The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-04-17
coNsTANTlNoPLE's LEpERs.


Any Civilized Nation.
| Miss Kate Marsden, the English
woman who is studying the manifesta-
tions of leprosy with the intention of
devoting her life to the care of those
afflicted with the disease, has reached
Constantinople. In writing home, says
the Chicago Post, she says she had an
idea that in this city of unused palaces
one or the other of them might have
been turned into bright hospital for
the lepers, where, tended by kind, we'll
trained nurses, they might find such
mitigation of their sufferings as skill and
gentleness could bestow; but one after
the other of these palaces were left be-
hind and she knew that idea must be
given up. Away through the crowded
streets they drove and made no halt un-
til they reached large open space out
side the city; but if she expected to
find the lepers slowed away here she
was mistaken. The guide took boat,
and after long row they landed on
cold, dreary-looking spot; here again
they took carriage and drove toward a
place which in the distance looked like
a forest of cypress trees, and yet no.
The white stones just dlstinguishable
made her think it must be inhabited;
but, as the carriage drew nearer, she
saw that they were not houses, as she
imagined, but hundreds and thousands
of graves, packed as closely as it was
possible TO be, even in Turkey, with the
tall, dark, gloomy cypress trees planted
every few yards apart. She asked the
guide why the cypress trees were
planted there so thickly; his answer
was, Because, madam, it helps to kill
the stencil from the graves"
She drove long way into the forest
of the dead and the cypress until all
view of the sea was gone and she found
herself shut in. Yet she was not alone,
for here in the very midst dwell the
poor, outcast lepers, driven here by the
Government. The guide was simply
Mortified when he discovered Miss Kate
Marsden's intention of going in among
them all; he absolutely refused to go a
step nearer.
AS she stood within the leper house
she was dumb with astonishment that
any nation, however barbarous, could
in the face of civilization subject any
portion of its people to such misera-
BILE condition. No sun sheds its health
full rays there, and the chill which
struck her as she remained within the
house gave her an idea of what the
lepers must suffer. She said she did so
long to tell them how she sympathized
with them and how gladly she would
take their burden from them; how she
hoped and prayed in her heart that no
where in the world were the poor lepers
treated as here in the paradise among
cities, Constantinople.
There is ray of light here, however,
and that is the good doctor, who is doing
every thing in his power to induce the
Sultan to provide properly for them,
and he is devoted to their cause; but in
such country and with such people he
is almost powerless. His name is Pascha
Zamhaco; he is very kind man, and
the misery of the lepers weighs heavily
upon him.
The wind came bowling through the
gloomy trees, and blew in sharp blasts
through the door, ana some of the poor
lepers standing outside leaning upon
the graves shuddered and drew closer
round their miserable bodies the rags
which helped to cover them, but which
were quite unfit to keep out the cold
even from people in health, much less
from those suffering from such disease
as leprosy. Miss Marsden says that
what she saw is really too awful to de-
scribe, but it has taught her the neces-
sity of seeing for herself the condition
of the lepers, if she is to be of the
slightest use to them in the future. As
she left them they sang ''The Lepers'
Song" = such dismal wall! but which
was truly in keeping with their condi-
ton. 1t made her shiver; indeed, her
whole being quivered with agony at the
sight of such awful depths of misery.