The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-11-13
RELIGIOUS
MOLOKAI
Priests and Nuns
Who Labor In
Love.
SCENES AT THE
LEPER'S CITY
Impressions Gained From a Talk
With the Priest Who Serves
the Flock.

1 asked the black-robed priest to TAX
my seat. 1 saw him looking about tn
upper deck for a place, and shifting t.
the rail of the steamer 1 forced him in
to the space 1 had vacated. We were al
ready off for Molokai and it was neari!
midnight The "Mikahala" is a tiny
inter-Island steam schooner, more {
freighter than a passenger carrier, and
what with the board of health, the few
white guests of that body, half-dozer
newspaper men and women, priests and
Sisters. the after part reserved for them
was insufferably crowded
There was much laughing and lighting
of cigars, and the clinking of glasses in
the stuffy cabin below was audible. 1t
had been intended that the ''Mikahala''
should sail at 10 o'clock, but there was
delay The four Sisters, in black and
white, were huddled on the lee side,
away from the smoke of the burning to-
bacco, waiting for the steward to lead
them to their cabins. They told their
beads. with faces hidden behind their
wells and only their slender hands NOV
ing to the rythm of the rosary.
| Forward, a hundred Hawaiians Were
packed in the narrow deck between the
| wheelhouse and the after structure.
There were three times as many women
as men, and most of them lay on the
deck with their bundles for pillows, and
their holokus tucked about their feet.
Others who had drunk KIM or swipes and
| felt the devil of dancing in them, Were
doing a hula to the music of several
ulxuleles. and the cries of their fellows,
nf no Cahin Messengers who
shouted at them In English and Hawaii
an.
.'Hot stuff! wiki-wiki! wela ka hao!
Good girlr'
The shouts and music were waited
back by the freshening wind, and the
Sisters grasped their rosaries more
tightly. The priest beside me was read
ing his breviary by the bright moonlight.
Doubtless he knew 1t by rote, for his
eyes wandered from the page often and
now and again closed in rapt devotion.
A little later the steward showed us
our berths Mine was an upper one just
opposite the priests In each were Two
hunks and he was roomed with a news
paper man. The latter was with merry
group at the cabin table, which was lad
en- with food and to which a servant con-
stantly brought the drinks called for by
those who were making a night of it,
The priest crawled into his narrow bed
choosing the lower shelf The doors of
all the rooms were open, as the heat was
suffocating.
For an hour 1 lay, filed with the dumb
anguish of the nausea which cursed me.
The little steamer was in the throes of
the Molokai channel, with head sea
on. She threw herself into the waves as
does drunken man a-swimming, and it
was a firmly-anchored gall that did not
rise.
When the Iurch to port hurled me to
the floor, L went on deck, escaping from
my friends about the table by leaving
my linen coat in their clutches, as Jo-
seph fled from the wife of Potiphar an
aeon ago The hula was done, and the
kanakas and wahines snored they lay
prone. Men and women were mixed up
indiscriminately In the contracted space |
and heads were lost under the kerchiefs |
which shielded them from the maddening |
moon.
Tribute 1 paid to the god of the sea,
and at o'clock crawled back to my |
berth. The wassail had died, men slept |
in chairs or on the floor. One hailed me |
the journalist. He was going to smash |
I'LL Sleep" he said. He planted one I'M |
steady foot in the middle of the uncon- |
scious priest and pumped himself aloft |
10 his upper berth. The patient black |
robe thought perhaps they We're ship !
wrecked, for ne rolled onto the floor and |
asked what had happened. 1 pointed to |
his room mate, who was peering shame |
faced from above.
And we went on to the Colony of |
the Dead.
L got up again at half-past four, just |
as we came in sight of the leper settle |
ment. 1t is a narrow shelf, green and |
picturesque, and back of it rise rugged |
and romantic, solid and straight, walls |
of rock nearly half a mile high. If ever |
a place was cut out by nature for the |
fff,, rF+ ~,
kaf acreage. The tiny island is divided |
unevenly by this marvellous granite cur |
tain seeming to hang from the blue and |
who crosses to where the people of the |
Other Side dwell must be Clean. Death, |
If missed on the escarpment, waits in the |
hands of those who will suffer none of |
the Unclean to come among them.
Landing from our steamer was not |
easy. There is no wharf, and the break |
ers dash roughly on the shore at kaIau- /
papa. Sometimes vessels wait several |
days to send a boat to the beach. The
'Mikahala" put down her clumsy long
boats and, in each, fifteen or more of us
jumped from the gangway as it rose on
the wave. We were all mixed up-whItes
and others, doctors, officials, writer's
Sisters, and the relatives of lepers
went in the first load, anxious to see.
dreading the sight. We landed at a pair
of stone steps sheltered by small
.AeahMdteI- marked nrSt great sign. |
ALOHA" which in Hawaiian means ali
things of good import-welcome. good
bye. love, friendship.
Then 1 saw what, pray God. I WI new
er see again. There We're several hun
dred lepers at the brow OF the hill we
climbed. They waited ike stones Tor our
coming. Some stood in little groups. ana
'thers sat on the ground. \ hundred feet
l"ay one looked at them as one would
IT any throng
And then, when approach brought out
ne horr work of the leprosy which af
lcted them. tears came unbidden. I |,
'ould not tell what 1 saw. Dream the