Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-05-05
"A LEPROSY TRAGEDY,
The Sacrifice of Kaomouna, the
Hawaiian Beauty.
HER LIFE FOR HER MOTHER.

Women-The Reason a Baby's Adj
vances Were Not Returned.
The usual Honolulu crowd was down
at the dock when the steamship from
San, Francisco pulled alongside the
pier on a brilliant, balmy afternoon in
January some years ago. American
women in summer afternoon costumes,
a few English and a few German wo-
men of society. arrayed also for steam
er day, leaned back dangerously in
their carriages and phaetons, under the
shade of parasols, listening to the lazy
complimentary talk of the duck clad,
lei enwreathed young business men
who combined duty with pleasure in
thus waiting for the great steamer to
slip laboriously into her measured
berth beside the pier.
All of the Kanaka women had bare
feet They stood about in little groups
as silent as the men of their race. A
few Of the Kanaka women carried
tiny brown babies-silent also. The
young women were of varying degrees
of beauty, their figures showing uni
form excellence of proportion.
One of these Kanaka women at the
dock on this brilliant January after
noon was particularly beautiful. She
was clad like the rest of the women OF
her race. She was fully five feet ten
inches in height, and the white silk
cord with which, unlike the other Ka-
naka women, she drew her white dress
about her waist emphasized the splen-
did heroic proportions Of her figure.
Kaomouna seemed quite unconscious
of her beauty. The young shipping
clerks, hurrying to and fro on the dock
with their pencils behind their ears,
stopped suddenly when they caught
sight of her. The women in the car
riages, who had not been long down
from the States or from Europe, saw
Kaomouna and asked the women OF
longer Honolulu residence, "Who Is
that glorious creature?" KaomOuna,
with a very sad face, spoke only an
occasional word to one of the Kanaka
women.
The steamship was made fast to the
pier, and the passengers began to troop
over the gangplank. There was one
man with his pretty young wife and
three-year-old little girl. The little girl
was the first to catch sight of Kao-
mouna as she reached the bottom Of
the gangway. She quickly freed her
hand from her fathers grasp and ran
toward Kaomouna with baby words.
Kaomouna smiled at the little girl, but
did not offer to take her up. Instead
she folded her arms, looking down at
the little pink faced child pleasantly.
When the mother had taken the little
girl she raised her eyes to look at Kao-
mouna.
did you ever in your whole life see
such a perfectly beautiful woman?"
asked the young wife of her husband
in a whisper when he came up. "And
Tita seemed to take to her Immediate
". If we could only have her fora
nurse for Titav'
Kaomouna heard her.
"Kaomouna would love to be that"
she replied in soft Kanaka accented
speech, smiling. Then a look of pain
came into her face. "But it may not
bet may not be!' And, with her
hands at her eyes, KaOmouna turned
suddenly and disappeared among the
departing men and women of her race.
Three months later the parents of
the little girl were at the dock to-
gether to witness for the first time the
saddest of sights-the departure of the
lepers for the island Of Molokai. The
Kilauea Hou, the leper steamer, was
out in the stream, and the lepers were
being carried out to her in barges. A
litter was borne through the roped in
closure for the lepers. On it lay a
very old Kanaka woman in the final
stages of the disease. At the side Of
the litter walked Kaomouna. Her face
was very sad. The parents of the lit
tie girl wondered. They spoke to an
official of the Hawaiian board of
health, who was busy in the task Of
embarking the lepers.
Surely" they said, "she does not
accompany the lepers"
"Who = Kaomouna" replied the
health official. ooh, yes, she does.
But it is her own choice. Kaomouna,
you know, has Deen SecreIlng ner Olu
Mother for a number Of years. We al
ways knew there was something mys-
terious about Kaomouna-that is, we
have known it for the last five years.
She had made queer visits to palm
hut far over in the Nuuanu valley.
Last week we followed her. We felt
there was leprosy in it. We found her
mother in the hut Kaomouna had
had her in hiding, trying to save her
from Molokai, ever since the disease
became evident Kaomouna is not in
fected in the least. She has been care
full. But she elects to follow her
mother to Molokai. Extraordinary?
Why, not at all! You do not under
stand the filial devotion Of Kanaka
women-men, too, for that matter. Such
cases are common enough"