Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-04-14


~ over all the Sandwich ISL
- ands, and in the healthy sec,
lions the white laborers, men and
women, and the native clean" were
strolling in groups about the pleasant
places when this man pushed forward
and buried himself and his past in the
plague-stricken island of Molokai. One
called a martyr received him with
open arms and showed him one of the
fields. The guide was the peasant Bel
gian priest, Father Damien, the novice.
Ira B. Dutton, a Yankee, born In Yer
mont sixty-eight years ago, college
graduate, civil war veteran, retired
with the rank Of captain; in his day
a lover of worldly pleasures and ad-
Judged to be a connoiseur of what was
proper in the matter of smart clothes;
later a convert to the Catholic faith.
Button had experienced the horrors OF
civil war He did not shudder, there
the incurable parts Of humanity. From
that day forward Capt Dutton became
Brother Joseph, assuming a name that
had been given to him when he enter
ed the Trappist Monastery at Gethsem-
sne. Ky.
Succeeded Father Damien.
Three years afterward Father Da-
mien died, as he had expected, of the
disease with which his Pensioners
were afflicted. Brother Joseph was
named his executor, and, as he had
desired, succeeded his superior and CO
laborer in the field. From the mo-
ment he put his foot on the island I'M
til now he has not quit 1t, nor does he
expect to. Experts declare that he
must eventually become infected.
The actual causes that led to Capt
buttons remuneration of the world will
probably never be known. One ac-
count has 1t that domestic grief and
a sudden consciousness that he was
not leading a Christian life were the
impelling motives. That between his
thirty-fifth and fortieth year Capt.
button became, as It were, a man
clothed with new thoughts, new de-
sires. and that he buried another man
In him is fact. And that much this
lay apostle of the lepers candidly
acknowledges.
He was born at Stowe, VT, In 1S43,
and his boyhood was passed in James
vile, Wis. At nine he was employed
in the Office of local newspaper. At
eighteen he enlisted in the Thirteenth
Wisconsin Infantry. At the close of
the war he was mustered out with the
rank CT captain. Old comrades have
frequently urged him to apply for a
pension, and since his self-exile on
Molokai the United States government
has taken the friendly position that II
awaits the application of the old sol.
der. Brother Joseph answers that he
gave his young years for love of his
country and that he has offered his
early manhood and the evening of his
life to his fellowmen.
Brother Joseph Declines Pension.
The United States government" he
wrote a friend. has treated me Sc
well that l would be ashamed to &C.
cept a pension. The government does
not owe me anything. On the contrary
feel so much indebted to my country
that the giving Of my life, II really
needed in a Just cause, would requite
only In a measure"
During the eight years Immediate
ly following the close of the war Cant
Dutton was an employee of the war de
partment. adjusting claims against the
federal government. He was a wei
come visitor In the best homes of the
south in those days. and reputed to be
a careful and practical student of the
art of correct attire. Then one day b,
was seized with the desire to build Z
barrier between himself and tn,
world he loved so well. 1t was not ar
ec-sy task, II may be surmised, for
soldier to PROSTATE himself before tn,
abbot Of the most severe religion.
body In the Catholic church. He wa.
received into the Catholic church
Then he journeyed to Gethsemsne and
found seclusion in the monastery fol
a year and half and decided that ht
was intended for that manner of life
His Ferveney and Zeal.
'T had feeling" he told his friends