Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-01-10
~MIsS KATE MARsDEN.
Her Thrilling Experience With the
Lepers of Siberia.

The. press OF Europe has Of late. been
considerably stirred mp over. the do.
ings of Kate aiaTsden and Der work
among the lepers OF, Siberia. Miss
Marsden is described as having been
a lone, sicllly woman, without friends
or protectors, and unacquainted with
the Russian language. Her first diff
tcuity was to obtain permission To
undertake her Journey. But, as n
kindly fate decreed 1t. 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
child was discovered to have leprosy.
that person was baaished from the
depth of the forest, and there the
unfortunate lepers We're established.
under the str.ictest orders never again
to revisit friends or relative or to ap-
pear in the presence of man. They
live as beasts, though sometimes mer-
ciful death carries them Off before
they have experienced any prolonged
piivations. There, are three or four
months of summer and eight or niue
months Of winter. Until their fingers
rot of. they are able to make some
Kind of a fire, and the miserable
wretches herd together for company
and self-defense.
Miss Ma1'stlen 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 1t at an appointed place,
to which the lepers come after due
interval, to carry 1t 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 a very clear and definite idea as
to what should be done.
The lepers We're extremely grateful.
and offered up prayers with great
heartiness 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
frightfu1ly disfgured an5 entirely
without hope or consolation. was trag-
ic indeed. Inside the places where the
lepers lived the smell was fearful, and
In one of them, in addition to leprosy,
/ they had been smitten with smallpox.
They had no doctor or any attendants,
and the wonder is that any of them
kept alive. Miss Marsden 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 leper.
Occasionally she came upon solitary
lepers 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-
SeptiHs III NuUSe cases Ill WHICH Iney
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.