Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1911-04-01

| O. Shadows were gathering
over all the Sandwich ISL
ands, and in the healthy SEQ
tons 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, Yankee, born in Yer
mont sixty-eight years ago, a college
graduate, civil war veteran, retired
with the rank of captain; in his day
a lover of worldly pleasures and ad-
judged to be connoiseur of what was
proper in the matter of smart clothes;
later a convert to the Catholic faith
Dutton had experienced the horrors of
civil war. He did not shudder, there
fore, when Father Damien showed him
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 Tfappist Monastery at Gethsem-
ane, 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 it, 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 it that domestic grief and
a sudden consciousness that he was
not leading 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 a fact. And that much this
lay apostle of the lepers candfdIy
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 a local newspaper. At
Wisconsin Infantry. At the close of
the war he was mustered out with the
rank of 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 it
awaits the application of the old sol
/ d1er- 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 feIlowmen.
| Brother Joseph Declines Pension.
The United States government" he
wrote a friend, has treated me so
we'll that / would be ashamed to ac-
| cept pension The government does
| not owe me anything. On the contrary
feel SO much indebted to my country
that the giving of my life, if 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
| button was an employee of the war de-
partment. adjusting claims against the
| federal government. He was a vel
come visitor in the best homes of the
south in those days. and reputed to be
careful and practical student of the
art of correct attire. Then one day he
was seized with the desire to build 6
barrier between himself and the
world he loved so we'll 1t was not ar
easy task, ii may be surmised, for {
soldier to PROSTATE himself before the
abbot of the most severe religion.
body in the Catholic church He wa:
received into the Catholic church
Then he journeyed to Gethsemane anC
found seclusion in the monastery fol
year and a half and decided that b,
was intended for that manner of life
His FerVency and Zeal.
II had a feeling he told his friends
that 1 wanted to be in touch with hu
man sufferings, to be active in the re
lief of those of my fellow-beings wht
were afflicted. yet so as not to brins
me in direct contact with the outsid.
world
From the monastery Brother JOSEPH
went to the convent of the Redemptor
list Fathers in New Orleans, where b,
passed many days in prayer One day
in the recreation room, he came acros.
a magazine describing the life of Faith
er Damfeo- Re went to the lbrar,