The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-12
The ISLAND OF LEPERS.
DR.. Talmage Tells Of The Sadness Of
MOlOkai.

Lepers -TaImage's Around the World
Letters.
Copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1884,
Mid-Ocean. near Tasmania, June 23.-
The most of the worlds heroes ard
heroines die unrecogni1ed 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 Sand
witch Islands, nor of the Rev M. Pablo,
who himself struck with leprosy, goes
right on with his evangelical labors ex-
cept when especial fever of his disease
prostrates him, and will continue his
work Of love until he has neither foot to
walk nor tongue to speak, be-
cause of the dreadful disintegration But
once in awhile there are circumstances
which thrill the world with the same
story like that of the brilliant Belgian
Catholic priest, Joseph Damien, who,
after weeks consideration of whether
he bad better do so, accepted the appoint
ment as missionary to Alolokai the Isle
of Lepers, for sixteen years administer
ing to the leprous and then diving of the
leprosy When told by his physician that
he had the fell faint upon him he showed
no alarm or even agitation, but said, las
| expected, / am willing to die for those
came TO save" The king knighted him.
and memorial slab desiguates his rest
ing place, but Professionalism has Joined
Catholicism in the Qualification of this
self sacrificing ecClesiasuc.
A TRIBUTE TO DAMIEN.
That moral hero completely trans
formed the Isle of Lepers IT was before
his work began pen OF denominations. No
law.INo decency. All the tigers of passion
were let loose. Drunkenness and bias
phemy and libertinism and cruelty domi-
mated. The moral disease eClipsed the
physical. Bue Damien dawned upon the
darkness He helped them build cottages.
He fHedieatea their ffysicaf distrgsses.
The plague which he could not arrest he
alleyiat ed. He settled the controversies
Of the people. He prepared the dead for
burial, and digged for them Christian
graves, and pronounced upon them a ben
ediction. He launched a Christian civil
alton upon the wretchedness. He gave
them the gospel of good cheer
lie told the poor victims concerning
the land of eternal health,
where the inhabitant never SAYS
Il am sick" and the swollen faces took
on the look of hope and the CLASSY eyes
saw coming relief, and the footless and
the limb and the fingerless looked
forward TO place where they might
walk with the king robed in white, and
everlasting songs upon their heads
Good and Christlike Joseph Damien
Let all the religions honor his memory.
Let poetry and canvas and sculpture tell
the story OF this man who lived and died
Tor others, and from century to century
TAn Ia in hui .l,N
after the last leper of all the earth shall
have felt through ali his recovering and
revltalized nature the voice of the son of
God saying, Il will! Be thou clean"
THE REGIME OF MoLoKAI.
The eternal pathos of Molokai has at
tracted the attention of all nations, be-
cause 1t is a leper colony. 1t is a small
Island, but it contains a continent of
woe 1t was established in mercy.
Leprosy was so rapidly advancing in the
Sandwich Islands that the entire popu-
latlon was imperiled, To control and
extirpate the CHASTITY 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 posi-
bic. In one year this leper settlement
cost the Hawaiian government $4,000.
Every week each patient is allowed four
pounds of salmon; nine pounds of rice
one pound of sugar, or, if preferred,
from i've to six pounds of beef
and twenty-One pounds of 'paiai.r
which is near approach TO bread
Leprosy reiens there. The victims have
bands of music, all the players lepers
they have churches, all the worshippers
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 scholars lepers: marriages
are performed, and the contracting par
ties are lepers; children are born there.
and they are mostly lepers Everything
that pustule and scarihcation and infam-
nation and gangrene and designation can
do, is doue here. Science, which has
successfully fought back most of the
worlds disorders, has here closed its
pharmacy, put back into the case its sur
glcal Instruments, and come down TO the
government boat and retreated from this
island of death. Thank God this do
mlnion of death is being broken, and he
will have 10 dismount this sepulchral
throne. Segregation of the victims will
complete the overthrow of the foul plague.
and in these islands a leper will be
as rare as in America, where most Of the
psople never saw leper.
CHEERFUL, THOUGH DOOMED.
What most strikes visitor at Mololxai
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 fiji the hearts of
these lepers, they appear 10 the beholder
as In resignation that amounts TO good
cheer. They seem among the happiest
people on earth. Many of them on morse
back come galloping down the road.
Songs roll over the fated village bv day
and night. Hawaiian nature adj iusts
itself to circumstances. We have often
seen people who through pulmonary or
Bright's disease, were certain Of early
demise, and yet mirth bubblinR and
resonant. The fact is, we must ali die.
and yet we manage TO keep cheerful, and
why not those struck by leprous fatality
nave sunshine in their countenance and
talkl
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 Damas-
Gus scores of those cast out for this dis
ease and inhabiting caverns and tombs.
Beaten Of the elements, living on the coin
which passers-by may fling 10 them,
while day by day they are rotting alive
I al Ig ia fg.fI Flss,eA 1.