The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-06-29
LEPERS OF MOLOKAI,
THE SETTLEMENT AS SEEN BY An
AMERICAN PHYSICIAN.

IN Ahat Rcbtatuto Lana.
DR.. Leonard Freeman. a prominent ply
sician OF Cincinnati, has returned from "a
hur Of the Sandwich Islands, where after
much trouble he secured the privilege Of
visiting the celebrated leper colony on the
island Of Nolokai. OF the island he saws.
1t contains about 5000 acres. 1t is sur
rounded on three sides by the Pacific ocean,
and guarded on the fourth by tremendous
preciplce, which cuts 1t off from the rest of
the world like gloomy wall There are
about | 100 lepers In the colony, and 1t is
true Of this spot II it Is OF any other that
'.Ye who enter here leave hope beyond -
Even the ground itself looks as il It had
leprosy. with its volcanic debris sticking
through the thin SOIL
We went Mt once to the little Methodist
church, made Of boards and painted white,
where the Rev. Mr.. Emerson, whom had
met on the steamer, was to deliver ser
mon The church was as plain as church
could be, with wooden benches and some
Ipitifully small panes of stained glass in.
serted above the windows, In order to i'm
part religious air to at least a portion of
the light which entered. Just outside the
open door could see the white surf pound.
ing against the black rocks with rom
that sometimes threatened to drown the
voice of the preacher
This was one of the strangest congrega-
tions In the whole world-some without
fingers, some with their stumps of hands
and feet done up In rags. There was not
one who did not In some way show the
stamp OF the loathsome malady.
They were all dark skinned natives ex.
cept one white man who sat in front seat,
the picture of hopeless detection Mr.. En-.
erson spoke earnestly in the Kanaka Ian.
guage, and his audience listened eagerly
After he had finished, he requested me to
address the congregation, and l preached
my first and perhaps last sermon. One OF
the lepers. with an obvious paucity of fin
gers, arose and thanked me. Among other
things, he said he hoped would live long
and never have leprosy''-as though lep.
rosy to him involved every evil in the
world, and If escaped it l could not fail to
be happy. go
After the sermon we got some horses and
rode about the settlements. The lepers live
in white frame houses about the size of an
ordinary room and divided into several
apartments. They do not require much fur
niture. because they prefer squatting on ;,
floor to sitting in a chair They have
horses, cats, dogs and other domestic ami
mails, and some of them cultivate small
gardens. When Kannka gets leprosy,
he regards it as dispensation of Provi-
dence, burys his hopes and ambitions and
goes to Molokai to die. To be sure, the dis.
ease is only feebly contagious, but conta-
gious it is, and the slovenly, unhealthy
lives led by many natives are conducive to
its spread.
Huddled together in small damp huts,
existing on insufficient and improper food,
Il Il
dish, smoking the same pipe, it is no Won
der the Hawaiians have been decimated by
leprosy and afflicted with other terrible
diseases. One may live with lepers for
many years, however, without contracting
leprosy 1t is said that a native woman OF
Honolulu sent three husbands to Molokai
with the disease before she developed il
herself. There are several other churches
in the colony besides the Methodist, includ-
ing a Catholic church and a Mormon church.
| met on the island n gentleman named
Button, who had been an officer in the
United States army and had lived for a
time In Cincinnati. He was formerly
wealthy and stood high in the social world.
Five or six years ago he was converted to
the Catholic faith, disposed of his fortune,
gave up his social position and went to Mo
lokai to devote the remainder of his life to
the lepers. l found him good looking and
extremely intelligent man, about 45 years
of age, with black hair and beard and a
pleasing address. He lived in distorted,
3-roomed cottage, surrounded 10y high
stone wall.
Every morning this good Samaritan puts
on an old blue blouse and pair of overalls
and goes down to what he calls his work
shop" n small frame house with a veranda,
around which are arranged a number OF
benches and some dishpans filed with
warm water Miserable, decrepit lepers
come hobbling in until the benches are
filled and standing room Is at premium
Mr. button, with true religious courage
and sympathy, bathes the sores In the pans
of water and applies fresh salve and band.
ages. A Cincinnati lady hns presented
him with large music box, and while he
is attending to these poor people this music
box plays waltzes by Strauss-a genuine
piece of sarcasm Mr.. button is nobly car
rying out the work inaugurated by Father
Damien, who lived some l6 years among
the lepers and finally died martyr to the
disease, the horror of which he had endeav.
ored so long to mitigate.
remained in the leper colony two nights
and nearly two days and was just as glad
to get away from the place as was to get
into it. ! never before realized how dreary
a landscape could be in spite of beautiful
scenery and perfect climate if suffering hu-
manity formed the background. Although
strictly speaking the people do not suffer
much, characteristic of the disease is the
early destruction OF sensation, SO that fin.
ger or even u leg might be hacked off with.
out much discomfort. They never commit
suicide. 1t would be easy to climb the
precipice that guards their prison and iump
off, but they do not do it. The truth is,
they seem comparatively resigned and
happy. There are SO many Of them that
they do not lack society and the worst
cases appear to mingle freely with those in
the earliest stages
The sisters were Just opening some
Christmas boxes, alled with large, colored
rubber balls, dolls and presents of various
kinds, and thought to myself If the peo.
pie in the outside world knew how much
things were needed on Molokai, there
would be not only few pitiful little boxes
to open, but whole steamer loads of them.
1t was with feeling of relief that took
my macintosh under my arm babe farewell
to the kind hearted doctor and climbed the
winding trail up the pail. | stood on the
top and took n Inst view Of the leper colony
There was the same little tongue of land far
below, green with moist grass and fringel
with lines of snowy breakers, rolling against
black, volcanic rocks. There was the same
multitude of cottages, shining white in the
clouds But the beauty of the spot, its
sunlight, the same blue sky and heecy
watering place appearance, was gone. /
knew what dreary, fostering ulcer of a
hole it really was, and felt a deep love and
sympathy for the sisters OF charity and the
fathers and for Mr.. Dutton aud the good
doctor who were deyoting their lives aud
energies to the lepers in order that their
living deaths might be a little less hard to
Telegraph
Eninrging n Morocco Plant.
The factory OF the Ford Morocco
Company at Silverbro OH VIII close on
Saturday Tor the purpose of making a
number OF extensive In provements.
Workmen to-day were engaged In
tearing ont the putting out room"