The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1901-11-07
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L
stagnation and Generalization OF busi-
ness in the United States when her
tariff was in danger had been our OBJ.
iect-lesson, and we builded wisely
upon the plans laid down by the
former administration.
A peculiar fact began to impress it
self upon me. It was strange thing,
and I attributed it to Uncle Toms
melancholy over Winnie's disappear.
ance. He was almost too tender to.
ward me. When he spoke to me
there seemed to be in his manner an
evidence of anxiety over something =
IN anxiety that ne wished to conceal.
He frequently sat with me on the
porch, and as we smoked and chatted
| often thought I saw him studying
me furtively. Yet the reason fol
such a course was absent, and I dis
missed the thought as often as it oc
Cured.
But it came back to me with re-
doubled force. Mornings, when VIZ
met. he scanned me carefully, and ]
tancied once or twice that his voice
taltered when he spoke to me.
At this time I was not feeling in my
usual good health, but was not in any
condition to render medical aid nee.
sssary, or to excite anxiety.
A sense of numbness would NJ times
come over me, and at others I felt a
slight tingling sensation of pain. But
attributed my loss of health to my
constant worry and the anxiety I was
under.
One day I sat on the porch, idly
looking towards the mountains. !
did not feel at all we'll that day, and
when Uncle Tom had gone for drive
did not accompany him. I had
taken book, into the porch with me, but
had thrown it aside, having no inclina-
lion to read. 7 had been sitting in
the shade, but the sun was getting to
the westward, and its rays soon fell on
me-. In the bright light my hands
looked blue and thin. I smiled to
myself as 7 looked at them. What
was that? On the fingers, around the
nails, were some little blue-white
scales.
Heavens! The whole misery of the
thing came upon me in an instant, like
! thunderbolt.
My uncle's tremulons voice, mis-
| strange anxiety, his tenderness, were
clear enough now. How the blood In
me chilled! How my heart throbbed,
jumped, then seemed stilled with
| horror!
Twas a leper!
I staggered into the house and
Threw myself down on a couch
With a groau. My mind was tortured
with pictures of misery and woe that
were enough to setmy brain on fire.
The reception hospital, the hateful
yard, in which I would be stared at
like bull to be butchered or thing
to be despised and feared.
Then the leper-ship with its cargo
of misery, taking me to Molokai, where,
in the leper settlement, I must live
out my days in pitiless misery, like
the poor devils I had seen there,
waiting, with torturing pains, for q
sure and horrible death.
There was no hope. The fate ol
one leper was the fate of all. The law
was ine1orable. The high standing
of my uncle or myself could not pre-
vent the carrying out of the law.
And now my tortured mind ran riot
ously into the future, and I saw my.
self horribly disfgured, member after
member decaying under the foul dis
ease and dropping off; my senses
leaving me; no taste or desire for food
a raging thirst; no sense of smell
deafness following the loss of my ears.
blindness; death!
I lay with these horrors before me
when Uncle Tom came home.
"Don't come near men I cried,
springing up and warning him off by
gesture. 81 have discovered the
horrible secret you have so tenderlJ
sought to shield me from. I know my
fate. I am leper! There is no use
making feeble attempts to combat
fate. must go away from you all. J
must leave-you-and-"
"Don't Tom, my boy, dear Tom!H
cried my uncle, sinking into chair
and dropping his head into his hands.
He sat there sobbing for some mo-
ments. Now and then groan woulo
come from him. He seemed to be
struggling with himself.
Suddenly he raised his head.
'Did anybody know of your dis.
tovery?" he asked in a whisper. e1
cidedly.
"No," + replied wearily. "I have
raen no one