The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-16
BISHOP AT TRINITY
Episcopal Head in Porto Rico Speaks on the Subject
 of Lepers.
MONEY NEEDED FOR WORK
Bishop Van Burcn Asks That Two Thousand Dollars be Sub
 scrlbed Locally.

Bishop Van Buren of Porto Rico, made a stirring appeal at Trinity church, yesterday morning in behalf of tho islanders who have but lately come
 under the stars and stripes and who are as well his special charge. A driz- zllng, sloppy morning did much to keep many arvay from the church and\ from hearing the bishop, who is an occasiop- al visitor at the church, yet the church was well filled in spite of the incle ment conditions
 Perhaps the most interesting portion of the bishops account of his work on the island of Porto Rico was that which dealed with the leper colony which is situated on a small island called Goat Island, directly off the harbor of San Juan. Tn an uncom- promising way the bishop described the awful features of the dread disease of lepIosy; how the hands, the feet and the different parts Of the body dropped off one by one.
 But all this, he said was by no
 means to be counted as the worst that these noor unfortunates had to endure There was the lonesQmeness of 1t all.
 the dread cry of "Unclean, unclean," of l which we read in Ben Hur, which must
 always separate them not only from all l men as we'll as from their kith and 1 kin. Bishop Van Buren told of ono l poor woman, q leper. who was only al- 1 lowed to see her husband once a month
 and that only at a speaking distance | for fear he would take the disease hint- | self
 Bishop Van Buren said he had him
 self been to the Island to preach sever- 1 al times Then, he said, he had had
 to wear antlseptic robes and 10 wash 1 his hands afterwards in antiseptic wa | ter. He told of the awful life that the lepers had been compelled to live on l Goat Island until the Episcopal church l had begun it's efforts there under the bishops direction. Even fruits. which ordinarily could be had for the asking l in Porto Rico they had not had, sim-
 ply because everybody had forgotten them. When the bishops assistant,
 rav. Mir Mitchell went to the island
 as the first missionary one of his first deeds of thoughtfulnesS said the bish-
 op, was to take the lepers huge bas
 lyets fuA of fruit
 Another thing which he did was to
 take them a photograph and their joy
 and laughter was unhounded when they beard anew from the machine the l iear old songs that they had sung in
 the days of their youth before the dread disease had come to them. l The bishop said these leDers are 1among the most enthusiastic celebra- l tors of the Fourth of July among the
 new subjects ot the United States in Porto Rico On the Fourth of July l they always elect president, for they l have a sort of little government 5f 1 .hclr own, %Last Fourth" said the bis hoph in a tacitious vein, they elected l the sanr man president for the third
 time Evidently they do not think
 there is hoodoo about tho idea of 8 third term"
 Bishop Van Buren described the oth-
 CT a-enues of work in his diocese, a 1 hospital, but recently erected had cost ai>out 34,000. Some S4000 was still
 needed to nay for it, he said, but he 1 had every reason to believe the requir- I ed amount would be forthcoming from
 another source. Ts
 1 Tke bishop made a straight appeal to l the people of Trinity parish, old and young, in behalf of a little church, started a year and half ago near San Juan, where go both English-sp speaking jblacks and spanish speaking whites. In I connection With the church the rector i has been conducting a school in the
 basement of his house where fifty chill | dren could comfortably be accommo-
 dated, but where 100 have been crowd l ed in,
 He told a pathetic little story about 1 tho little girls and boys who had come 1 to school every day, begging for an ed-r lucation He said the need was urgent 1 for new church building, where school might be located and he appeal
 ed to the people of Trinity church for l funds.
 The new building, as planned, will | cost 15,000 Seven thousand dollars has l already been raised, $500 have been 1 promised by the American Episcopal l church as a whole and he wished Trim i ity to do as much as 1t could to meet .the fund of S2,000 still required.