The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-07-23
TIE VISIT 70 THE LEPERS
NEW RULES IN PROSPECT FOR
FUTURE.
The Board of Health and Guests and
About a Hundred Visitors Spend a
Day at Kalaupapa.

Day at Kalaupapa.
Last Saturdays visit to Molokai by
the Board of Health and its guests with
relatives and friends of the lepers, is
very likely the last one to be made
under the old rules, and those who went
probably saw for the last time the
strange scenes of emotion and excite
ment so often described by those who
have gone to the settlement. Strict as
the isolation of the lepers is, there is a
growing conviction that it is not strict
enough. The only question is how to
add to the precautions in the best way.
On the trip to Molokai last Friday
night, at the settlement and on the re-
turn, members of the Board of Health
and others talked of the dangers of con-
tagion and the possibilities of greater
precautions. The subject was brought
up at the Boards meeting in the man
ayers home at the settlement Screens
were discussed-barriers through which
the men and women in their terrible
exile at Kalaupapa might see and talk
to those who came from the world to
visit them-as Entrusted criminals
communicate with equally Entrusted
relatives or friends who visit them in
prisons.
The present system is full of evident
contradictions that were the subject of
much talk among those who went to
Molokai. The 100 visitors who spent
Saturday at Kalaupapa had day in
the homes of the lepers, near relations
embracing at the greeting and again
at parting with fervOr which only the
strong emotions of such an occasion
could arouse. There were luaus in the
little homes of the lepers, at which the
ordinary native habits of eating, all
out of one dish, We're followed, though
a.. g-;4
arated from the rest of humanity on
account of disease which has always
been cause for the steTnest guarantees
in the world Members of the Board of
Health and their guests wore gloves,
to be thrown away after shaking hands
with lepers. The relations and friends
wore no gloves and they did not stop
held in long embraces men and women
whom the doctors would not touch
without gloves, except in case of pro-
fessiOnal necessity.
At the final parting the discrepancy
between practice and supposed policy
was even more startling. There were
the usual painful scenes of parting and
the visitors left with not a single pre-
caution, to return to Honolulu. Yet a
small terrier given by a leper sister to
a native woman and taken to the Mi
kahala was ordered back, with the
threat that it would be thrown over
board if not returned. AS the steamer
left lepers were picking up clothing left
behind by careful guests of the Board
of Health, who would not even wear
the clothes in which they had merely
ridden and walked about the settle
ment, till they got back to Honolulu.
1--WE discussed the subject of these
dangers at our Molokai meeting" said
a member of the Board of Health land
it will be brought up again in the near
future. The screen system seems cruel,
but it may have to be adopted"
The Millahala had a splendid trip to
Kalaupapa, arriving off the landing
shortly before daylight After break
fast the visitors went ashore in the
steamers boats. Crowds were await
ing them on the landing. eargerly look
inn for friends or relatives, and most
of them to be disappointed. The num-
Der of visitors is very small for so many
to be visited There are nearly a thou
sand lepers at Molokai and only about
hundred visitors went in all. There
are many who never have any visitors,
having apparently been given up as
dead by friends and relatives alike. In
one of the halls on Saturday was a
girl who had been there for nine wears,
and not a soul had been to see her.
Last Saturday her father came, and the
two spent the day side by side on the
lanai of a dormintory. Their parting
was one of the saddest, Sister of
Mercy and the old man trying in vain
to stop the young girls crying and
Wailing.
After a brief stay at the managers
place at Kalaupapa, where one of the
leper bands gave music, the party took
horses and started for Waikolu valley.
The ride was along a good country
road, past many of the little cottages
of the lepers, who came to the doors and
shouted "AlOha" and aloha Nui" to
the riders as they passed. There was
a stop to see the grave where lie the
bones of Father Damien, with an in
scriptiOn TELLING of his noble martyr
dom, and the little church where sue
| cessors are carrying on his brave work.
| Then the journey was over a stony
beach and up a long winding valley
pathway, horses in single file, to where
the lepers are growing high land taro.
About a hundred acres have been plant
ed and the taro seems TO be doing well.
This is a comparatively new expert
ment, and promises to be a success. The
! lepers may work here for regular
wages, or for a part of what they pro-
duce. The wages paid are fifty cents
day. All the product is consumed at
| the settlement, which could use even
more than the whole acreage now
planted win produce. 1t is hoped that
! in the future the patches will grow till
they will supply the colony. There were
a number of lepers at work when the
/ Board visited the valley. some of them
evidently not caring enough about the
event of the visit to come to town" to
see the sights. There is a beautiful
clear stream in this valley, which sup
plies water, and which would have been
worth a fortune if it had taken course
down the other side of the mountains to
the dry lands of the American Sugar
| Company.
The Baldwin home was visited on the
return towards Kalaupapa. Here there
are 1875 lepers, who are looked after
| by Brother Dutton. He has been there
for IA years, giving his whole time
without pay to looking after the unfor-
Inmates. During the Civil War he was
an army officer and did work as scout,
He is not an ordained priest now but
has given his life to the lepers.
The lepers gathered in the hall of the
home to meet the visitors, and the band
gave several selections. Then w. o.
Smith made short address. He thank