The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-27
caNADA'S LEPER COLONY.
,rv BRUNSWICK LAZARETTO FOR
THE DISEASED.

lAn
Satlors-Twenty-One Inmates.
From the Chicago Record.
rrscadie n. B., Oct. 10.-Be it bright or
AN he there sunshine or rain, this to the
-trareer is the saddest part of all North
.,,,srica. Here, where the waves of the
Atlantic. driven by the storm into the gulf
81 81 Lawrence rumble and roar on the
bach. are confined tn outcasts of Canada.
rterA the lepers of the dominion live and
dc For the province of New Brunswick
= nrovince which a kind Providence has
,ro,ided with all possible blessings pro-
vince which is a veritable sportsman's
,.radise-is cursed with the curse of lep-
rosy.
How il came where it came from, is
merely matter of tradition; and ira
sition tells how, some eighty years ago,
two unclean sailors from the Levant, were
cest unon the shore of Caraquet The
4cadisns clothed and fed them, but when
during the next summer, the sailors Went
10 narts unknown, they left the seeds of
the disease behind them. Two young wo-
men who washed the sailors clothes, first
absorbed the germs. They married and
had children, and their children married
and multiplied and then all of a sudden
the evil which had laid dormant for years
made itself known with a vengeance and
rbrived and SCARED and tortured, and will
20 on thriving and killing till the descend
ants of these unfortunate girls have died
out.
some fifty years ago the Canadian gov
eminent began to take steps to crush out
the disease and prevent its spread. At
6rgt these efforts. like the medical science
In Of
we're crude and more or less inhuman; but
gradually improvements were made and
al present not only do the unfortunate I'M
clean receive the best of treatment but the
disease is being gradually stamped out.
Strange to say, the people of this village
of Tracadie, where the leper lazaretto is
situated and the people Of the surrounding
country do not seem to mind the disease
1t is true they do not go near the lazar-
etio or inside of its grounds, unless it is
absolutely necessary, but the idea of pos
gible contagion or infection does not seem
10 enter their mind. At the same time
they are fully aware that throughout that
part of the province there are scores of
families which are subject to the evil. Yet
men and women will marry members Of
these families and take their chances
Another thing which never seems to
trouble them is the possibility of conta-
zion by means of bites from insects. This
IS one of the greatest difficulties with
which physicians interested in the disease
In Hawaii Jamaica and the east have had
to contend.
Immigrants Contribute Members.
Up to this time very little has been
known about the Canadian lepers. In fact,
very few people know that there are any
In the dominion, excepting those that are
occasionally imported among the patches
Of Immigrants from other countries who
come to settle in the northwest. For the
latter there is a small receiving station,
from which the sufferers are transferred to
the lazaretto here. II the disease is in its
first stages there is no danger of contagion
or infection and the patient who as yet
cannot be distinguished from healthy peo-
pie by the Impractical eye, are transported
by means of the regular channels of travel.
But when the disease is advanced they are
taken here in special railway cars and We
hicles and often by means of specially
chartered schooners. Once here, they are
utterly cut off from the world. They are
dead 10 every one and every one is dead
10 them, with the exception of the nuns
who are devoting their lives 10 the allevia-
ton of their sufferings, Father Badineau.
the parish priest, who visits them, and DR..
A. c. Smith, the government superintend-
ent of leprosy. who, no doubt, some day
or other will lose his life in his unremif-
ting attention to duty and his unceasing
efforts to find something that will combat
and destroy the terrible bacillus.
As soon as the government stamp is set
upon them, by their removal to the laza-
Tetto the unfortunate people are truly cast
out. Up to that time their relatives will
do all they can for them. They do not
want 10 part with their loved ones. They
will hide the latter. They viii lie and 10
almost anything to prevent their removal
mill 10 ha
heartrending scenes enacted when they
finally must give them up, but after they
have once left, and after the doors of the
lazaretto have once closed upon them, all
ties that bound them to the world seem to
be suddenly snapped off.
Hospital a Home.
The patients themselves in most cases
take the matter very philosophically.
Their treatment, which is in most cases
better than they received at home for
nearly all of them belong 10 the poorer
classes, no doubt has something to do with
this. The women are the most easily
reconciled to their fate, and bear their
sufferings with great equanimity. The
men are apt to worry more and are often
very surly and troublesome. 1t is not an
easy matter to obtain government per
mission TO be allowed inside of the actual
hospital
madam department of agriculture the de-
putty minister wrote: II have submitted
Your application TO the director-general of
public health, who has written to the
superintendent of the Tracadie lazaretto.
Inc question of the consciousness of
leprosy is still open one and we feel that
visits to that center of disease should be
as limited as possible" However, the per-
NIT was granted.
Inc stranger arrives at Tracadie at
nlshtfall and after arranging for accomo-
nstlon at Nine Testers boarding house,
goes IN search of the lazaretto. Ten to one
ne or she will be agreeably disappointed
most people imagine that they will find
sort OF convict camp, or a stockade, but,
instead, there looms up on the seashore
q huge building, of rather forbidding out
me and size. with no other signs of life
WITHIN than light in the window here
and there
ne next morning things look even bet
Wi' The building, which has been erected
Almost on the beach. has the appearance
o' large modern hospital The grounds
are vide and extensive and are cut off
ON The highway and neighboring farms