Omaha daily bee., 1891-10-04
FROM A COLONY OF LEPERS.
Report Of a Doctor on TIE Condition Of Vic
Tins in Louisiana.
ATRoCIoUS CRIME OF A CHINA MAN.
Frightful Punishment Visited ON n
burglar 10y nm Interior Mongo-
liam Observation-Disclosures Ex-
haustcd Lumber Regions.


CutctGo, Oct. 3~.-[Special to TuE BER. -
DIR. +. w. Mcnamara OF Now Orleans, who
is registered at the Palmer, gives II some.
what gruesomo account OF a visit which no
recently made to tho leper colony in the
Plaquemiuc district, st. Mary's parish.
The colony is situated about 100 miles
southwest of New Orleans. There were for
mcrly over 100 people there, but one by ono
they have succumbeu to tho horrible affection
until there are only twenty-five left, two Of
whom are women aud two negroes. The sight
these wretched people present to a stranger
who sees them for the first time is an awful
one. I've never conceived any monstrosity
which surpasses those seen In this colony.
Their bodies, covered with the scales which
invariably accompany the disease, their faces
palo aud emaciatcd, they wander about
the confines of tho territory assigned to them
in the hopeless, helpless, despairing way OF
lost spirits.
As If the horrible afiiction were q diaboli-
cal entity, it seems to delight in mutilating
its victims like Il cunning beast toying with
its prey. Here is n man deprived of one ear,
there another who has lost both, then a third
whose nose has been eaton away, and still
another who has lost Quo eye entirely and is
totally blind in the other, tho dead ball roll
ing abodt III the furtive way peculiar to the
blind, while the empty socket on the other
side looks angry and cavernous.
mo fate more appalling could possibly be
imagined, - said DIR. Mcnamara. Condemned
to Il life of hopeless misery, nothing is lett for
these poor creatures but to await with what
patience they can command the final sum
mons. 1t is said that In most leper colonies
the inhabitants, out Of sheer desperation,
give themselves up TO debauchery. but | do
not think that is tho case here; at least I
heard of nothing of the kind during my visit
there and | took particular pains to get all
the facts about the place that were obtain
abie.n
Chinese Burglar.
A most extraordinary story OF Chinese bar
barlty is that related ut tho Grand Pacific
by w. Jameson Blake, an English
merchant doing business in Pekin. The
affair occurred about three months ago
but as the means of ~intelli-
gence in the Celestial empire are very prim-
tive, has only recently reached the capital.
"A prominent tea merchant in one OF the
small towns in the interior of the kingdom,
one night discovered a burglar in his dwell
ling, and after a lively chase, succeeded ia
running him down With the assistance OK
his son he dragged the culprit back to the
| scene of his crime, and having no rope with
which to make him fast until morning, cut
open the poor Wretches abdomen, bound his
hands together with his own entralls, and
then fastened bis feet to the floor with heavy
weights When morning came the burglar
| was dead. Upon being asked why he had
committed such an atrocity, when by making
a little effort he could easily have procured a
rope, the merchant replied stolidly that the
burglar had come to steal his property and
he didn't propose to DO at even the expense
of oven a piece of rope on his account.
"As the Chinese law is very severe on bur-
glars said Mr.. Jameson, "making it IA car
ital otfense, nothing probably will be done
with the merchant. Indeed tho government
PROBABLY congratulates itself on being saved
the expense of a legal process by the mer-
chants promptness and ingenuity"
Michigan Lumbc Being Worked Out.
I. M, Weston, a prominent capitalist
OF Detroit, said at the Richelieu
that the timber in certain portions of Michi-
igan is getting so thoroughly cleaned out that
there is very little left for the people who de-
pended on timber culture for a livelihood.
'Allthe best and oven inferior grades OF
trees are cut down and nothing Is left but
stumps ana small underground. Places
which were once tiourishing towns are now
deserted and depopulated, half the houses
empty and the other half wearing an air OF
get away has either gone into some other
business or moved to other parts of the state
where timber Is still plenty. The land
in these regions is sandy and
unproductive and besides is so thickly
covered with stumps that it would take an
immense amount of labor TO prepare 1T for
any sort of agricultural use, and these
people have neither the means nor the ex-
perlence necessary to farm. In the course
Of time this land will grow up in scrub oaks,
aud will then be valuable again, but ut pres
ent the outlook for the people who live in it
is anything but cheerful
Poor Io is willy.
"Pcople who regard tho people OF southern
Kansas rs outlaws ana desDeradoes because
they set tire to the grass in the Cherokee
strip, are as a rule, not posted as to the real sit
uatIon down there, nSaid j. h. Hooper OF Hor
ton, KaS, while at tho Leland hotol yesterday.
THE fact is, that they would be law abiding
citizens If they were not subject to the great
est temptation. Many suppose, no doubt,
from reading the dispatches sent out from
that country that it is the old story of the
white mans disregard of Indian rights. The
truth of the matter is that it is not the IndiaI
who is injured. He is practically "working
on commission" 1t is the cattle baron who
suffers. Debarred from the strip by the run
| ing of the government these big cattle own
ers are compelled TO resort to subterfuges to
accomplish their purposes and they use the
CherokecS as straw men. AS the
Indians are not allowed to rent the land to
| any one, the cattlemen ostensibly sell their
cattle to them at the beginning OF the graz
ing season, but in realty thoy are still their
property. They employ the cowboys who
look after them and do everything that an
owner would do. Tho Indians are not troub-
led with the cattle in any way. All they are
required TO do is to assert a pretended owner
ship whenever necessary TO eyade the law,
and at the end of the season turn the cattle
| over to whom they really belong and get
their pay. The settlers In that region know
this and act accordingly"
DR.. Birney cures catarrh. Bee bldg.
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