Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1913-07-09

| boil, a ulcer, which is carefully
dressed each day, or other minor indi-
cation of the disease. Fifty are ex-
IRENE cases. people in the last stages
of leprosy, but they are confined in a
hospital in a secluded nook, where
they are never seen by any one save
their nurses and the priests. They
have attendants. physicians, Japanese
nurses, books. music and everything
that will hsip to cheer along the drag
ging days until death may come, a
welcome visitor, to release their sui.
fering spirits from useless and mu-
tilated body. Fifty more are superin-
tendents, nurses, physicians, priests
and directors. all in perfect health-alL
devoted TO the work of making Molo.
kai place Of love.
Children of Lepers.
II a man is sent to Molokai. no mat
ter what his station in life may have.
been, he is given one acre of good
ground. farm implements. clothing
food, two-room cottage picturesquely
built and whitewashed, a COW and.
sometimes horse.
IL he chooses to stay on the farm
he gets all he raises, ard receives ALI
he needs from the government stores.
All of them have plenty of meat. rice.
imported foodstuffs and sufficient
clothing. They spade the ground by
hand and cultivate by hand, for the
reason that it takes up more time.
Time is the least valuable thing in the.
world at Molokai. The only difficulty
is how to find some way to waste it
faster SO that 1t may not hang heavily
upon the heads Of the lepers. giving
them opportunity to think of their
doom.
Perhaps the most interesting organ
ization in the island is the Amateur
Dramatic society which puts before its
Intelligent audiences plays by Shake
speare. Sudermann. Clyde Fitch, Ibsen
and Shaw. Mr.. Arroll says that these
plays are presented with skill and an
artistic Interpretation which are really
wonderful.
Few persons realize the fact that a
child born of leprous parents bears abb
solutely no hereditary faint. Because
of this the lepers are allowed to marry
IL they wish, and II child is born to
them it is taken Immediately upon it's
arrival in the world, placed in the cara
of Japanese nurses and brought up
without ever coming into contact with
lepers. The child so born is never per-
mitted to see or to know its parents.
but after remaining in the settlement
until it has attained the age of five or
more years it is carefully examined
and then sent to live with its relatives
on the mainland. Strange and impos-
sible as it may seem, for the finest sci
entists have wondered at it and failed
to find q reason, never has there a case
been known where such a child has
developed any trace of leprosy Some
OF the finest men in the various walks
of life in Hawaii and in other parts OF
the world are children one or both OF
whose parents had leprosy at the time
of their birth.
Since the discovery that leprosy is.
no more contagious than blood poison
ing. 1t has not been so hard task to
get doctors. nurses, priests, superin.
tendents and storekeepers to go to the
settlement, especially since they are at
liberty to return to their own people
at any time upon submitting to rigid
physical examination.
Lepers-outcasts. Yes, the terms are
synonymous in the sense that these az
flicted people may not ever return to
what is called civilization, that they
are forever separated from their
homes and friends-but outcasts
never. in the sense that they are neg
lected in the tiniest detail of their
lives, OF that they suffer for lack OF
sympathy or tender compassion.