The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-08-18

make that mistake now. The Doard
of health tests are infallible. The
funny thing is that when the test was
discovered they Immediately went
down to Molokai and applied it, and
they found a number who were not
Iepers. These were Immediately de-
ported. Happy to get away2 They
walled harder at leaving the settle
ment than when they left Honolulu te
go to it. Some refused to leave, and
really had to be forced out. One of
them even married a leper woman in
the last stages and then wrote pa
thetic letters to the board of health,
protesting against his expulsion on
the ground that no one was so well
able as he to take care OF his poor
wife"
"What is this infallible test?" I de-
manded.
"The archaeological test. There is
no getting away from it. DIR. Hervey
he's our expert, you know-was the
first man to apply it here. He is a
wizard. He knows more about lep-
rosy than any living man, and if
cure is ever discovered, he'll be that
discoverer AS for the test, it is very
simple. They have succeeded in iso-
lating the bacillus leprae and study
ing it. They know it now when they
see it. All they do is TO snip bit
of skin from the suspect and subject
It to the meteorological test. a man
without any visible symptoms may be
fuil Of the Ieprosy bacilli."
"Then yoH or /, for all we know" ]
suggested, may be full of it now"
Kersdaie shrugged his shoulders
and laughed.
who can say? 1t takes seven years
for it to incubate. If you have any
doubts go and see Doctor Hervey.
He'll just snip out a piece of your
skin and let you know in jiffy."
Later on he introduced me to Doctor
Hervey, who loaded me down with
board of health reports and pamphlets
on the subject, and took me out to
Kalihi, the Honolulu receiving station,
where suspects we're examined and
confirmed lepers were held for de-
portatioa to Molokai. These deporta-
tiops occurred about once a month,
NhG 1881 6OOd-DSS Sdl0J TIC
leperS were marched on board the lit
tie steamer, the Noeal, and carried
down to the settlement:
One afternoon, writing letters at the
club, Jack Kersdale dropped ia on me.
Just the man l want to see," was
his greeting. I'll show you the saddest
aspect of the whole situation-the
1onnrS waiting ~
| Molokai. The Noeau will be taking
| them on board in few minutes. But
let me warn you not to let your feel
| ings be narrowed. Real as their grief
is, they'd vail a whole sight harder a
year hence if the board of health tried
I to take them from Molokai We've
just time for a whisky and soda. I've
carriage outside. 1t won't take up
/ five minutes to get down to the wharf"
To the wharf we drove. Some forty
sad wretches, amid their mats, blank
cts and luggage of various sorts, were
squatting on the stripger piece. The
Noeau had just arrived, and was max
ing fast to lighter that lay between
her and the wharf. A Mr. McVeigh,
| the superintendent of the settlement,
was overseeing the embarkation, and
| to him was introduced, also to Doc
tor Georges, one of the board of health
/ physicians whom had already met at
| Kalihi. The lepeFs we're a woebegene
lot. But here and there / noticed fair.
ly good-looking persons, with no ap-
parent signs of the fell disease upon
them. One. I noticed, a little white
] crirl M fxrn1un NTH hliro
| eyes and golden hair. One cheek,
however, showed the sign. On my re-
marking upon the sadness of her alien
situation among the brown-skinned
| afflicted ones, Doctor Georges replied:
ooh, don't know. It's happy day
in her life. She comes from Kauai.
Her father is brute. And now that
she has developed the disease, she is
going to join her mother at the settle
ment. Her mother was sent down
there three years ago-a very bad
case"
you can't always tell from appear.
ances," Mr.. Mcveigh explained THAT
man there, that big chap. who looks
the pink of condition with nothing the
matter with him. happen to know,
has a mark on his foot and another on
his SHOULDER blade. Then there are
others-ther6, see that girls hand, the
| one who is smoking the cigarette
See her twisted fingers. That's the
anesthetic form. It attacks tbs
nerves. You could cut her fingers of
with dull knife. or rub them on on a
nutmeg crater and she would not ex
perience the slightest sensation"
Yes. but that fne-looking woman
there / persisted; surely, there
can't Be anything the matter with her
She is too glorious and gorgeous al
together"
a sad case, Mr.. Mcveigh an
sWered over his shoulder. already