The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-01-04
Lepresy In Louisiana.

Mr.. Ely and the priest lodged In the
house of one of the petits hdbitants.
In the evening, when we were alone,
the subject of leprosy came up.
sWe hear at the North" said Mr..
Ely, vague accounts OF the Terre des
Lepreux, which is said to bo some
where in Louisiana. What truth is
there in them ?"
"They are no doubt greatly exagger-
ated," said Father Nedaud. "A spuri-
GUS leprosy, elephantiasis, was SO COM
mon among the negroes under the
Spanish domination that Governor
Miro founded hospital for lepers near
New Orleans, on the Bayou st. John.
1t has been gone these many years, and
Lepers' Land is now built up with
pretty houses. 1t was in the suburb
IRENE"
"The disease is extinct, then?"
There were some cases of genuine
Asiatic leprosy near Abbeville, in this
parish, about twenty years ago. An
old creole lady was the first. Her
father doubtless brought the terrible
faint in his blood from France. When
the white scales appeared in her face
her husband and family fed from her.
There was a young girl, daughter OF
M'sieu Dubois, who went to her and
nursed her alone during the three years
in which she fought with death. An
other of Gods servants, m'sieu! -Four
of this old woman's children, who de-
serted her, became lepers. The young
girl who had nursed her, after she died
married a. young te1mier, and lived
happily in her little cabin with her hus-
band and pretty baby. But one day
shining white spot appeared on her
forehead. That was the end"
"She died?"
"M'sieu, after four years. There is
no cure. 1t surely does not matter to
her now by what road God called her
to Him. There have been since then
no lepers in this parish except in these
tainted families. The real Terre des
Lepreux in Louisiana is now on the
lower Lafourche, below Harang's Ca
nal. The bayou there is turbid and
foul; it flows through malarious swamps
lower than itself. The creole planters
there are honest and temperate folk,
but they are wretchedly poor They
raise only rice, and live on it and fish.
The wet rice fields come up to the very
doors of their cabins. The leprosy which
certain families among them have in
herited is developed by these condi-
tons. Five years ago Professor Joseph
Jones, President of the State Board of
Health, went himself with his son to
explore the cypress swamps and la
goons Of the lower Lafourche. Msieu,
1T is the region of the shadow of death.
He found many poor lepers hiding
there. They were as dead men who
walk and talk. They could handle
burning Goals; they felt no longer cold
nor heat nor pain. Their bodies were
as corpses. One man lived alone in
hut, matched with palmettoes, which
he had built for himself, eating only
the rice which he had planted. No man
nor woman had come near him for
years. The Terre DIES Lepreux extends
as far as Cheniere Caminada, where the
bayou empties into the Gulf"
Mr. Ely remained silent, though tor
rent of angry queries rushed to his lips.
Why was nothing done to mitigate the
horrors of such d life-in-death? How
could this priest, man of God, so
calmly discuss these poor accursed
creatures from his safe, comfortable
point of vantage, Jogging on his easy
going mare from one farm to another?
He babe him presently a rather curt
good night, and went to the loft where
he was to sleep. When he came down
in the morning, Pere Nedaud had
gone.
@Msieu, said his smiling host, de
mere hat le' Won bOn-matin " waving
his hand to the black figure passing
southwark far across the prairie.
"Where is his charge now?"
"M'sieu-" Gaspard paused mo-
ment. "In hell, l think. 1t is near
Cheniere Caminada, in la Terre des
Lepreux."
AZ. Ely walked awsy from him, and
paced up aad down the levee for a long
time.
God forgive mel" he muttered to
himself.-Rebecca Harding Davis, IN
Harper's Magazine.