The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-05
AMONG The LEPERS.
Hospital Grounds on
the Island Of Trim
idad.
WORK OF CHARITY SISTERS.
Raising Roses and Nursing
Deadly Dis
ease.
WORK OF CHARITY SISTERS.

One of the most Interesting and Won
derfuliy conducted institutions in tie
world is the great Ieper hospital of the
Island Of Trinidad, where lepars from
all the Windward Islands came for
treatment. 1 went to this institution in
company with the surgeon general of
the colony, ana it is mainly from him
these facts are derived. He had studied
leprosy in India and in half dozen
English colonies.
1.-THE hospital consists of some half
dozen detached, one-story, succeed
buildings set in the form of a square
about several acres of grass covered,
tree shaded lawn One building is re-
served entirely for the sisters of char
itY, who form the nursing corps of the
hospital, and this is backed by a gar
den which they work themselves, and
which is famous for Its roses and bios
Soming vines.
The roses. more especially, are noted
for their size, perfume and loveliness
even in the tropics, where splendid or
chids grow. The flowers are as big DIS
peonies, and either pure white or
blush color and the bushes bloom SO
profusely and continuously that it is
necessary row and then TIC take them,
roots and all, out of the ground to pre-
vent complete exhaustion of their
powers.
This garden and their musical instru-
ments are their refU ge and relaxation,
for the sights they daily witness are so
distressing, so wearing to the nerves,
that the superior frequently requires
them to abandon their work for few
days and give themselves up to music
and gardening until they recover their
tone. Every year they are sent away
to some other duty for several months
for the same reason. Many of the nurs-
es have been more than ten years at
work in the hospital, and there has
never beer the slightest sign of con-
tagion in one of them. They observe the
usual exquisite cleanliness demanded
by their religious vows, and the super
ior takes care that their physical con-
dition is carefully watched, but no
other precautions are observed, and
they do not seclude themselves from
the world.
At the time Of my visit there were
but two white men in the hospital, all
the others being negroes, Hindus and
Chinese. The woman's pavilion was
far from full, one patient being a VIC
tim of that horrible, grotesque form of
the complaint known as elephantiasis,
which made her like some nightmare
or delusion of fever, yet she seemed
perfectly cheerful and happy, and talk
ed quite gayly to the sister, who was
apparently a great favorite in all the
wards.
Some leper children were in the same
ward: most of them as yet so slightly
affected that a casual observer would
not see evidences Of the disease till
pointed out, but they were languid SOL
enn little creatures, as if the shade of
their dreaded inheritance had already
blotted out all the sunshine from their
morning. The women who were least
affected helped with the washing for
all the wards, and this occupation
seemed an eagerly sought pleasure, the
worst of the disease being the long
years of helpless inactivity it entails.
A half-breed Hinlu in one of the
wards, whose disease had disfigured
him less than most, had evolved in his
long leisure a most ingenious tower
some five feet high, built of old cigar
boxes, half used pencils, cast-off bits
of wire, nails, etc, a thousand odds
and ends, including a broken clock case,
some of which he had begged from Wis
ftors more of which he had rescued
from the refuse tins. This contained
some 90 little rooms and a winding
stair, and was inhabited by a pet gray
rat, who at a signal from his master
would mount the stairs and visit every
room, ringing bell in one, turning a
wheel in another, pulling a string
which loosened a tiny shower of water
IN third, and displaying all the tri-
unphs of ten years patience and skill,
10 the infinite pride and delight of the
afflicted owner
Most of the patients had no such re-
source. and sat in brooding indifference
and silence, the hopeless prisoners of
despair, The most terrible sight of all
was the ward Of the dying. Here, after
years of slow disintegration, were
brought wrecks of time; their bodies
the filthy rags" of flesh once new and
fair and clean. Faces here were indis-
tlnguishable blurs; features were RACED
away as by fire, bodies bent and dis
Iorted, bones gnawed away. Their mis-
fortunes We're SO overwhelming that
there seemed no place for ordinary sor-
row or rebellion against their black
destiny, but the patience and pity Of
the beautiful young woman in a white
cap (who had given up wealth and
youth and high place to soothe these
50 unhappy who bent over them. was
IKE the Infinite gentleness of an angel
bending over the infinite horror of he'll.