The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-02-04
Testimony Of a Visitor to the
Molokai Leper Settlement
Home and Comforts Provided for the
Sick Folk.

lnOS5 WHO KNOW VIC NolOhdl
Leper Settlement only from hearsay
are like me, before | went there
Now that l have seen myself, and
not through others eyes, 1 have,
think, a right to speak about it.
And I'd say that l am very glad to
have seen what | have seen; and
very happy, too, to have passed
few days in the Settlement.
Owing to the kindness of Mr..
Meyer of Kalae, | reached the top
of the pail of Kalaupapa, on the day
l had been landed at Kaunakakai,
Tuesday, January 10th, between 8
and 10 a. IN. And there / began the
descent of the pail, so much talked
about, led by an old native, come up
from Kalaupapa, both of us on foot.
1t took us about half an hour to go
down the pail, where Superintendent
Ambrose Hutchinson had sent his
horse, to help me in reaching the
Catholic Missions premises, distant
a fraction of mile from below the |
pail. But 1 had already had the
agreeable opportunity of contem-
plating, from the side OF the pail,
the Settlement of Kalaupapa, which
looks like nice little town. And it
is really very interesting place.
spent nearly the whole week at
the Molokai Leper Settlement, SO
had time to go all around, from Ka
laupapa to Kalawao, and vice versa,
every day.
The best of the public establish
ments there is certainly the homo
kept by the Franciscan Sisters, and
wherein they have, under their con-
troll and their maternal charge,
about 70 inmates, most of them girls.
All those girls and women, as 1 have
seen, and inquired myself of them,
are very happy, and none of them
would like to go out of the home.
The homes of Molokai (Kalaupapa
and Kalawao) are a real blessing for
those who have the good sense of
entering them-a material and spiri-
tual blessing;-a material blessing,
for they are so we'll lodged, fed,
clothed, and cared for when they
get sick; spiritual blessing, too, for
they learn there that they have a
soul to care for, and that they have
to suffer with patience their segre-
cation from the rest of the commun-
ity. There, also, they find in the
good Sisters those of whom they
have been deprived, on account Of
the disease with which they are af-
fected, i. O., they have in them kind
mothers, charitable friends, who
treat them better than they would
be at home.
1 have seen several times tho in
mates of the Kalaupapa home. /
spoke with them. inquired Of them
several times whether they were con-
tent, happy, willing to remain there,
and all were for the affirmative.
Thanks, then, to the kind gentleman
who gave the first sum of money to
start the homes; thanks to the Ha-
waiian Government which did Sc
largely and so literally concur with
that kind act of benevolence. May
the Kalawao home be put in short
. time on the same footing for boys
and men.
Kalaupapa is really pretty, com
Portable place, as comfortable as
may be for the poor people who
r have to pass the balance of theil
, lives, isolated from their relatives
and friends. A good and pure all
makes the place healthy, and pre-
3 vents injury from any of those bat
} smells which leprosy causes. People
r there as we'll as Kalawao, are pro
l vided with what they might need
and as regards the body, they cal
hardly complain. And we could cal
! them even happy. But when {
I Christian may come to consider thu
! spiritual side, thinking that thos
II poor people have souls like other
who are not lepers-or, otherwise t.
say, when men, who look to ate
y life, reflect on some other kind o
: leprosy, which affects great man.
u of those poor sufferers, then the
u cannot help plying them, and wish
VI ing them to be better cared for il
this respect. / mean here those VIII
live outside of the homes, free froI
Il the control of the charitable Sisters
20 and the good Fathers, living as the
r. II please and unfortunately as if the
= had no soul to save. And why d
- they live SO?
1t is because they have been sepal
7 ated from those with whom the
"a had been united by the sacred bono
~ of marriage, and this is great evi
- to which no remedy can be foun'
h but in the allowing the married pee
- pie to go to live together on Mol'
~ kai, leaving their children, if an
they have, in the children's home
al in charge of the Sisters.
n. And why more? Because they a
If too easily allowed to live togethe
al men and women, young men al
i. young girls, as if they were marie
u though they are not. To this 9th
y evil Is remedy in compelling all Il
- unmarried females to remain in II
~ females home, until they got du
i'll married; and in not allowing poop
adj to live all mixed up, but rather 81
". ing house or rooms to each famiI
m and also in not letting the residen
lie of the place take with them any
L. the lepers landed at Kalaupal
women, girls and boys, whom tn
claim as il they were their parer
-st or relatives, though they are not.
10 And also again in not letting "
ri men and men live together unl'
H. they show plainly the right tn
81 have to he together; /. o., that Tn
-. .l,,l,, All I.rn ,tu an