The Dawson news., 1925-09-22
QUITS LEPER ISLE AFTER
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
M'VEIGH RETIRES AS SUPER
INTENDENT OF THE SAD
DEST SPOT ON EARTH"
HAS DONE A GREAT SERVICE

Progress Made in Treating the Dis
ease. Lepers Helped to win the
War;" Raised $1,000 for Red Cross.
Almost a quarter OF century in the
service of the inmates of Kalaupapa,
the "saddest spot on earth," on "the
lonely leper isle of Molokai," was
completed recently when John d. Nc
Weigh retired as superintendent of the
settlement and assumed a supervisory
and advisory position for the leprosy
receiving station at Kalihi, Honolulu.
McVeigh was succeeded as superin-
tendent by Ralph L. Cooke, former
superintendent of the wireless depart
ment of the Mutual Telephone Com
pany. Dr. w. ]. Goodhue, who has
served as physician at the settlement
since 1902, also retired and was sue
ceeded by DR.. Harold Marshall, who
has been at the settlement in Louis
lana.
Amusements Introduced.
Reviewing his service on the small
Triangular shelf between raging ocean
breakers and the virtually impossible
windward cliffs of Molokai, which
houses the settlement, McVeigh said
that the three greatest changes were
the building of poi factory, the in
PRODUCTION of motion pictures to the
colony and the discovery of the Dean
chaulmoogra oil specific for the treat
ment of the inmates. These provided
palatable food, distraction for the
mind and relief and perhaps cure for
the body, he said.
The chaulmoogra oil specific is more
eficacious at the Kalihi receiving sta
tion, for it's greatest effect is obtained
in the early stages of the scourge and
Kalaupapa receives only relatively adj
vanced cases.
So highly does McVeigh regard the
treatment that he predicted the close
of the Molokai settlement within
twenty years if diseased persons would
surrender themselves and receive in
enlisting of public support for the ter
ritory's fight against leprosy are aims
to which he intends to devote himself.
McVeigh a Pioneer.
/" Almost A every passenger steamer
arriving here from the mainland has
some contribution to the tuberculosis
sanitariums," he commented. But lit
tie is done for the lepers. There is too
much of the attitude, oh, he's leper;
send him to Molokai to die.
AS the first man who gave his un-
divided attention to the settlement
McVeigh was called upon to do a
great deal of pioneering work. He nj
terested the inmates in baseball, horse
racing and other sports that would
help them to forget their condition,
and brought them to realize that they
were not outcasts but victims OF a
certain disease"
Describing the patients, McVeigh
said: They are first rate. They come
into my yard to work, but they would
never think of entering my house.
They are law-abiding, and it is re-
markable what little discipling they
need If they are all treated alike.
"When the United States entered
the war | called the lepers together
and told them that things might be
a little hard and food short. That's
all right said their spokesman. SO
long as the country is in trouble wen
not complain.
They invested all they could in
war savings stamps, some buying more
than they could afford, but they never
tried to sell the stamps until the war
was over. During a Red Cross cam
paign the settlement raised So99,70,
and the lepers wanted to make clothes
for the boys in France.
81 explained to them as carefully as
/ could that we could serd nothing,
because it would not be accepted, but
that did not stop them, and they sub
scribed money to have clean persons
do the work"