| Show d 7 am I 1 pathetic scenes inthe in the loper leper col ny 0 islando jm ask the rev bev dr philip anderson andersen who hoi ham returned to his home in pomona valley in southern california after an absence of two years among the islands in the southern pacific archipelago last summer preached to probably the most remarkable congregation in the world the doctor Is the mis glenary of the pacific ocean evangelical 1 mission union and ills duties caused ilita him to spend much time in the cawall in IM 1811 he preached in honolulu for several weeks and there attracted th attention of president dole of the republic the doctor desired to visit molokai the famous island to which lepers are exiled by the national board of health ef cf th hawaiian republic no one except the officers of the national board is permitted to land at molokai Mol okal and I 1 even the officers are guided by strict regulations as to where they go and what they do in the leper colony president dole gave permission to rev dr anderson to go to molokai for one but he was constantly to be accompanied by a physician in the service of the national board of health A tragedy of love and self sacrifice A pathetic love tragedy is being played in the leper colony of molokai Mo lokaJ A beautiful native girl fell in love and married the an man ol 01 her choice soon he developed symptoms of leprosy they were slight and might have been concealed but were not the young husband was banished from honolulu tn molokai his beautiful girl bride w w cross the towering cliffs and fearful gulches and canyons no one could get away from molokai an awful lut picture the territory occupied by the lepers contains contain about abou acres it lies in a little valley wen well watered and protected by mountains from the winds of the great ocean Or oranges angim lemons and bananas grow wild the chief product is rice the lepers are cared for atthe at the expense of hawaii there them are now nearly lepers in the colony A few of them have been there to for twenty five years but most of them have been transported to molokai in the last ten years the lepers know there is absolutely no hope tor for them to leave the leper colony and that the joys of home are forever denied them the very air in the colony sms s ms heavy with leprosy for there is a peculiar sweetish odor wherever one goes among the homes in molokai As I 1 went past the ho hospital the odor of the seventy or eighty lepers who lay on cots in the dooryard or who sat idly about the broad porch was distressing I 1 met the rev father drake who voluntarily went to molokai from syracuse N Y to take the place of father damien who him himself elf a vigorous young man went to live in molokai cai to work among the lepers until death released him from the inevitable years of pain and disease di ease father drake told me that he had suffered the first stages of leprosy although he had avoided the disease a these them n uns go in into to th the e little attl e fro frame homes of the lepers sit hy by them LIL la their hours of pain and suffering in ia the hospital and minister to the rt ro illious welfare of the he dying the little girls in molokai Mol okal who have been toru torn from their homes in honolulu and other e r hawaiian towns almost worship the nuns and have found mu ouch h solace in the presence of the heroic american women who have gone to the colony as to a living tomb if there ever were heroes and heroines in this world those americans american at molokai are heroic 1 I was the first fim white person except father drake who had bad preached in the little chapel at molokai Mol okal when it became known in the colony that the strange white man was going to preach in the chapel nearly every leper in the place who could get about came immediately on the ringing of the bell the physician who accompanied me had the windows and doors of the little wooden structure opened wide so that there might be fresh air in the meeting he also advised me to handle nothing in the church and to touch no one there 1 I never felt so sad as when these the afflicted men women and children entered the chapel chapal among them were several americans who had lived in honolulu and had contracted leprosy among the natives they came in limping on crutches and canes there were too a few englishmen who hobbled down the narrow aisles there were two english women who could sa a stronger astringer friend held the 0 bynm book for the attle one so that she could coul d sing with tho the others there were several little boys bom bright eyed and evident evidently lr from good hawaiian families who had lost fingers and other members they seemed more cheerful than any ot of the others othera probably because they did not realize that they were never again to see home and parents pants and friends when all were seated crutches and tan canes stuck up here and ther all over the chapel A few persons reclined on their benches because of inability uty to sit up I 1 gave a halt half hour talk on the blessings of a resigned christian life and the joy that awaits christians charstan 8 in the other world I 1 think two thirds of my audience know knew english sufficiently well to follow me lepers pry pray for a cure core when I 1 had haa finished a tall scotchman evidently a former sailor of about fifty years of age arose and offered prayer when he had finished a native of honolulu who I 1 was told had bad been a rich rice grower in the islands spoke for about five minutes he said he wanted to tell the american man how bow glad the lepers of molokai were to have a person from the outside world come to see them and that the event would never be forgotten by any one in the colony as long as life remained he broke into tears and said he wished I 1 would ten tell the white people what a horrible thing leprosy was and to urge the white doe doc CA adel Z T 4 T r err 1 I NEVER FELT SO SAD BAD AS WHEN THESE AFFLICTED MEN WOMEN AND CHILDREN ENTERED THE AMONG THEM WERE SEVERAL AMERICANS WHO HAD LIVED IN HONOLULU AND HAD contracted LEPROSY AMONG THE NATIVES THEY CAME IN LIMPING ON AND CANES EVERY ONE IN THE STRANGE assemblage BORE MARKS OF LEPROSY rev dr philip anderson 6 followed she preferred the place with tte its hideous menace to honolulu without her husband now she attends divine worship in the leper colony and is a pathetic figure among the condemned into whose limping ranks the dread disease will soon push her for none that live at molokai ever escape it Is in fact ct an unwritten law of the SaIn Gans that a bride shall share the fate of the husband it if he contracts leprosy that she shall go with him to zhe he leper colony and there without hope await the approach of this horrible lingering death the young bride with the pathos of despair on her countenance looking sadly but resignedly sign edly upon the miserable men and aumen w men about her was noticed by the dr anderson standing at the edge of the strange congregation to which he preached the island of molokai said rev dr anderson in relating his experiences there to a sunday world correspondent spon dent is about ten miles long and four wide its name means land of precipices there is but one landing place on the island and that near the cK aI slony oBy so even if it were possible to year or two by extreme care in his mode of living and association with the lepers he said that the earliest lymp tams of leprosy were konstant eon eonia stant tant headaches slight alight nausea and later camb ness of the fingers and akes so that one might hold his fingers or toes to any unbearably hot suba substance tance and feel no heat then the fini sneers and toes begin to mortify at the joints and later to drop away father drake had lost but one finger joint when we saw him and he believed he might live ten years more he said he was happy that he be could minister to the suffering and dying at molokai as no one else could and aad his only desire to prolong his own lif life e was to cheer and convert those about himl him heroism of women there are four young nuns who have gone to a living death at molo kal one is from syracuse N Y two are sisters from newark N J and the fourth came from philadelphia two have been attacked by the dread disease one is probably not yet with leprosy while the other had been mildly attacked when I 1 was there not have been over thirty five years of age who were without fingers but had preserved their fresh complexion about half a dozen frenchmen and three germania germane were wera la in the throng they had ai all I 1 been sailors and had con leprosy in the hawaiian islands all the rest were natives ot of the islands every one in the strange arsem assemblage sem blage bore marks of leprosy pathetic boy and girl lepe I the little girls and boys who cam to hear me preach were the most pathetic of all A few were attractive la in spite of their sad pinched and tearful faces A few children were as young as ten years and about twenty were between fourteen and eighteen years one little girl the child of parents from san francisco who had been born bom in honolulu was carried to a bench she had lost both her feet and several fingers she had been in the colony for tour four years and the nuns sald said she went to sleep every night weeping and longing for her father and mother another hawaiian girl of fourteen had lost one hand and an ear her remaining hand was so weak that tors to discover some cure for the disease between his sobs he be said that it if it had not been for a hope of happiness in heaven there would be suicides in lokaj evry evory day dar he said they were mi all living as best beat they knew how hoping for speedy death to remove them from misery As he proceeded the congregation began to weep and the lamentation of the girls and young women was the most affecting thing I 1 have ever beheld the physician with me said he never had seen such a heartbreaking heart breaking scene and he had witnessed many among the people who were forcibly taken to molokai I 1 started a familiar hymn and in a few minutes had the weeping people under partial control for all hawaiians Ha Hawaii ans love music dearly then the congregation was dismissed and while the lame and halt went on crutches and canes slowly down the road to their cheap little homes my companion and I 1 silently walked to the dock where we took the government boat tor for honolulu ive witnessed some very touching scenes in my life but that at molokai was the most affecting of all of them |
