Omaha daily bee., 1886-06-30
THE ISLANDS OF LEPERS.
A Chat With Catholic Missionary from
Maui.
Work OF Devoted Missionary In the
Sandwich Islands, Cui scd with
the Fearful Disease of
Jcprosy.


from Maui, Sandwich islands, arrived at
the Palmer house yesterday on his way to
Rome. Father Lautcr is German who
was educated at louvain, Belgium, and
afterwards joined tine society of priests of
the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
q society of volunteers for missionary
labors in heather lands. He has been
with the natives in the Sandwich islands
for sixteen years. To Tribune reporter
he said:
"Thc sight of this big city seems n
dream to me of years gone by How do
| like my island homcy Well, the voice
of duty called me there, and by the vows
of my order | bound myself to make the
place my home. My parish covers about
one hundred miles, and | have eleven
churches, wooden structures which l
built myself. In all the Sandwich islands
there are one bishop and twenty three
priests, the bishop residing at Honolulu
The Catholic missions are rs prosperous
rs can be expected under the circum.
stances for the people do not support
their own pastors"
How is that?"
Originally missionaries were sent TO
the islands and supported bV the propa.
ganda ut Rome, and the sum of $l2, 1000
appropriated for their support. The
people became accustomed to have their
spiritual wants attended to without any
pay, direct or indirect and they even now
never think of offering u priest n dollar
tor anything, and the priests on their
part never ask them fer anything, the
bishop and priests being bound by II vow
of poverty. In the sixteen years that |
have been in the islands | have not re-
ceived Il dollar from parishioner except
for building churches, when | made
collection for the purpose. The collec
tonS would average about ST. from
family of say six or eight"
How do you make your living,
them.
1--WE try to coniine ourselves TO apos-
tolic simplicity. Our wants in this world
we make but few | have the pretticst
little house man could wish to live in,
surrounded by fourteen acres of land. |
built the house myself, painted it, plowed
the land, and took care of my own horse.
All of the priests out there are black
smiths and carpenters. The people are
hospitable, and when we make our CIR
cult among them they offer us the best
their houses afford. l have in my parish
Portuguese, Kanakas, Chinese and Japan
ese Catholics. The curse of the islands is
the dreadful disease leprosy, coupled
with the deadly vices introduced among
the natives by the more civilized, but yet
more debased, white men from Europe
and America. Leprosy was introduced
IN the islands by the Chinese in 1888, and
its spread has been simply appalling
Why, the government has set apart one
island, MOlokai, for the use of lepcrs,
anu there are now dragging out miser-
able lives upon it ? 900 unfortunate human
beings. One of these is saint and a
hero--a brother priest, Father
Il at,Nin, lin an
led him to minister to the spiritual
wants OF the inhabitants of tho cursed
island, for years, until, finally, within the
last year, he has himself fallen victim
to the plague. He is perfectly resigned
to his fate and is more than ever devoted
to his charges. He was Il fellow student
with me at Louvain, and is about forty
the Sandwich group is not confined to
one island by any means, for, startling
as it my sound, very nearly onehalf of
the population of the kingdom is afflicted
with the plague. 1t shows itself in the
younger children and the older men and
women. Frequently men and women
and whole families escape from the
other islands, spreading their terrible
curse wherever they go. The govern
ment is doing the best it can to prevent
the spread of the disease, but its rev.
enues are too limited, the government is
hopelessly insolvcnt, and the poor un.
fortunates are taxed to death. When
taxes amount to more than $l2,
say for one person, the govern
| ment refuses to take its own
money in payment, but must have
| United States or some other foreign
money, as the standard value of the gov
ernment dollar is but eighty cents. see
some newspapers talk about the king be-
| ing willing to sell out the islands to a
| syndicate for consideration. That's
talk and only talk, for everyone of the
| islands is already sold to the planters in
| fact one or two planters own all the lanG,
the king, government and everything
| else. The king makes appointments to
| judicial and ministerial positions at the
! Indication of the planters, and you can
| imagine the state of affairs IN conse-
| quence. Justice is perverted and twisted
to suit the desires of the bosses-the
| planters. The present generation of ma
| tiveS, owing to the disease and immorali-
ties introduced thirty or more years ago
by the depraved whites, is puny, sickly
| and wanting III intellect, and, from all
| appearances, IN forty years there will not
be one native left in the islands, although
religion is doing all that it can TO elevate
the poor, unfortunate people"