The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-09-10
LEPERs ON HORSEBACK.

Three Hundred of Them at Molokai Greel
Legislative visitors. @
Three hundred lepers ON horseback ought
to be quite novel spectacle, says special
to the San Francisco Examiner. A caval
cade of about that number were down al
the landing on Molokai, when the passen-
gers from the little steamer Hawaii reached
there on July q. There are l, 800 lepers and
760 horses in the settlement, 90 naturally al
most every family has horse.
The visit of the legislative committee il
to the lepers the event Of two years, 80 OF
course. though it had been postponed and
postponed, they knew all about the time OF
arrival, and there they were, jumping their
horses and gallivanting about like lot of
Mexican vaqueros.
of July ~ at the anchorage off Molokai.
The legislative committee WAS composed of
over twenty members, mostly natives. There
has been legislative rumpus ever since the
party's return, an aggressive minority
charging the majority of the committee with
willfully deceiving them as to the time of
the leaving Of the steamer. The minority
missed possibly, a good time on the steamer,
but they escaped some very narrowing
scenes as we'll.
The medical fraternity of Honolulu &C
companied the party in good force. Two
surgeons from the Charleston and one
from the British ship Acron also went.
They were received by the resident agent
of the government, Mr.. Evans. and by an
agent imore particularly of the Honolulu
board of health, Mr.. Meyer, who lives in
the part of Molokai not inhabited by the
lepers. Saddle horses, the property of the
lepers, were in waiting and were used by
the visitors in a tour of inspection through
the boys school and the girls school at OPP
hospitals for those who can no longer walk,
and to other important points. or, as the
complaining minority say. wherever the
agent chose to take them and nowhere else.
1t would be strange if among the crowd
of hideous leonine faces there were not oc-
itors; and indeed there were. One legis-
lator struggled manfully to keep back the
tears as he Unexpectedly met and shook by
the hand an old friend, long since supposed
to be dead. And this was the genial gen.
tleman, the richest man probably in the
legislature, Noble Marsden, who, ever
thoughtful, had come on board the Hawaii
at Honolulu few hours before with a
couple of kegs of beer fresh from the ice, to
promote the good cheer of the party.
Some of the lepers were physically exam
ined at their own request and found to be
lepers still. One man 80 years old has
been leper fifty years. He may yet die of
old age.
AS the party was leaving the resident
priest turned over to them a couple of we'll
grown, non-leprous children, henceforth to
be separated from their leprous mother,
who remains behind. The scene at the
parting was heartrending. These children
will, of course, be kept under surveillance
sufficiently long to ALLOW for the develop
of any latent disease. It is said that there
are really thirty or forty on-leprous child
rem, who still need the care of a mother, in
the settlement.
Opportunities were given the lepers to
state their grievances in big pow vows.
Each is allowed regular ration of food
and $40 annually for clothes, but they are
just like lot of spoiled children. Some
want more poi, the native food made from
the tare root; some more meat or more
clothes. The legislature has just appropri-
ated 1924 900 for the support of the lepers
for the next two years.
The agitator and legislator, r. w. Will
COX, made an address IN the afternoon to
the lepers. It was a surprise to all present.
He counseled moderation, advised them to
ask for what they really wanted, and talked
SO we'll and wisely that newspapers of both
parties have given him nothing but praise
ever since.