to have been
| very different. The utmost humanity
and gentleness appear to have been eX-
ercised in the melancholy duty Of
tilrusting these poor creatures OUT from
their homes and kindred, but the scenes
were distressing in the extreme. The
woe of those who were taken,' says
Miss Bird, il, her interesting account Of
six months residence IT, these islands,
the dismal wailings of those who were
lett, and the agonizad partiugs when
friends and relatives clung to the sWol-
len limbs and kissed the glistening,
bloated faces Of those who were exiled
from them forever, shall never forget. >
In the course Of seven or eight years
about 1850 lspers Of both sexes, of ali
conditions ia life, and nearly all ages,
were hanislled to Moloka.
"This island is about forty miles
long, and eight or niue miles broad, and
it appears to have a population of Two
or three thousand people, APART from
the lepers. 1t is, however. LITTLE more
than. chain Of volcanic mountains.
presenting tremendous precipices to
the coast. AT the foot of one Of these
precipices, 1900 feet high and quite iso-
lated from the interior Of the island, is
q dasolate plain Of some 10000 acres in
extent, and it is here that the leper col
ony is established, a village which, says
the writer just quoted, may safely be
said to be one Of the most horrible spots
on the face Of the earth, home Of hid
cous disease and slow-coming death,
with which science in despair has
ceased to grapple. 3 community OF
doomed beings socially dead, whose
only business is to PERISH Wifeless
husbands, husbandless wives, children
without parents, parents without chill
dren, men and women who have mo
more portion forever, in anything that
is done under the sun > condemned to
watch the repulsive steps by which
eacn of their doomed fellows goes down
to loathsolne death, knowing !
that by the same way, they TOO, must !
pass.
ut was with these hapless mortals
that Father Damien cast in his lot some |
ten or twelve years ago. To this valley |
of the shadow Of death he set out with |
the banished ones amid q burst of en-
admiration, from which even
those who heartily disbelieved in the
creed Of bis Church, and most cordially
detested the Order to which he be-
longed, could not Withhold their tribute.
10 quote Miss Bird book once more
1T was significant to here TIE burst of
spontaneous admiration which his act
elected. No unworthy motives were
all envious speech was
lushed; it was almost forgotten
by the most rigid Protestants
that Father Damien is a RGmish
priest, and an intuition higher than
al reasoning hastened to number
1im with the noble army of martyrs
From chat time forth he has
devoted himself entirely to ministering
% the physical and spiritual needs Of
;he poor people shut up in that living
;omb. But as he has had no taint Of
eprosy himself, he has not hitherto
oeen compelled entirely 20 confne him
self to Molokai. He has from time to
lime visited Honolulu and other parts
If the Sandwich Islands. Now ne
writes :: 1t is impossible for me to go
,ny more to Honolulu, on account OF
;he leprosy breaking out On me. The
microbes have settled themselves in my
eft leg, and my ear and one eyebrow
,egin to fail. I expect to have my face
soon disfgured. Having no doubt my
self of the true character of my disease,
[ feel calm, resigned, and happier
among my people, Devotion of this
ofty type stands as far above all mems
,avil as it towers aboye most mems
imitation, and in the presence OF it
mere differences Of dogma dwindle to
aothingness. Such deeds as these
oring men together in the clearer re-
,ognition Of deep, underlying truths
common to all the great religions that
have taken root in the world, and tend
.lsSaI CT destinations