The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-01-04
Continued from page ~
BROTHER BUTTON, LEPER.

that had fallen from the master. He
was nurse in dressing the sores of
every Lazarus; teacher in the school;
lay brother in offices of the Church !;
was the disciplinarian and immediate
hand of providence for every need of
large and childlike population-work
requiring judgment, administrative
tact, and, above all, heart trimming
with sympathy. I CLEANED these de-
tails from letters of long ago in which
he told an old friend how his hours
were counted off by duties, and the
friend read them shuddering, as if
they had come from like prison in
a deep circle of the Inferno.
"The talent for affairs that appeared
in Dutton, and matured so rapidly in
war, has effected great engagements
and betterments Of the accommoda.
tions for the lepers. His devotion to
humanity touched the sensibility OF
many persons of wealth, who gave lib.
orally to the Baldwin Home, so that
money was seldom lacking for any
object of his desire Ca salary for him
self not being ont), but flowed to the
spot by pressure of a deep reservoir
of philanthropy that surrounds the en-
terprise. Thus, as to buildings, food
clothing, medical attention, religion
education, occupation and amusement
these poor, afflicted, slowly disinte
grating people generally pass theil
days in contentment if not in happi
ness; for fortunately their disease
though almost inevitable as to it's end
and usually painful, is unable to de
stroy sociability in these light-hearteG
native island children, fond of brass
bands, monographs, and every simple
pleasure.
Care of the Lepers.
In recent years the care of the
lepers has become deliberately organ
lied with a superintendent, a medica
staff, many nurses and teachers, two
priests, and the Board of Health
spending about one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars yearly on the work;
so that now there are Mother Mary
Marianne and four Catholic Sisters or
the women's side, and Dutton and -four
Catholic Brothers on the mems side
all giving their lives to this benefi
cence; all, as Dutton describes them
followers of Damien" and all exciting
your reverence and mine. But il
ought to be remembered that it was
not always so. 1t was not so wher
Damien lay, as r. L. Stevenson pic
lures him, that first night under 9
tree amidst his rotting brethren;
nor during the twelve years that he
carried on the work alone, turning his
skillful hands to every trade, and doc
toring out of an old book, besides
preaching; nor yet when Dutton went
to Damien, and the two lived together
and worked together, and with theil
own hands built the first little home
forerunner of the extensive Baldwin
Home afterwards build under buttons
direction, and that has always beer
under his management, home fol
the orphan boys, helpless men anC
blind men, ground that he has not lief
in twenty years. 1t was under these
later conditions that a sectarian zealo
criticized Damien as not having him
self done much to improve the condi
ton of the lepers, and the warm hear
of Stevenson famed at indignation a
the charge, and his clear head said
in effect, Damien has done it all; fol
without him nothing would have beer
done, no one would have moved.
And Damien did do it all, in the sense
Stevenson means when he reused
mankind to
Know that the world hath not 81
strange thing,
Twixt east and west, as this small
island hides.
And now he is the spiritual father
of Dutton, and of these other self
sacrificing men and women who have
done it all in the same way since
Damien's death.
A Remarkable Man.
And Dutton is the most remarka
BILE man for the strength of his socia
interest that / have ever known.
believe he has never forgotten in the
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