The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-04

When the Shark sailed along the
windward coast of Molokai. on her way
to Honolulu, / looked at the chart, then
pointed to low-lying peninsula backed
by a tremendous cliff varying from
two to four thousand feet in height,
and said, 1.-THE pit of hell, the most
cursed place on earth. l should have
been shocked, if at that moment
could have caught vision of myself
a month later, ashore in the most ac-
cursed place on earth, and having a dis
gracefully good time along with eight
hundred of the lepers who were likewise
having a good time. Their good time
was not disgraeeful; but mine was, for
in the midst of so much misery it was
not meet for me to have a good time.
That is the way / felt about it, and my
only excuse is that eouldn t help hav-
ing a good time.
For instance, in the afternoon of the
Fourth of July all the lepers gathered
at the race track for the sports. l had
wandered away from the Superintend-
ent and the physicians in order to get
a snapshot of the finish of one of the
races. 1t was an interesting race, and
partnership ran high. Three horses
were entered--one ridden by Chinese,
one by Hawaiian and one by Portu-
guese boy. All three riders were lepers;
so were the judges and the crowd. The
race was twice around the track. The
Chinese and the Hawaiian got away
together and rode neck and neck, the
Portuguese boy toiling along two hun
dred feet behind. Around they went
in the same positions. Half way around
on the second and final lap the Chinese
pulled away and got one length ahead
of the Hawaiian. AT the same time the
Portuguese boy was beginning to crawl
up. But it looked hopeless. The crowd
went wild All the lepers were pas
sionate lovers of horse flesh. The Por-
tuguese boy crawled nearer and nearer.
1 went wild, too. They were on the
home stretch. The Portuguese boy
passed the Hawaiian. There was a
thunder of hoofs, rush of the three
horses punched together, the jockeys
plying their whips, and every last on
locker bursting his throat, or hers, with
shouts and yells. Nearer, nearer, inch
by inch, the Portuguese boy erept up,
and passed, yes, passed, winning by 8 |
head from the Chinese. l came to my
self in group of lepers. They were |
yelling, tossing their hats, and dancing
e l. I L
1 came to / was waving my hat and |
murmuring eestatieally, BY golly, the |
boy wins! The boy wins!'
| tried to check myself. ! assured |
myself that | was witnessing one of the |
horrors of Molokai, and that it was
shameful for me, under such circum-
stances, to be so light hearted and light |
headed. But it was no use. The next |
event was a donkey race, and it was
just starting; so was the fun, The last |
donkey in was to win the race, and |
what complicated the affair was that no
rider rode his own donkey. They rode |
one another s donkeys, the result of |
which was that each man strOve to
make the donkey he rode beat his own
donkey ridden by some one else. Nat
urally, only men possessing very slow or
extremely obstreperOus donkeys had
entered them for the race. One donkey
had been trained to tuck in its legs
and lie down whenever its rider touched
its sides with his heels. Some donkeys
strove TO turn around and come back;
others developed a peuehant for the
side of the track, where they stuck +
their heads over the railing and stopped,
while all of them dawdled. Half way
around the track one donkey got into
an argument with its rider. When all
the rest of the donkeys had crossed the
wire. that particular donkey was still
arguing. Ee won the race, though his
rider lost it and came in on foot. And
all the while nearly a thousand lepeFs
were laughing uproariously at the fun.
Anybody in my place would have joined
with them in having a good time.
All rhe foregoing is by way of pre-
amble to the statement that the horrors
of Molokal, as they have been painted
in the past, do not exist. The Settle
ment has been written up repeatedly
by sensationalists, and usually by SEN
sationalists who have never laid eyes
on it. Of course, leprosy is leprosy,
and il is terrible thing; but so much
that is sensational has been written
about Molokai, that neither the lepers
nor those who devote their lives to them
have received a fair deal. Here is a
case in point: A newspaper writer, who,
of course, had never been near the Set
Element. vividly described Superintend-
ent McVeigh s erouching in grass hut
and being besieged nightly by starving
lepers on their. knees, wailing for food.