Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-01-10
MISS KATE MARSDEN.
Her Thrilling Experience With the
Lepers of Siberia.

Inc press of Europe has of late been
considerably stirred up over the do
lngS OF Kate Marsden and her work
among the lepers of Siberia. Miss
MarSden is described as having been
a lone, Sickly woman, without friends
or protectors, and unacquainted with
the Russian language Her first diff
ficulty was to obtain permission to
undertake her journey. But, as a
kindly fate decreed it, she aroused the
enthusiastic support of the Countess
AleXandrine Tolstoi. through whose
intervention she was introduced to
the Empress. and provided with every
assistance to prosecute her journey.
When she reached the leper region
proper, she found that the reports
which had reached her had not exag-
gerated the horrors of these unfortun-
ates. Whenever a man. woman or
enid was discovered to have leprosy,
that person was baniShed from the
depth OF the forest, and there the
unfortunate lepers were established.
under the stricteSt orders never again
to revisit friends or relative or to an
pear in the presence of man. They
live as beasts, though sometimes mer-
| clful death carries them off before
they have experienced any prolonged
priyations. There are three or four
months of summer and eight or nine
months of winter. Until their fingers
rot off they are able to make some
kind of a fire, and the miserable
wretches herd together for company
and self-defenSe
| Miss Marsden frequently found that
when children were camped out in the
forest they did not live long Food
fails them, or the bears eat them up.
In other cases the relatives provide
food, leaving it at an appointed place,
to which the leperS come after a. due
i interval, to carry it back to their mis-
cradle hutS. Miss Marsden visited no
| fewer than thirteen small leper settle
ments in the forest, and was able to
/ form very clear and definite idea as
to what should be done
The lepers were extremely grateful,
and offered up prayers with great
hearEness for the Empress and her
emissary. 1t was pitiful to see some
trying to make the sign of the cross
with their hands, from which the fin
Gers had rottet off; to see their faces
frightfully disfigured and entirely
without hope or consolation, was tIag-
ic indeed. Inside the places where the
lepers lived the smell was fearful, and
| in one of them, in addition 10 leDrOsy
they had been smitten with smallpox.
They had no doctor or any attendants,
and the wonder is that any of them
kept alive. Miss Masden had the
pleasure Of being able to rescue one
girl who was in perfect health, but
who had been compelled to be among
the lepers because her mother had
been a leper.
Occasionally she came upon solitary
iepers who were living by themselves,
without any companion than "a dog,
which was Indispensable in order to
keep the bears away. Their food was
rotten fish and the bark Of trees, ex-
cepting in those cases in which they
We're fortunate enough to own cows.
In one case an old woman used to
creep back to the village for the pur-
pose Of picking up refuse. When the
head man heard Of this, he ordered
that all her clothes should be taken
off in order to prevent her visiting the
village. 1t is not surprising to learn
that shortly afterward she was found
frozen to death, quite naked.