Gloucester County Democrat., 1894-08-16
THE ISLE OF LEPERS.
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS OF HAWAips COL
ONY OF LIVING DEATH.

He Contrasts the Sadness and the Cheerful
ness of Molokai-U -Unrecognized Heroes
Who supplemented Father Damien's No
BILE Work There.
Copyright Louis Klopsch, l894.l
MIDocEAN, Near Tasmania, June 23.
The most Of the worlds heroes and
heroines die unrecognized. They will
have to wait until the roll is called on
the other side of the Dead sea- have
seen no celebration of the courage and
fidelity of Rev. S. Waiwaiole, who died
two years ago in the leper settlement of
the Sandwich Islands, nor Of the Rev.
NJ. Pablo, who, himself struck with
leprosy, goes right on with his evangel-
ical labors, except when especial fever Of
his disease prostrates him, and will con-
tinue his work of love until he has
neither foot to walk nor tongue to speak
because of the dreadful disintegration
But once in awhile there are circum-
stances which thrill the world with the
same story like that of the brilliant
Belgian Catholic priest, Joseph Damien,
who, after q weeks consideration of
whether he had better do SO, accepted
the appointment as missionary to Mo-
lokai, the isle of lepers, for l6 years
administering to the leprous and then
dying of the leprosy. When told by his
physician that he had the fell taint up
on him, he showed no alarm nor even
agitation, but said: "As expected.
am willing to die for those 1 came to
save. The king knighted him, and a
memorial slab designates his resting
place, but Professionalism has joined
Catholicism in the beatitication of this
self sacrificing ecclesiastic.
A Tribute to Damien.
That moral hero completely trans
formed the isle of lepers. 1t was before
his work began pen of denominations.
No law. No decency. All the tigers OF
passion were let loose. Drunkenness
and blasphemy and libertinism and
cruelty dominated. The moral disease
eclipsed the physical. But Damien
dawned upon the darkness He helped
them build cottages. He medicated
their physical distresses. The plague
which he could not arrest he alleviated
He settled the controversies Of the peo-
pie He prepared the dead for burial
and digged for them Christian graves
and pronounced upon them benedic-
tion. He launched Christian civiliza-
tion upon the wretchedness. He gave
them the gospel of good cheer. He told
the poor victims concerning the land Of
eternal health, where the inhabitant
never says, Il am sick, and the swol-
len faces took ON the look of hope, and
the CLASSY eyes saw coming relief, and
the footless, and the limbless, and the
fingerless looked forward to a place
where they might walk with the King
robed in white and Everlasting songs
upon their heads.
Good and Christlike Joseph DamienI
Let all religions honor his memory. Let
poetry and canvas and sculpture tell the
story of this man who lived and died
for others and from century to century
keep him in bright remembrance long
after the last leper of all the earth shall
have felt through all his recovering and
revitalized nature the voice of the Son
of God saying: 81 will Be thou clean. :"
The Regime of MoIokai.
The eternal pathos of Molokai has at
tracted the attention OF all nations be-
cause it Is a lepef colony. 1t is small
island, but it contains continent Of
woe. 1t was established in mercy. Lep-
rosy was so rapidly advancing in the
Sandwich Islands that the entire popu-
lation was imperiled To control and
extirpate the ghastly evil it was neces-
sary to put it by itself on an island not
easily accessible. But those banished
there are made as comfortable as possi-
BILE. In one year this leper settlement
cost the Hawaiian government 500, 900.
Every week each patient is allowed four
pounds of salmon, nine pounds of rice,
one pound of sugar, or, if preferred,
from five to six pounds Of beef, and 81
pounds of "paiai, :" which is a near ap-
proach to bread. Leprosy reigns there
The victims have bands of music, all
the players lepers. They have churches
all the worshipers lepers. They have
carriages, all the drivers and occupants
lepers. They have hospitals, all the
nurses and patients lepers They have
drama, and all the actors lepers. They
have schools all the teachers and schol-
ars lepers. Marriages are performed,
and the contracting parties are lepers.
Children are born there, and they are
mostly lepers. Everything that pustule
and scarification and Inflammation and
gangrene and disfguration can do il
done here. Science, which has success
fully fought back most of the worlds
disorders, has here closed its pharmacy,
put back into the case its surgical in
struments and come down to the gov
ernment boat and retreated from this
island of death Thank God, this do
minion of death is being broken, and he
will have to dismount this sepulchral
thronel Segregation of the victims will
complete the overthrow of the foul
plague, and in these islands leper will
be as rare as in America, where most Of
the people never saw leper.
Cheerful, Though Doomed.
What most strikes visitor at Molo-
kai is the placidity and cheerfulness Of
the victimized. One would think they
could never smile. never sing, never get
out from under sense Of despair. But
whatsoever agonies may fill the hearts
Of these lepers they appear to the be-
holder as i'll a resignation that amounts
to good cheer. They seem among the
happiest people on earth. Many Of them
on horseback come galloping down the
road. Songs roll over the fated village
by day and night. Hawaiian nature ad-
justs itself to circumstances. We have
often seen people who through pulmo-
nary or Bright's disease were certain Of
early demise. and yet mirth bubbling
and resonant The fact is we must all
die. and yet we manage to keep cheer
full, and why not those struck by leprous
fatality have sunshine in their coun
tenance and talk?
The mercy of the Hawaiians has made
this colony of doomed inhabitants more
tolerable than in most lands. / have
seen in the suburbs of Jerusalem and
Damascus scores of those cast out for this
disease and inhabiting caverns and
tombs-beaten of the elements, living
on the coin which passersby may fling
to them, while day by day they are rot
ting alive. Let us thank God that those
smitten with incurable sores in the
Sandwich Islands have homes and