The Semi-weekly leader., 1922-04-05
BROOKHAVEN GIRL
WRITES OF LEPERs
Miss Fannie Butterfield Tells of
Korean Leper COlony-Mis-
si6nariAs at Work.
songdo, Korea. Mar. Son. 1s22

NAAeAAAS ASo az W Wins
Songdo, Korea, Mar. 5th. 1922
Dear Friends in Brookhaven:-
When visiting recently in the home
of Mr.. Kelly Unger "a loyal Missis
| sippian but lately come out to d.
leper work in Kwangju, Korea)
promised him that would write t.
the home papers my impressions o.
the colony, which is housing, at pres
ent, about 500 lepers.
In the first place, I must explain
the difference between the attitude
out here and that at home towart
the disease. l must confess thai
when Mrs. Smith "saw me off" al
the train, sending greetings to hei
niece, Mrs. Unger, and hoping that
we would soon meet, / had no in
ward intentions of ever making any
move myself. in that direction.
had always had the notion that if q
leper even passed across the street, a
few of my fingers and toes would i'm
mediately fall off. 1t may be that
the prevalence of the disease, in this
part of the world, has made people
less afraid of it; but it is also true
that it is much less contagious than
l, for one, had ever thought. / am
told that grown-ups do not take ii
readily; that, in truth, husband and
wife both have never been discovered
with the dreaded disease. On the
other hand, children become quickly
tainted and the, most pitiful sight
believe ever saw was that of the
little folks running around that col
ony, perfectly healthy, so far, but
with no place else to go and doomed,
by their very presence there, to a
life imprisonment, so to speak.
The preceding statement, I must
hasten to add, is not literally true,
for wonderful developments are TAX
ing place with the use of the chaul-
moogra oil-extracted from bean
grown in India-and it's further de-
rivative, ethyl ester. Numbers of
cases are being discharged as arrest
ed, if not cured. They are carefully
watched for a year, at least, during
which time they are usually preach
ing and teaching the poor outcast
lepers, who must live as beggars un-
til they can get into the institutions.
Which reminds me that there are
now 72 poor creatures who were TAX
en- in for the winter, by the mission
aries of all denominations in Korea.
They were told when they were
brought in that it would be only un-
til spring and they expect nothing
different, but they have responded so
we'll to the treatment that DR.. Wilson
is hoping that the way may be open
ed up for him to keep them and has
us all praying to that end. They
are each learning a trade and are
being given their rice and shelter,
while they provide their own clothes
and other food.
When we drove up to the gate Of
the large compound, a group of
wretched looking beggars were wait
AhE IAO "a A1Nd1 Vi lAO w Oil Jdny
to implore admission. 1t may give
you some idea of their condition when
L tell you that some were not even
lepers but were SO miserable that
they were willing to live in the home
and pretend to be patients. Most of
them were children and they were
purple, swollen and often with fin
gers, noses, ears, hands and feet eat
en- away. Once within the grounds,
however, things appeared much less
gruesome. The girls, glad of<an op-
portunity to "show off,, produced a
gaily decorated Maypole and gave us
an exhibition of their grace. and a.
bility. 1t was the 28th of December
but the name of the dance meant
nothing to them.
The first building we were shown
was the dormitory, built by the Bel
haven College. girls and just nearing
completion. The inmates had not on
ly cut the lumber, but made the
brick and tile roofing and done all
the work. Imagine putting up two
storied building to accommodate so
in America for $1,000! That is what
this one cost and it is very wonder
full thing for those Mississippi stu
dents to have done.
In the second doruitory, saw a
woman in the first throes of the
weekly treatment. 1t seems that the
injections, to start with, arouse a
toxin in the body which has even
more serious effects than small
pox vaccination sometimes does. The
blisters on her face and neck were
larger than any ever saw and she
was writhing on the floor, on ac-
count of the accompanying "leper
fever" / was assured that this was
only temporary and that in six
months time both the terrible swell
ing and purplish skin, characteristic
of the leper, would have disappear
ed Certain it is that we saw no
evidence of it in the appearance of
those who had been under treatment
for that period of time.
In the next woman's dormitory, we
were introduced to beautiful young
woman whose life seems to be as
lovely as her face. Eight years ago
she was dying in the Soul House, !,
where the absolutely hopeless cases
are sent, when her friends called a
meeting to pray for her recovery.
They had decided that she could not
be spared. She. was soon restored
to apparent health, and since that