The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1890-06-07

cliffs at Kalawa0--you, the elect wht
would not, were the last man on eartt
to collect and propagate gossip on the
volunteer who would and did.
| think see you-for try to see yor
in the flesh as write these sentences
I think see you leap at the word pig
stye, a hyperbolical expression at tht
best. ''He had no hand in the reforms, ;
he was "a coarse, dirty man.; these
were your own words, and you may
think it possible that I am come to sup
port you with fresh evidence. In q
sense, it is even so. Damien has been
too much depicted with conventions
halo and conventional features; sc
drawn bv men who, perhaps. had not
the eye to remark or the pen to express
the 1ndividual; or who, perhaps. were
| only blinded and silenced by generous
admiration. such as I partly envy for
| myself-such as y1 U, if your soul were
enlightened, would envy on your bend
ed knees. It is the least defect OF such
method of portraiture that it makes
the path easy for the DEVILS advocate,
and leaves for the misuse Of the SLAM
derer considerable field of truth, For
the truth that is suppressed by friends
is the readiest weapon of the enemy.
The world, in your despite. may, per
haps, owe you something, if your letter
be the means of substituting once for
all a wax abstraction. For. if that
world at all remembered you on the day
when
DAMIEN OF MoLoKAI SHALL BE NAMED
SAINT,
it will be in virtue of one work-your
letter to the Rev. H. 8. Gage.
You may ask on what authority l
speak. 1t was my inclement destiny to
become acquainted, not with Damien.
but with DR.. Hyde. When I visited the
lazaretto Damien was already in his
resting grave. but: such information
as T have gathered on the spot in
conversation with those who knew him
we'll and long; some, indeed, who re-
vered his mem ory, but others who had
SPARED and wrangled with him. who
beheld him with no halo. who perhaps
regarded him with small respecty and
through whose unprepared and scarcely
partial communications the plain, hui
man features of the man shone On me
convincinglv. These gave me what
knowledge possess, and I learned it in
that scene where it could be most COM
pletely and sensitively understood
Kalawao. which you have never visited,
about which you have never so much as
endeavored to inform yourself; for,
brief as your letter is, you have found
the means to stumble into that con-
fession. ''Less than one-half Of the
island" you say, '*is devoted to the
lepers." Molokai--''Mo ahina,"
the gray" lofty and most desolate
island-along all its northern side
plunges front of precipico into a sea
Of unusual profunditY. This range of
cliff is from east to vest, the true end
and frontier of the island. Onlv in one
spot there projects into the ocean q
certain triangular and rugged: down.
grassy, stony, windy and rising in the
midst into hill with dead crater, the
whole bearing to the cliff that over
hangs it somewhat the same relation as
bracket to wall. With this hint
you will now be able to pick out the
leper station on map; you will be able
to judge how much Of M0lokai Is. thus
cut Oft between the serf aud preclpice.
whether less than half or less than q
quarter, or fifth, or tenth-Or, say, a
twentieth; and the next time YOU burst
into print you will be in position to
share with us the issue Of your calcula-
tiOns.
I imagine you to be one Of those per
sons who talk with cheerfullness Of
that place which oxen and walruses
could not drag you to behold. You,
who do not even know it's situation on
the map. probably denounco sensational
descriptions, stretching the while your
limbs in your pleasant parlor on Bore
tania street. When I was pulled ashore
there one early morning, there sat with
me in the boat two sisters, bidding
farewell lin humble imitation Of DAM
ien) to the lights and joys Of human
life. One of these wept silently; I
could not withhold myself from joining
her. Had you been there, it is my be~
lief that nature would have trlumphed
even in you; and as the boat drew but
a little nearer. and you beheld the stairs
crowded with abomlnabls determinations
OF our common manhood, and saw
yourself landing in the midst Of such q
population as only now and then sur
rounds us in the horror of a nightmare
what a haggard eye you would have
rolled over your reluctant shoulder
toward the house on Beretania street,!
Had you gone on; had you found every
fourth place a blot upon the landscape;
had you visited the hospital and seen