The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1897-09-17

Joseph Dutton, has been on Molokai for
16 years. The Reports of the Propagan
da show that priests and lay brothers and
nuns have long ministered there in the
hospitals and schools devoted to the lepers
and their children.
Nor is the work being done among the
lepers on Molokal limited to the labors OF
these praiseworthy priests and their asso-
ciates. After the noble work which has
been done on each of the other islands by
the American Board, one Is prepared to
learn of Congregational church, with
it's faithful pastor, on Molokai. Here al
so are to be found Young Mems Chris,
tian Association, Sunday-school, g.
Bible-class, singing-school, gymnasi-
UNI and reading-room. One who has
observed the Hawaiian love of sweet
melodies is glad to know also of band of
16 leper musicians on Molokai.
While visitors are permitted to accom-
pany the health officers on their seminar
nual visits Of inspection, every precaution
ia taken to avoid unpleasant scenes be-
tween the leper colonists and their rela-
tives, as well as to prevent any spread of
the disease through the inadvertance of
visitors in being brought into immediate
contact with the lepers, who go freely on
foot or by horseback over all that part of
the island. Molokai ia literally without
the camp;' and no one can visit the Ha-
waiian Islands, where leprosy, some 30
years since, promised such defamation of
the inhabitants, and not be impressed
with the wisdom of the legislation which
was based upon the example of the laws
of Moses for the segregation of lepers,
and upon It's effectiveness. In fact, the
visitor to the "Parsdise of the Pacific"
now, needs to go to Molokai to find q
leper, unless by accident he encounters
one who Is about being removed thither,
while the traveller in Palestine is liable,
as occurred to the writer of this article at
Shechem. to have the fingerless hands of
poor lepers stretched out for aims as the
curtain of his tent is being taken down at
the conclusion of his breakfast, when a
hasty leap into the saddle is his only es-
cape from the ferid atmosphere.
Surely there must have been a great
relaxation of the wise law imposed under
Moses for the segregation Of the lepers
which came out with that smixed multi
tude from Egypt" when, after no excep-
ton could be made in the case of Miriam,
or even Uzziah and Azariah, who though
on the throne, must needs "dwell apart
because they were smitten with leprosy,
yet leper mingled freely with the multi
tude to whom our Lord preached his SER
mon as they came down from the mount,
awaiting his opportunity to cry Lord,
if thou wilt thou canst make me clean ~
1t is significant, too, to read Luke's &C.
count, and even the beloved physicians
diagnosis in the words "a man full of
leprosy," and yet find the poor man min
Cling with the multitude even in one of
the cities where he had his first opportu-
nifty of making his appeal.
/ saw case of elephantiasis, or black
leprosy, in China, when the poor woman
told of her frightful ''yisions In the
night" and thus threw added light on
Jobs sufferings. But the leprosy common
at one time among the lower classes on
the Hawaiian Islands seems to be of the
same type az that which the Traveller sees
In the Lepers' Hospital near the Jaffa
Gate of Jerusalem or In the Lepers' Quar-
ter there. It frequently makes it's frst
appearance in the lobes Of the ears until
they begin to hang as il weight were
attached to them. Sometimes the ears
become so elongated as to make riding
uncomfortable, and the surgeons skill 10
implored for relief. Usually not until
the later stages Of the disease does the
victim of leprosy feel great discomfort.
The Hawaiian Government makes the
lepers the wards Of the nation, and the
Christian work being done among them