Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1902-03-02
MOLOKAI FOR HAwAIIANS.
(From the New York SUM.

(From the New York SUM.
To the Editor of The Sun:-Sir. Not
all the precision OF parliamentary pro.
cedure could rob OF its tense note of
human pain the petition OF the Hawaii.
ans to the Government OF the United
states to refrain from sending the lep-
ers of continental America to the lazar
settlement on Molokai. When 1t was
presented to the Senate il was an.
nounced to be in the Hawaiian Ian.
guage and signed by many persons
who seemed to lack Christian names. "
1t may not seem very important
subject in the mass of legislation pro.
posed at Washington. In continental
America the popular knowledge OF
leprosy Is rather theological than med.
ical. II is more commonly derived
from the study of the Pentateuch than
from any degree of personal expert
ence or medical information. As a
menace to any part of this community
1t seems no more alive than the burnt
offerings and the wave offerings with
which the Mosaic legislation essayed
to stay the epidemic. But to our Ha.
waiian fellow citizens 1t is the most
deadly peril of all life.
For themselves they have the fear
lessness Of sheer despair. They krow
themselves as feeble folk as the
comics OF the rocks. They do not need
the columns and the tables of a cen.
sus to teach that they are rpaidly fad.
ing. Within the century since the
days of Kamehameha the Great and
the sturdy mois or chiefs of each of
the eight islands, they have seen their
manhood depart until now there is left
scarcely 10000. The same fate which
has overtaken their kin and their for
bears they know will overtake them in
turn. Fear Is far in the background.
for these Polynesians are in their way
philosophers; for themselves they give
no thought; the infection of the mai
Fake, the Chinese malady, as they
have called leprosy since 1t first made
its appearance in the early years OF
the last century Is in their blood and
they are past the risk of freshly intro
duced contagion. Such new foci of in
lection are not needed. One Hawaii
an In every thirty is now a leper eth.
err in the settlement on Molokai or de-
tanned for diagnostic examination at
the inspection station at Kalihi on the
outskirts of Honolulu. These are the
officially certified lepers, more than
100 in population of some 10000.
How many there may be besides those
hidden from the searching gaze OF
medical inspection through a senti.
ment of affection which Is as human
as 1t is in contravention of the frigid
sagacity of the law-that is a sum i'm.
possible to state with accuracy. Yet
any person at all familiar with Hawaii
Is aware that hidden leprosy does ex
list.
Molokai Is one of the considerable
islands of the Hawaiian archipelago
but the lazaretto is not Molokai, as
some mistakenly suppose. 1t Is on
Molokai, a far different matter. Mid.
way OF the northern aspect of Molo
kai are a wave-beaten peninsula and
a precipice. The pail. or preciplce,
can be scaled by single, narrow, dlz-
zy path on which two cannot go alb.
reast. That path is barred with a gate
and a guard which none may pass.
Seward at either end the pail may
not be fanked, for 1t runs into the
roar of the ocean. On the scanty shelf
OF land between the frowning noun