Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-20
KALAwAo LEPER SETTLEMENT, !
 July IT. 1888. {

Yours, l.. l.. CoNRARDY.
 ''Na ike a'u kon leta ia Rev. Father Con.. rardy me ka mahalo na mauao oloko. Ke haavi SC nei au ai oe k'ou aloha.
 J. DAMIEN, Catholic priest
 GThe above kindly salutation is in the trembling handwriting of Father Damien, whose hand is even now partially crippled by the deadly plague of 1eprosy that is upon him.-G.
 July 19, 1888.
 DEAR SRI send you this poor letter written with many interruptions, calls from the boys and others. I will only add that was ordained in June, '67. Although then my desire was to become missionary, was put in charge of @ parish in Belgium as as- sistant priest. In Fl was allowed to 20 to the foreign mission seminary in Paris, France; then sent to India, although I rather wished to go to Japan or China, as the cli- mate of those countries suited me better. for I dreaded the heat of India. In "A I was, my health failing very fast, obliged, with my superior's consent, to leave India, at least for time, and was sent to America for the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. In '75, having heard of Father Damien and of the lepers of Molokai, offered myself to assist him. In 80 was accepted, but could not leave my poor Indians, especially those of the Umatilla reservation in eastern Oregon. Finally last January I obtained from Ab
 
 kai. Father Damien has (had) just written to me, 'I dare to cry to you from the bot tom of my heart come to my assistance, to help me and replace me-" At once I gave up my intention of trip to Europe, and May the 3d left San Francisco; the 18th l landed in Honolulu and the 10th I started fot Molokai, where I am, thanks be to Godi Since I was boy twelve years old l prayed for the grace of martyrdom, but seeing no prospect for laying my life for Christ's sake, I prayed every day for getting the worst place on earth. For that 1 refused last De- cember parish in South America near Bue. nos Ayrss, where was offered all kinds of advantages and comforts, with also fifteen hundred dollars yearly for my support, but worth more than the temporal comforts. Pray for me. Yours devoted in Christ,
 L. l. CoNRARDY.
 No apology is needed nor offered for giv- ing this letter just as it was written, and but little can be added by way of explans- tion. The very few who have visited that home of misery and despair, and looked on what was once a fair form and face, now made repulsive and hideous beyond descrip- ton by the disease whose name carries with it an undefRable dread, will not forget the terrible picture. For those who have never seen a 1eper, either in the early stages when hoping against hope, the poor victim vainly tries to hide the plague spot that refuses to yield to any known medical treatment, and that laughs as well at the surgeons knife as at the medicine mans charms, incantations and powders whether vegetable or mineral, or in the last stages, which frequently de- stroy all semblance of the "human face di- vine," and makes the poor subject choose strangling rather than life, all written de- scriptions can never be satisfactory. But for the reassurance of those who have friends residing in this Paradise of the Pacific" or may wish to visit the little island kingdom that can show the largest active volcanic era ter and the most effective political revolu- tien in the world, both of which may be ex- plored with perfect safety to life and limb, it may be said with exact truth that the oc- casional transient isitor or the permanent resident who exercises the most common sense care, ''is in no more danger of con- tracting the leprosy than of becoming Nor mon."
 To segregate and properly care for the lep- CTS, most of them natives, has been one of the most difficult tasks of the Hawaiian gov ernment for quarter of century, and 1t is small wonder that the kings aEd the native officials have not found it an easy task to break up the pleasant homes which only 8 single generation of faithful teaching by both Catholic and Protestant missions had just begun to establish amongst people who sixty years ago were in gross darkness. Husbands and wives must be parted by that which is worse than death, little children taken from parents, the educated man taken from his profession (and the Hawaiian takes to the study and practice of law as naturally as ducks to water) and even the native pas tor has been taken from his church.. It has been no easy task to procure suitable nurses to care for the eight hundred or more lepers on Molokai or in the hospital near Honolulu, ooto ola rIu AaanaS rily cared for. Some years since Father Leonora was sent to this country to plead the cause of the poor lepers in various con vents, but it was not till he visited the t'Sis- ters of St. Francis" in Syracuse, N. r., inst a few devoted brave souls offered themselves willingly for that service of living death where Father Damien had so heroically lead the way some years before. It is not in the nature of leprosy to make the sufferer more patient or con6ding in the physician, who is so helpless in their midst and whose chief duty is to mitigate some of their sufferings, but never to effect a cure.
 The origin of the disease in Hawaii is still matter of doubt. The native Hawaiian has always known it as the "mai pake," or Chinese sickness, though 1t has never been demonstrated that the "Hesthen Chinee'' brought it there, or that his race are any more susceptible to the disease than any oth- CT alien race which has mingled with the na- tives and adopted to the same extent their mode and habits of life. Until agnosticism has begun to show us more excellent way and richer fruits, our hearts will go out in thanksgiving and prayer to God in behalf of this noble band of brave men and women, few in number but mighty in the spirit of their divine master, Jesus Christ, who have "presented themselves living sacrifice on the altar, not of unenlightened and unbe- heving humanity, but on the altar of faith in 8 living Christ, whose they are, whom they serve in ministering to the despised and outcasts in his name and for his sake. The late screed against the present methods and results of missionary work by well fed and we'll paid ecclesiastic of the Church of Eng land seems to have fallen flat upon the Christian churches. They have only to point him to the two Taylors, one in the China inland mission, the other in Africa, whose work of faith is an inspiration fol thousands in this and other Christian lands to offer themselves willingly to Q work which, in spite of lying s'dyvoles" among infidel writers or dympeptic spooks raised by lazy critics in nominally Christian establish. ments, is surely working out the problem ol the worlds regeneration. 6.
 P. S.-It may interest the friends of oul New Haven physician and his wife, wh, have lately gone to the island of Maui t