The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-13

archipelago the name of 1.-The lonely
leper isle Of Molokai." the Associated
Press correspondent found when he
accompanied the territorial legisla-
ture on a trip to the settlement re
Gently.
A visitor to the colonly, fore
warned of the horror it holds. finds
all of that horror and more that cam
not be discussed But he finds also
that the heavy fog of gloom which
once enVeloped the tragic. narrow
stretch between the sea and the
towering cliffs. has been dissipated
by a ray of light arising from the
favorable results that have attended
the use of the Dean chaulmoogra oil
specific during the past two years in
checking the ravages of the oldest
disease in the world. The hope that
springs eternal in the human breast is
ever present now at Molokai, even in
the most advanced cases.
O O o
Find Smiling Faces
The visitor finds faces smiling
with a cheerfulness that has con-
quered affliction. He is greeted
everywhere by hearty joyful
aloha" the all-embracing Hawaiian
term of salutation, welcome and
we'll wishing. The eagerness with
which the inmates talk to a visitor.
and look for long hours upon an
outside is pathetic, as is their
naive, almost childlike questioning
as to whether the visitor may know
friends of theirs on 1.-The outside"-in
Hilo Honolulu. Waikiki, Lahaina
Many of the patients have taken
refuge in music-the great solace of
| the Hawaiian race. They have or
ganized a band and several singing
clubs. which vie with each other at
song-fests. The performance of one
of these clubs-a patients male oc-
ttt-supplied a bit of pathos that
crops up frequently through the aura
of peace, The patients were singing
gayly a cheerful Hawaiian song of
welcome to the legislators. They
were succeeding admirably. Sud
denly a mandolin player-youne and
apparently a newcomer to the colony
who had been gazing with long
ing into the unscarred faces of the
visitLrs-began weeping. Despite the
tears that streamed down his checks,
he continued, with bravery as fine as
ever seen on any battlefield, to sing
the cheerful words of the song, did
his best to stimulate JOY and keep
the tears out of, his voice.
Go To HOSPITAL.
A man of wealth. of power and of
influence throughout the territory
accompanied the legislators to the
island, He made directly Tor the
hospital as soon as he landed from
the vessels small boat. When the
main body Of the visitors reached the
hospital he was sitting beside one
of the beds, weeping. The bandaged
form upon the bed was his son.
But all is not sorrow at the sad
dest spot on nth. Some distance
from the hospital is a nursery. On
the day of the legislators visit it
contained ten unusually healthy
looking babies ranging from two
weeks to five months in age. They
gurgIed, smiled and laughed, and
shook tiny, chubby fists at the visit
-ors Althougi one or ooth of their
parents are afflicted with leprosy,
the most searching examination pos
sible has failed to shoN trace of
the disease in any one of the chill
dren, or to scores of others who have
been boi to patients at the settle
ment. The children are cared for by
the territory. They are kept at the
settlement until they reach the age
of six months. when they are taken
to Honolulu and placed in a home
maintained by the government.
Apparent COntentment.
The apparent contentment of the in
mates of the colony and their fear of
leaving the spot that has been home"
to many of them for years unless
they are paroled owing to beneficial
results of injections of the chaul-
moogra oil specific, shattered to bits