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Lepers of Molokai-Charles Warren Stoddard · What Prohibition Has Done to America

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  Speaker 1: Prolog and chapters one through three of The Lepers of Molochai.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Lepers of Molokai by Charles
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  Speaker 1: Warren Stoddard Prolog. The afternoon was waning in the tropical seaport.
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  Speaker 1: Already the heat was tempered and the glares softened by
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  Speaker 1: the humidity of the slowly approaching dusk. A little while
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  Speaker 1: and the sun would sink silently into the immeasurable abyss
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  Speaker 1: beyond the waves, and the brief, delicious twilight bathed for
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  Speaker 1: a moment only in the splendor of the afterglow would
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  Speaker 1: adorn itself with clusters of trembling stars. At such an hour,
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  Speaker 1: beguiled with reveries, en soothed by the exquisite fragrance that
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  Speaker 1: exhales at dewfall, I was startled by by a piercing
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  Speaker 1: cry that seemed the last agonizing protest of a riven heart.
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  Speaker 1: Not one voice only broke upon the stillness, but another,
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  Speaker 1: and another, and yet another, until a chorus of despair
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  Speaker 1: rang shrilly over the low roofed cottages in the grove
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  Speaker 1: that stood between me and the not far distant shore.
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  Speaker 1: With no little emotion, I hurried seaward and speedily overtook
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  Speaker 1: a melancholy procession of weeping women, followed by a few
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  Speaker 1: silent people who were being conducted with decent haste toward
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  Speaker 1: the esplanade of Honolulu. The miserable beings, with the dazed
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  Speaker 1: look of lingering death in their fearful countenances, were soon
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  Speaker 1: disposed on the deck of a small outward bound craft.
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  Speaker 1: And then, in a few moments that intervened between the
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  Speaker 1: casting off of the shore line and the sudden impulse
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  Speaker 1: of the little steamer, as she swung about in mid
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  Speaker 1: stream and made bravely for the mouth of the harbor,
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  Speaker 1: the pitiful whil of men, women and children was renewed.
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  Speaker 1: Those grouped upon the extreme edge of the wharf were
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  Speaker 1: wringing their hands over the water, while rivers of tears
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  Speaker 1: coursed down their ashen cheeks. The others upon the deck
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  Speaker 1: of the departing vessel brooded for a time as in
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  Speaker 1: dumb agony, but anon an unearthly cry rang over the
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  Speaker 1: tranquil sea. It was their long farewell the sun just
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  Speaker 1: touching the horizon seemed to pause for a moment, while
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  Speaker 1: the great deep burst into a sheet of flame. Tongues
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  Speaker 1: of fire darted and played among the wavelets as they
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  Speaker 1: tossed in the evening breeze, and the broad rays shot
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  Speaker 1: from cloud to cloud, painting them with glory and crowning
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  Speaker 1: the peaks of the beautiful island with red gold. Even
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  Speaker 1: the palm trees were gilded, and their plumes glissed, And
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  Speaker 1: as they swayed rhythmically to the low melody of the
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  Speaker 1: tide that ebbed beneath them, so faded that ill starred
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  Speaker 1: bark like a moat in the shimmering sea. A few
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  Speaker 1: moments only, and the splendor died away. The twilight glow
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  Speaker 1: of the Tropics is as brief as it is intense,
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  Speaker 1: and the sudden coming of night drew a veil over
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  Speaker 1: a picture that, though frequent, is nevertheless painful to the
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  Speaker 1: least sympathetic observer. Darkness had come. The silence that came
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  Speaker 1: with it was broken only by the splash of ripples
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  Speaker 1: under the bow of some passing canoe, or the low
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  Speaker 1: moan of the water upon the distant reef. But the
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  Speaker 1: mourners were still crouching upon the edge of the deck,
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  Speaker 1: whence their eyes had caught the last glimpse of the
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  Speaker 1: fading forms of those whom they were never again to
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  Speaker 1: behold in the flesh. For those despairing but unresisting souls
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  Speaker 1: swallowed up in the transfiguration of the sunset, were lepers
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  Speaker 1: snatched from the breast of sympathy and from the arms
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  Speaker 1: of love, doomed to the hopeless degradation of everlasting banishment,
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  Speaker 1: and born in the night, to that dim island, whose
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  Speaker 1: melancholy shores are the sole refuge of these hostages to death,
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  Speaker 1: an island as solitary, as silent, as serene as dreamland,
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  Speaker 1: Mournful Molokai, Chapter one. For three years and more, I
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  Speaker 1: had been a resident of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty years before, I had visited that little kingdom, and
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  Speaker 1: had again and again returned to it with the ardor
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  Speaker 1: of first love. The kingdom, which has been called the
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  Speaker 1: sweetest and the saddest in the world, has ever possessed
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  Speaker 1: for me the greatest interest. And I have learned to
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  Speaker 1: know and to appreciate the charmingly the ingenuous islanders, who,
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  Speaker 1: while they have acquired all the rights and titles to civilization,
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  Speaker 1: have likewise been visited by one of the most dreaded ills.
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  Speaker 1: That flesh is heir to the asiatic leprosy. Many a
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  Speaker 1: time I had longed to revisit the leper settlements on Molokai,
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  Speaker 1: sixteen years before I had first looked upon that ill
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  Speaker 1: fated spot, a village that was then considerably smaller, for
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  Speaker 1: the lepers were scattered throughout the kingdom. But my desire
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  Speaker 1: was not easily satisfied, for there is a justifiable disinclination
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  Speaker 1: on the part of the government to permit the curious
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  Speaker 1: to explore the settlement and circulate sensational reports concerning the
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  Speaker 1: life of the lepers in their banishment. A permission to
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  Speaker 1: visit the settlement was finally by the order of the
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  Speaker 1: President of the Board of Health, signed by the Secretary
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  Speaker 1: of the Board, and forwarded to my address, together with
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  Speaker 1: a polite letter from the President of the Board stating
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  Speaker 1: the cause of its delay. It seems that they had
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  Speaker 1: resolved that no further permissions should be granted, hoping thus
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  Speaker 1: to keep secret the painful truths concerning leprosy in the
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  Speaker 1: Hawaiian Kingdom. Provided with this necessary passport, I was doubly
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  Speaker 1: fortunate in being invited to join two of the government
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  Speaker 1: physicians who were about to visit Molokai professionally on a
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  Speaker 1: tour of inspection. Thus, one afternoon in October eighteen eighty four,
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  Speaker 1: I shook hands with doctor George K. Fitch and doctor
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  Speaker 1: Arthur Mouritz on board the Inner Island steamer Like Like,
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  Speaker 1: and shortly after we three were on our way to Molokai.
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  Speaker 1: There was a sunset at sea, a late moonrise, and
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  Speaker 1: a well on midnight. We came to anchor off Kwana Kakai,
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  Speaker 1: the chief port of the island, and were presently rowed
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  Speaker 1: a long mile to shore in a whale boat manned
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  Speaker 1: by Kanakas. We seemed to have picked this jovial crew
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  Speaker 1: up at sea, for the boat was awaiting our arrival
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  Speaker 1: far out beyond the reef. Safe on shore, we found
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  Speaker 1: the airy cottage of a high chiefess at our disposal.
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  Speaker 1: Willing hands brewed deep bowls of chicken broth, and there
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  Speaker 1: was an abundance of good bread for our refreshment. This
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  Speaker 1: might easily be called a square meal in many parts
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  Speaker 1: of the Hawaiian Islands, where the markets are few and
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  Speaker 1: meagerly supplied. Our cottage stood close to the shore. The
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  Speaker 1: moon was shining upon the sea and sifting through the
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  Speaker 1: feathery boughs of the mesquite trees over the white sand
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  Speaker 1: that had drifted all about us. Natives gathered around us,
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  Speaker 1: talking rosily, yet with no thought of sleep, for the
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  Speaker 1: arrival of the weekly steamer is the one event in
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  Speaker 1: their aimless and easy lives. Small sleep for us. That night,
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  Speaker 1: the doctors were diagnosing leprosy over their cigars. I listened
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  Speaker 1: or dreamed of my former experiences on the island, which
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  Speaker 1: has come to be known as one of the most interesting,
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  Speaker 1: though the least visited and most solitary, of the group.
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  Speaker 1: We dozed a little toward dawn, dozed to the murmur
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  Speaker 1: of wavelets that broke very softly upon the shore, not
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  Speaker 1: a stone's throw distant. But we were hoping to be
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  Speaker 1: in the saddle in a way before sunrise, and were
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  Speaker 1: astir at times. As is usually the case with the happy,
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  Speaker 1: go lucky Hawaiian, Neither beast nor human appeared until nine
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  Speaker 1: o'clock in the day, but we were so glad to
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  Speaker 1: get started even at that late hour, that we forgave
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  Speaker 1: and forgot in a moment. It is a long, hot,
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  Speaker 1: dusty ride from the beach to the far edge of
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  Speaker 1: the windward cliffs of Molokai. There is no half way house,
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  Speaker 1: no roadside spring, no shelter from the fierce glare of
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  Speaker 1: the sun. The salt sea trades blow over the ridge
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  Speaker 1: of the island, clothed in clouds of fine red dust,
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  Speaker 1: but one is constantly ascending into purer, clearer, sweeter air.
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  Speaker 1: And when the rain swept highlands are reached, the scattering
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  Speaker 1: groves of Kukui and Kamani trees, the deep and verdant
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  Speaker 1: ravines musical with sparkling rivulets, the whirr of wings, the
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  Speaker 1: delicious temperature, the cloud capped and almost inaccessible heights, that
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  Speaker 1: shelter the upper regions begat one, and to the belief
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  Speaker 1: that he has actually entered another zone. At the end
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  Speaker 1: of the third long and monotonous hour, we came to
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  Speaker 1: a and were hospitably entertained by mister R. W. Meyer,
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  Speaker 1: a pioneer of Molokai, agent of the Board of Health,
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  Speaker 1: and superintendent of the Leper Settlement. On this beautiful height,
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  Speaker 1: he stands between the world and those who are no
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  Speaker 1: longer of it, and but for my passport, he could
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  Speaker 1: have retained me a prisoner in his family until the
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  Speaker 1: return of my companions after their tour of inspection. Is
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  Speaker 1: but a mile or two from the Meyer mansion to
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  Speaker 1: the brink of the cliff, where we were to abandon
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  Speaker 1: our horses. There was no longer any need of haste,
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  Speaker 1: and we tarried in delightful conversation with the gentleman, whose
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  Speaker 1: hospitality is famous, and whose home life is almost patriarchal.
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  Speaker 1: The ride to the cliff, through a gently undulating land
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  Speaker 1: rich in perennial verdure, was most exhilarating, our well bated
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  Speaker 1: beast seeming to enjoy the bracing atmosphere as well as
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  Speaker 1: we followed with a light foot the trail that wound
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  Speaker 1: among umbrageous groves, where the squirrel and the rabbits skipped
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  Speaker 1: nimbly anon through grassy meadows. The pheasant and the plover
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  Speaker 1: darted from under foot at our approach, or beside reedy pools,
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  Speaker 1: where the wild duck flocked fearlessly and were too bold
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  Speaker 1: or too weary after their long flight from Labrador to
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  Speaker 1: take wing again. Cattle and sheep covered the hills, but
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  Speaker 1: the shy deer were hidden in the brush, where the
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  Speaker 1: quail piped and called, and the wild dove cooed. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: it was difficult to believe that we were still in
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  Speaker 1: the tropics, for all these birds and beasts, save only
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  Speaker 1: the far flying duck, are importations, chiefly the property of
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  Speaker 1: the king, and each and all of them now thoroughly domesticated.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly we came upon a rustic bar that blocked the way.
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  Speaker 1: Here we dismounted, and a lad who had accompanied us
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  Speaker 1: thus far took charge of the animals that were to
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  Speaker 1: be led back to the pasturage at mister Myers, there
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  Speaker 1: to await our pleasure. The little luggage we had brought
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  Speaker 1: with us, it was as little as possible, was deposited
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  Speaker 1: on the grass. While we approached a jungle that grew
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  Speaker 1: upon the edge of the cliff. Tearing our way through
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  Speaker 1: the shrubs and vines, we came upon the brink and
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  Speaker 1: looked down. We were three thousand feet in the air.
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  Speaker 1: The whole face of the abyss was a cataract of verdure,
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  Speaker 1: breaking at intervals into a foam of flowers. And upon
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  Speaker 1: the crest of this cataract we were balanced like the
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  Speaker 1: birds of the air. Surely it was a bird's eye
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  Speaker 1: view that thrilled us. At that moment. There was a
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  Speaker 1: great sweep of sky blue sea, and a greater sweep
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  Speaker 1: of sea blue sky, And between the two we hung
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  Speaker 1: suspended among the branches that bent under our weight. A
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  Speaker 1: little sail, looking like a snowflake, seemed ready to melt.
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  Speaker 1: In the dreamy and delicious distance. A rain cloud was
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  Speaker 1: trailing across the horizon. But for this feature we would
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  Speaker 1: hardly have known where to draw the line, for sea
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  Speaker 1: and sky were as won. Far beneath us was a
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  Speaker 1: tongue of land thrust out into the sea. It was
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  Speaker 1: sun burnt and dust colored, blackened at the edges where
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  Speaker 1: the rough lava rocks were uncovered and frothed from end
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  Speaker 1: to end with tumbling breakers. Scarcely a tree was visible
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  Speaker 1: throughout its length and breadth. But it was divided and
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  Speaker 1: subdivided by low stone walls into a thousand small lots
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  Speaker 1: of every conceivable shape, each one perhaps a birthright, and
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  Speaker 1: all of them no doubt under cultivation. Formerly, for Molico
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  Speaker 1: was once densely populated, and this isolated portion of the
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  Speaker 1: island was, in those days a popular resort On one
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  Speaker 1: shore of the lowland was a little hamlet, a handful
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  Speaker 1: of tiny white cottages scattered in a green and sheltered spot.
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  Speaker 1: On the opposite shore, two miles away, was another and
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  Speaker 1: somewhat larger settlement, with its cottages more scattered and its
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  Speaker 1: garden spots less green. Both of these villages were nestling
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  Speaker 1: near the cliffs, one of them quite in the shadow.
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  Speaker 1: Between the two, there were but few habitations, and at
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  Speaker 1: the farther end of the lowland, were it jutted into
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  Speaker 1: the sea, there were none at all. Near the center
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  Speaker 1: of the lowland was a small low crater, a hillock
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  Speaker 1: with a funnel shaped hollow in the middle of it,
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  Speaker 1: and in the bottom of the hollow a pool of
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  Speaker 1: water that rises and falls with the sea tide. The
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  Speaker 1: whole plain was like a crust over the water, with
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  Speaker 1: a broken bubble in the midst of it. This was
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  Speaker 1: the sight of the Leper settlement on Molokai that has
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  Speaker 1: been much written about, and most written about by those
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  Speaker 1: who have never seen it. Its history is still almost
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  Speaker 1: a mystery, save to the few who have been in
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  Speaker 1: some way associated with it. Rumors concerning it, whether true
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  Speaker 1: or false, it were difficult to determine have often redounded
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  Speaker 1: to the discredit of the Hawaiian government. Certain it is
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  Speaker 1: that in some cases the affairs at the settlement have
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  Speaker 1: been deliberately, perhaps maliciously misrepresented. I have read more than
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  Speaker 1: one account descriptive of the settlement, the writers of which
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  Speaker 1: could never have visited Molokai. Even the geography of the
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  Speaker 1: territory was imaginary and absurdly incorrect. As for the victims
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  Speaker 1: of the plague left hauling in their last agonies in
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  Speaker 1: the columns of the daily press, such cases are unknown
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  Speaker 1: in the annals of leprosy. The sun was still blazing
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  Speaker 1: upon the plain below us. We were to foot it
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  Speaker 1: down the zigzag trail, each with his share of luggage.
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  Speaker 1: It was every man for himself now, but the hindermost
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  Speaker 1: had the advantage, for there was no one to send
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  Speaker 1: tiny avalanches of gravel and dirt into his neck during
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  Speaker 1: that perilous descent. A little later, and the long shadows
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  Speaker 1: would begin to swing out from the cliff, cooling the
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  Speaker 1: downward path. We resolved to camp for a while on
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  Speaker 1: the breezy heights above the sunlit settlement, while we thought
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  Speaker 1: on the palms and the still waters. We had left
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  Speaker 1: that morning, the health and happiness that sported beside them,
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  Speaker 1: and on the abomination of desolation we were likely to
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  Speaker 1: abide with before the dusk of the evening had begun
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  Speaker 1: to shut it out from our eyes. Chapter two. It
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  Speaker 1: is now more than half a century since leprosy was
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  Speaker 1: introduced into the Hawaiian Islands. It would be quite impossible
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  Speaker 1: to point with certainty to the original case, but it
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  Speaker 1: is generally understood that the seed of the dreadful malady
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  Speaker 1: came from Asia and came in the person of an
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  Speaker 1: ill fated foreigner. He may or may not have been
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  Speaker 1: aware of the incalculable injury he was about to inflict
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  Speaker 1: upon a nation that had been, until the arrival of
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  Speaker 1: Captain Cook in seventeen ninety, almost entirely free from the
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  Speaker 1: numerous contagious diseases that prevail among civilized communities. But the
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  Speaker 1: life he led in Hawaii was such as to speedily
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  Speaker 1: communicate this mortal disease, and it was not long before
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  Speaker 1: its unmistakable symptoms were developing in every quarter of the kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: Then would have been a proper time in which the check,
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  Speaker 1: so far as possible, the spread of the pestilence. Yet
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  Speaker 1: even then it was perhaps too late. The Hawaiians are
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  Speaker 1: a sociable people. They are continually traveling from one country
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  Speaker 1: to another. They live in the closest intimacy, are generous
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  Speaker 1: and hospitable to a fault. A Hawaiian's home is your
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  Speaker 1: home the moment you enter it, and so long as
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  Speaker 1: you choose to lodge there, all that is in the
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  Speaker 1: house is at your disposal. If your wardrobe needs replenishing,
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  Speaker 1: you are welcome to the wardrobe of the family, though
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the chances are that you would hardly better yourself were
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  Speaker 1: you to appropriate the entire stock. It may as well
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  Speaker 1: be added here that this custom was general in former years,
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  Speaker 1: but of late the simplicity and generosity of the natives
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: have been so often abused that a stranger is now
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  Speaker 1: greeted with some caution and discrimination. Leprosy develops slowly. One
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  Speaker 1: may be a leper for months or even years before
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  Speaker 1: the symptoms of the disease begin to discover themselves and
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  Speaker 1: at last become externally evident. Then they are unmistakable. But
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  Speaker 1: by this time great mischief may have been done, and
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  Speaker 1: done innocently enough, perhaps, for the leper will have but
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  Speaker 1: recently become conscious of his state. Thus, leprosy spread through
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom, and spread to such an alarming degree that
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  Speaker 1: it became necessary to take public action in the matter.
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  Speaker 1: The disease is acknowledged by the medical world to be incurable,
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  Speaker 1: it has ever been so considered, and as yet, though
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: a thousand experiments have been tried, the most hopeful of
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the scientists have abandoned the field in despair. The Mosaic
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Law was explicit in regard to the treatment of those
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  Speaker 1: afflicted by leprosy. They they were to be set apart
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  Speaker 1: without the gates, and to walk alone, crying, unclean unclean.
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  Speaker 1: Their garments were to be burned, their houses cleansed, and
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  Speaker 1: all direct communication between the clean and the unclean was
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  Speaker 1: expressly prohibited. In like manner, segregation was considered to be
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  Speaker 1: the only hope of the Hawaiian race. A suitable spot
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  Speaker 1: was sought to which the lepers might be removed, where
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  Speaker 1: they might be tenderly cared for and jealously guarded, and
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  Speaker 1: there they were to end their miserable days. The prospect
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  Speaker 1: of life banishment alarmed the natives, both the sick and
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  Speaker 1: the hail They were not, and they still are not,
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  Speaker 1: afraid of the disease. They are most affectionate people. They
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  Speaker 1: loved their friends with the love passing the love of woman. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: they are fearless of death. At heart, they are fatalists.
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  Speaker 1: When the health agent of the government went forth in
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  Speaker 1: search of the afflicted, hoping to gather them together, house them,
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  Speaker 1: feed them, and clothe them at the government expense, he
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  Speaker 1: found great difficulty in securing any of them. At the
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  Speaker 1: approach of this health officer, the lepers would be secreted
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  Speaker 1: by friends who were willing to brave possible contagion rather
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  Speaker 1: than part with those so dear to them. Sometimes the
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  Speaker 1: unfortunates were surprised and given into the hands of the police,
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  Speaker 1: who were to have charge of them until they could
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  Speaker 1: be shipped to the new settlement. Eye witnesses of the
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  Speaker 1: heartrending scenes that followed these captures will not soon forget
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the agony of the final partings. Terrible as was the emergency,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the voice of the government could justly say, with hamlet,
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  Speaker 1: I must be cruel, only to be kind. It was
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  Speaker 1: a question of saving the remnant of the nation at
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  Speaker 1: the price of the hopeless few. The little lowland at
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  Speaker 1: our feet was found to be by all odds the
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  Speaker 1: most desirable locality in the whole group for a settlement
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: such as was proposed. There are few white people on
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the island of Molokai. This lowland was seldom, perhaps never visited.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Certainly there was no necessity of its being visited by
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: those who were not concerned in the welfare of the natives.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: The few settlers, old settlers, certainly still rusticating on the
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: breezy and unsheltered plains below us, could dispose of their
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: birthrights if they chose to do so, or they could remain,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: for there was abundant room for all who were likely
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: to find sanctuary in that sad spot. There was ample
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: sustenance on both land and sea. Fishers were living among
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the foam crested rocks. The husbandman would find an immediate
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: market for his produce, and he was alike fearless and
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: hospitably disposed. Indeed, all things considered, no better refuge for
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the leper could be found, and so the little lowland
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: under the great windward cliff of Molokai was speedily and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: permanently secured. Transportation began immediately, and for twenty years it
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: has continued. It has continued in spite of the pitiful
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: protestations of friends and relations, and in spite of the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: first instinct of humanity, the natural peal of the sympathetic,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: it has continued, and it will, it must continue until
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the last vestige of leprosy has disappeared from the Kingdom
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Hawaii In thus separating the clean from the unclean is
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: following somewhat tardily, perhaps the why and vigorous example of
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: the older commonwealths of the world. Sir James Y Simpson,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Baronet of the University of Edinburgh, in his Learned and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Conclusive Essay on Leprosy in the Leper Hospitals of England
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and Scotland, gives a list of one hundred and ten
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: leper houses that existed in Great Britain from the twelfth
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: to the sixteenth century. He says, by Astruse, Bauch and others,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: it has been averred that the leprosy of the Middle
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Ages was introduced from the East by those who returned
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: from the Crusades, though the disease was not unknown on
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the continent at an earlier period, and there were two
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Lazar houses at Canterbury during the reign of William the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Conqueror seven years previous to the First Crusade. Messiree records
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: that in the twelfth century there was scarcely a town
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: or village in France without its hospital. Moratori gives a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: similar account of the extent of the disease during the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Middle Ages in Italy. Old Scandinavian historians amply proved that
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the kingdoms of Northern Europe equally became
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: its unfortunate victims. In England and Scotland, during the same period,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: leprosy was as rife as it was on the neighboring continent.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Almost every large town in Great Britain had a leper
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: hospital or a village near it for the reception and
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: isolation of the diseased. Some of the cities were supplied
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: with more than one lazar house. There were six of
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: these establishments at Norwich or its immediate vicinity, and five
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: at Lynn Regis. In that age, when leprosy flourished, laws
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: were enacted by nearly all the powers of Europe to
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: arrest its diffusion among their subjects. The popes issued rules
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: regarding the ecclesiastical separation and rights of the afflicted. A
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: particular order of knighthood was instituted to watch over the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: sick according to the tenor of various civil codes and
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: local enactments in Great Britain and other countries, says a writer,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: when a person became afflicted with leprosy, he was considered
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: as legally and politically dead, and lost the privileges belonging
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: to his right of citizenship. Thus we dwelt upon a
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: theme that was now continually uppermost in our minds. And
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: while we sat upon the brow of the cliff low,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the shadows had swung out over the plain and tinted
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the shallow shoreline of the sea a deeper indigo. Come
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: let us be going, said one of the party. Whereupon
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: we shouldered our packs, and, with staff in hand, approaching
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: the precipitous trail, single file, took the first downward step.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: It was like plunging into space. Chapter three. We were dropping, slipping,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: shambling down a sharp flank of the cliff that cut
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the air like a flying buttress. By a series of
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: irregular steps, we slowly descended, leaping from rock to rock
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: when practicable, but often putting off our packs, sliding into
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the little ledge below, and then dragging the packs after us.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: On each side of us was a dense growth of brush,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: a kind of natural parapet over which we could hurl
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: a stone a thousand feet into the sheer depths, but
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: we could not hear it strike. Sea birds soared above
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: us and below us. Sometimes they hovered just above our
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: heads and eyed us curiously. Then with a stroke of
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: their powerful wings, they would soar away with a cry
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: that was half fearful defiant. My brain whirled as I
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: watched them poised in mid air, and thought of the
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: awful distance between them and the earth. For two hours,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: we continued to descend, often pausing for breath, sometimes sinking
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: through weariness, always wondering if this were not the last
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: turn in the zigzag that seemed to wind on to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the end of time. Now and then we came upon
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the carcasses of cattle that had perished in this awful path.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: For herdsmen are sometimes driven down the steep incline to
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: supply the leper market, and there is always some loss
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: of life in these cases. At intervals, we treaded deliciously
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: cool and shady groves, from under whose dense boughs we
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: could look slantwise into the settlement and see men and
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: women moving to and fro, and so last we came
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: out upon the treeless plain, faint and footsore, at least
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: this was my state, and began to slowly make our
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: way toward Calouao, the chief lepper village, about a mile
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: and a half distant. At the Lodge, a neat framed
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: building reserved for the exclusive use of the visiting physician
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and his friends, we deposited our packs, left orders for
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: an early dinner, and proceeded toward the neighboring village. The
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: first glimpse of Calawaeo might lead a stranger to pronounce
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: it a thriving hamlet of perhaps five hundred inhabitants. Its
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: single street is bordered by neat, whitewashed cottages with numerous
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: little gardens of bright flowers and clusters of graceful and
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: decorative tropical trees. It lies so near the base of
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the mountain that not a few of the huge stones
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: that were loosened by the reins have come thundering down
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the heights and rolled almost to the fences that enclosed
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: the village suburbs. As we passed down the street, doctor
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Fitch was greeted on every hand. He had been expected,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: for it was his custom to visit the settlement monthly,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and many a shout of welcome was raised, and many
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: an alloah, the fond salutation of the race, rang from doorway,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: window and veranda. One group of stalwart fellows swung their
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: hats in air and gave three lusty cheers for a
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: cowca the doctor, topping them off with a burst of
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: childish laughter. Thus far, inasmuch as we had scarcely looked
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: into the faces of these villagers, they seemed to us
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: the merriest and most contented community in the world. But
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: let it be remembered that we were all in the
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: deep afternoon's shadow, and our arrival was the sensation of
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: the hour. By the roadside, in the edge of the village,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: between it and the sea, stood a little chapel, the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: cross upon its low belfry, and the larger cross in
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: the cemetery beyond. Assured us that the poor villagers were
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: not neglected in the hour of their extremity. As we
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: drew near, the churchyard, gate was swung open for us
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: by a troop of laughing urchins, who stood had in
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: hand to give us welcome. Now, for the first time
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I noticed that They were all disfigured, that their faces
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: were seared and scarred, their hands and feet maimed and
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: sometimes bleeding, their eyes like the eyes of some half
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: tamed animal, their mouths shapeless, and their whole aspect, in
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: many cases repulsive. These were lepers. So were they, each
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: of them that had greeted us as we passed through
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the village. So are they all, with a few privileged exceptions,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: who dwell in the two little villages under the by
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the sea. Other lepers gathered about us as we entered
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: the churchyard. The chapel steps were crowded with them, for
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: a stranger is seldom seen at Klaweo, And as their
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: number increased, it seemed as if each newcomer was more
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: horrible than the last. Until corruption could go no farther,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and flesh suffer no deeper dishonor this side of the grave,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: they voluntarily drew aside as we advanced, closing in behind
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: us and encircling us at every step. The chapel door
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: stood ajar. In a moment, it was thrown open, and
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: a young priest paused upon the threshold to give us welcome.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: His cassock was worn and faded, his hair tumbled like
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: a schoolboy's, his hands stained and hardened by toil. But
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the glow of health was in his face, the buoyancy
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of youth in his manner, while his ringing laugh, his
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: ready sympathy, and his inspiring magnetism told of one who
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: in any sphere might do a noble work, and who,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: in that which he has chosen, is doing the noblest
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: of all works. This was Father Damien, the self exiled priest,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the one clean man, in the midst of his flock
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: of lepers. We were urged to dine with him good soul.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: He was conscious of asking us to the humblest of tables,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: but we were a thousand times welcome to the best
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: he had. When we assured him that our dinner was
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: even then in preparation, and that we had packed over
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: with us all the way from Honolulu butter, flour and
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: other delicacies, he insisted upon our adding a foul to
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: our bill of fare. With his compliments and his blessing,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: having with a few words, dispersed the group of lepers,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: it was constantly increasing in numbers and horrors. He brought
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: from his cottage into the churchyard a handful of corn,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and scattering a little of it upon the ground, he
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: gave a peculiar cry. In a moment, his fowls flocked
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: from all quarters. They seemed to descend out of the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: air and clouds. They lit upon his arms, and fed
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: out of his hands. They fought for footing, upon his shoulders,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and even upon his head. They covered him with caresses
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: and with feathers. He stood knee deep among as fine
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: a flock of fowls as any fancier would care to see.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: They were his pride, his playthings, and yet a brace
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: of them he sacrificed upon the altar of friendship, and
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: bade us go in peace. Such was Father Damien of Colaueo.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: End of chapter three, chapters four through six of The
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Lepers of Molokai by Charles Warren Stoddard. This LibriVox recording
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Chapter four. That evening we
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: sat at dinner in the doctor's lodge, and eight of
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the priest's feathered darlings. We were served by a young
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Hawaiian in the incipient stages of leprosy, whose leprous wife
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: had kindly and carefully prepared our food for us. None
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: of us seemed to have the least fear of these
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: good people, perhaps because as yet they showed little or
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: no trace of the disease that was devouring them piecemeal.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Suitable precautions are taken to preserve the lodge from contamination.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: It is securely locked at all times. The key is
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: given only into the doctor's hands or those of such
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: few foreign guests as visible at Kaloleo, by permission of
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the Board of Health. It will readily be conjectured how
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: very few these are. The scanty furniture of the lodge
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: is kept scrupulously clean. Anxious inquirers who seek the visiting
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: physician at all hours, often those that are unseasonable, are
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: supposed to stop at the gate and carry on the
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: consultation over the pickets thereof, but this they sometimes forget
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to do. There were several of these callers during the evening.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: While we sat on the sheltered verandah, looking off upon
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: the quiet village, the wind blew briskly from the sea.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: It rattled the windows and hissed through the long grass
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: in the dooryard. The huge cliff before us towered into
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the very sky, touched now and again with beauty as
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the clouds swept from the face of the moon. One
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: by one, the twinkling lights in the village disappeared, and
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: when the curfew told, not a glimmer was left, and
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: the only sound we heard was the clatter of green
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: window shutters and the boom of the sea as it
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: broke upon the rocks by the shore. There was but
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: one topic of conversation during all our stay. That was,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: of course, the leprosy. We had it for breakfast, dinner,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: and tea, morning and evening, and even foreign to the night.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: We considered the subject in all its lights and bearings.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: The theme was inexhaustible and possessed for us at the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: moment an almost horrible interest. And think of it for
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a moment this very day. Vestiges of the plague are
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: to be found in localities the most dissimilar in regard
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: to temperature, climate situation, and soil. The leper is to
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: be found in Sumatra under the equator, in parts of
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Iceland almost within the verge of the Arctic Circle, in
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the temperate regions of both hemispheres, as at Hamel and
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Araid in the Cape District, and in the north at
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Madeira and Morocco. In the dry and arid plains of Arabia,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: in the wet and malarious districts of Batavia and Suriname,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: along the shores of Guinea and Sera Leone, and in
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the interior of Africa, Hindustan, Asia Minor and Asiatic Russia.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: On the sea coast as at Carthage, and thousands of
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: feet above the level of the ocean, on the table
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: lands of Mexico, on some of the islands in the Indian, Chinese,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Caribbean and Mediterranean seas, and basking in the sunshine in
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: the heart of the Pacific. And yet elsewhere. Among all
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: of these, victims of the most terrible of scourges, gathered
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: in communities and lazarettos, confined in the remote chambers of
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: pest houses, or wondering, neglected and alone. There is no
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: colony like this at Calaeo in which a whole population
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: may be said to share the affliction in common. It
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: was hard to realize where we were when the Knight
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: had shut out the spectacle of those suffering ones, hard
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: to believe that we were in any danger, even when
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: surrounded by the dead and the dying. Then someone opened
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the Bible, and turning to the Book of Leviticus read
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: how in those days the leprous man was solemnly pronounced unclean,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: how his clothes were rent, and he was shunned, and
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: his habitation was without the camp. How the priest came
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: unto the house, and the stones in which the plague
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: was were cast into an unclean place without the city,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: and the house was scraped, and the dust of the
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: scrapings was unclean. Other stones were taken to replace the
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: old stones, and they were plastered with fresh mortar. Then
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the people waited the result when the priest came again.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: If the plague was spread in the house, it was
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: a fretting leprosy in the house, and the house was
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: broken down, and the stones of it, and the timbers
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: and the mortar were carried out of the city into
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: an unclean place. And he that went into the house
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: was unclean, and his garments were put off, as for
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: the garments of the leper, If the plague spread in
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: the garment, either in the warp or in the wolf,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: or in the skin, or in any work that was
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: made of skin, it was a fretting leprosy, and it
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: was burnt in the fire. This was the law for
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: the leprosy of a garment and of a house. In
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: those days, still the wind blew briskly from the sea.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: A delicious coolness was gathering. The air was soft and bracing,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and the crash of the waves like glorious music. Sometimes
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: a roc came rolling down the cliff, a rock loosened
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: by the wild goats that feed there. Sometimes a wild
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: bird screeched as it swept over us, like a shadow.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: It was a weird night. We were passing in the
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: weirdest of all places. Even the royal families were not exempt,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: said the doctor, who had been listening to the reading
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: of the Mosaic law. And they were not. Henry the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Third was suspected of being a leper. It was a
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: local tradition that the leper house at Waterford in Ireland,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: was founded by King John, father of Henry the Third,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: in consequence of his son's being afflicted at Lismore with
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: an irruption that was thought to be leprosy. Historians have
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: alleged that Henry the Fourth was leprous. Toward the end
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: of his life, Robert the Bruce died of leprosy, and
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Baldwin the Fourth, King of Jerusalem died at the age
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: of three and twenty a leper. These were the pampered
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: darlings of the throne, and these fell victims to the
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: plague which was centered in that little village, within whose
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: borders we were domesticated. As we retired for the night,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: I could not but think that once in the toils
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: of this insidious charmer, for it seems almost to have
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: a fascination for the Hawaiian. Not cedar wood, nor scarlet,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: nor hissop, nor clean birds, nor use of the first year,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: nor measures of fine flower, nor offerings of any sort,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: even though they were potent in the days of the prophets,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: shall cleanse us for evermore. Chapter five. There was little
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: sleep that night. I was thinking of my first visit
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: to the settlement in eighteen sixty eight, when the keeper
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and his family did what they could to make doctor Lee,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: the then visiting physician, and myself comfortable. The Walsh family
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: had a history and a sad one. It was failing
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: health compelled the retirement of mister Walsh from the British
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: Army some years previous to my acquaintance with him. With
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: his wife and children, he sought a home in the colonies.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: At first hope of the young and enthusiastic, the last
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: resort of the despairing Misfortune and death pursued him from
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: shore to shore. Discouraged by unprofitable speculations in Australia and
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: New Zealand, he settled for the far distant Hawaiian Islands.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Seven children had been taken from them by death, but
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: one remained a good lad, though alas in delicate health,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: subject to physical disorders and therefore a constant source of anxiety.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: Upon the arrival of the Walshes in Honolulu, it was
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: announced that a keeper was needed at the new Leper settlement,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: one who would make his home with the lepers and
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: devote his entire attention to them. Mister Walsh offered his
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: own and his wife's services, and they were accepted. The
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: little family at once moved to Molokai and took up
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: their residence at Kalawao. Upon my visit at that time,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: the doctor and I sought shelter under their roof, the
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: only refuge available. The house was extremely small, I think
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: there were but two rooms in it, but the sun
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: was absent for a few days away in the mountains
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: with some companions, and the living room in which we
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: sat by day, where we ate, and which was also
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: a dispensary on a small scale, was our sleeping room.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: At night, the doctor found his bed in a little alcove,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: while I slept on the lounge. I remember the charity,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the loving kindness, and the deep poverty of these gracious people.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: I remember their modest apologies for the table, upon which
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: were spread only the frais necessaries of life. Sea biscuit
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: sopped in milk was a staple in that humble home.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: I remember their efforts at merriment, how they tried to
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: make light of their sorrowful strait, but their very mirth
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: was pathetic. With what tenderness they spoke of their absent
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: boy and his infirmities, with what fearful hope they pictured
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: his future and their own. One of the half dozen
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: volumes that constituted the family library was Father Fabres All
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: for Jesus. It was the mainstay of the house. It
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: was taken down at odd moments during the day, put
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: into my hands again and again that I might read
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: this or that favorite passage and read it aloud. For
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: mister Walsh was rapidly losing his sight, and his eyes
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: were then shielded by double green glasses. Husband and wife
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: worked as one in that vineyard. Many a time was
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: missus Walsh called to the bedside of the dying to
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: lend the aid of her tearful sympathy to some fainting
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: soul in its last agony. Fifty yea one hundred times
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: a day were these gentle people called to the door
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: to minister to the wants of some pitiful creature, and
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: very likely someone whom they had seen but a little
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: while before, for they made their rounds frequently between dawn
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: and dark. Other guests they had no hope of seeing,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: for who would be likely to seek their hospitality as
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: long as they dwelt in that sad place. As we
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: were about leaving the settlement, mister Walsh drew me aside, and,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: with charming embarrassment, said that he had been searching the
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: house over for some little token to offer me as
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: a souvenir of my visit. The only thing he could find,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: in fact, almost the only thing he had to offer,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: for he could not part with his crucifix, his rosary,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: his two or three pious pictures, or his precious volume
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: of father Favor was a little pocket map of the
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: city of Mexico. You are always traveling, said he. I
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: shall travel no more, and some day perhaps this will
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: be of service to you. I received it gratefully, and
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: said mister Walsh, I will go to Mexico and open
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: this map in memory of your kindness, and some day
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: I hope to do so. Not many months later, having
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: returned to San Francisco, I received a letter in an
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: unfamiliar hand. It bore several postmarks and showed signs of
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: some hard usage. The letter had evidently gone astray. It
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: was dated at least two months before, but on reading
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: it I found fresh assurances of the warm friendship of
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: the Walsh family. It was written in mister Walsh's slow
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: and careful hand and convey He made the modest request
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: that if I published anything concerning his poor little settlement,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: I would be good enough to let him see it.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: He added, you know, we hear so little of the
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: world in Kaloeo. The same mail brought me a newspaper
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: from the capital of the kingdom. On glancing through it,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: my eye fell upon a paragraph that startled me. His
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: letter was still opened before me, and by the printed
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: lines that grew blurred as I read them, I learned
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: that mister Walsh, having become almost totally blind, and beginning
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: to fail so rapidly as to alarm his wife and son,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: it was thought best for the family to return to
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Honolulu and seek medical advice. They took the passage in
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: one of the inter island schooners, never noted for their
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: excellent accommodations, and set sail. The elements were not propitious.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Head winds or calms delayed them, and at last, when
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: they were nearing port, while they reclined upon the deck
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: in the glare of the sun, for the atmosphere of
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: the little cabin was intolerable, mister Walsh was seized with
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: a sudden paroxysm, and almost immediately expired. The despair of
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: the mother, as she bowed over the inanimate form of
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: her husband, added to his own natural grief so wrought
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: upon the emotions of the sun, that in a moment
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: he became a raving maniac. He had been subject to
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: periods of insanity, and now he had gone mad. His
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: violence was such that it became necessary to lash him
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: to the mast, And in this plight the stricken family
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: ended their mission among the lepers of Molokai, chapter six.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: It seems we were about to enter the valley of
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: the shadow of death. A day had been set apart
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: for the inspection of tenements and of the several war wards,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: where the worst cases of leprosy were in charge of
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: leperous friends who were as yet but little crippled by
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the ravages of the disease. The hospital wards a row
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: of long, cool buildings arranged on two sides of a
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: breezy and treeless square. There is an abundance of fresh
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: air and sunshine and coloao, but these life giving elements
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: cannot aid the hopeless victims of leprosy. As we approached
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: the wards, we found some of the patients wandering listlessly
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: in the shade of the low hanging eaves, or lounging
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: in the verandahs. Some were sunning themselves at the corners
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: of the buildings. Not a few were within doors, sitting
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: mutely alone or in groups, or reclining upon the cots
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: that stood in double rows down the length of each ward.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Father Damien, who had called early to offer his services
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: as escort, knew each in individual case, like the good physician,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: that he is ministering to the bodies, as well as
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: to the souls of his flock. His fingers upon the
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: pulse of his suffering people, as with painful gravity, he
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: watches the tide of life, slowly ebbing day by day.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Most of these lepers were capable of smiling when spoken to,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: and I believe they would smile in their last breath.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: For of all nations on the face of the globe,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: the Hawaiian is perhaps the most amiable and the most ingenuous.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: But what smiles were those that greeted us? What horror
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: stricken faces, in which the muscles seemed to have forgotten
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: their office, and to be now sporting derisively. It was
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: as if the mantle of Victor Hugo's long curat were
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: being striven for by those utterly unconscious of the disgust
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: it necessarily inspires. Still, they smiled responsively, like children, smiled
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: innocently and amiably, but with an expression that was satirical
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and sometimes almost devilish. Their swollen faces, with the flesh
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: nodded and blotched, grew a thousand times more horrible when
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: they smiled, and the features bore a look of fixed agony,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: never to be forgotten by one who has beheld it.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: It is a singular and a fortunate fact that the
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: leper suffers but little pain until almost his final hour.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: Much inconvenience, certainly, he endures, but endures it patiently and painlessly,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: until the fangs of the loathsome disease strike the vitals,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and then the end is at hand. Mondrelle, an English
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: traveler of the seventeenth century, writing of the leprosy he
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: saw in Siria, says, it is a distemper so noisome
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: that it might well pass for the utmost corruption of
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: the human body on this side of the grave. Such
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: is the case today in Molokai. Listen to the diagnosis
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: of the leprosy, as it is found in nearly every
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: land under the sun. When leprosy is fully developed, it
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: is characterized by the presence of dusky, red, or livid
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: tubercles of different sizes upon the face, lips, nose, eyebrows, ears,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: and extremities of the body. The skin of the tuberculated
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: face is at the same time thickened, wrinkled, and shining,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: and the features are very greatly distorted. The hair of
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: the eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard falls off. The eyes are
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: often injected, and the conjunctive us swelled. The pupil of
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: the eye contracts, giving the organ a weird, catlike expression.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: The voice becomes hoarse and nasal, The sense of smell
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: is impaired or lost, and that of touch or common
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: sensation is strangely altered. The tuberculated parts, which are in
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the first instance sometimes supersensitive, latterly in the course of
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: the disease, become paralyzed or anesthetic. As the malady progresses,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: the tubercles soften and open. Ulcerations of similar mucous tubercles
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: appear in the nose and throat, rendering the breadth extremely offensive.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: Tubercular masses or leprous tubercles, as shown by dissection, begin
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: to form internally upon various mucous membranes and on the
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: surface of the kidneys, lungs, et cetera. Cracks, fissures, and
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: circular ulcers appear on the fingers, toes, and extremities, and
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: joint after joint drops off by a kind of spontaneous gangrene.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the upper and sometimes the lower extremities are especially
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: afflicted by this mortification and mutilation of parts. Doctor Helbeck,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: an Eastern traveler, tells us that in looking down from
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: a neighboring height into the great leper hospital of Hamel
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: and a rod, he saw two lepers sowing peas in
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the field. The one had no hands, the other had
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: no feet, these members being wasted away by disease. The
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: one who wanted hands was carrying the other, who wanted feet,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: on his back, and he again carried in his hands
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: a bag of seed, and dropped a pea every now
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: and then, which the other pressed into the ground with
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: his foot. Cases as deplorable may be found at Colaweo,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: But there the maims are not expected to do any
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: manual labor, and for the most part they are surrounded
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: by friends who are able and ready yea eager to
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: serve them. As we were passing through one of the wards,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: we found the little heap of humanity drawn up in
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: bed and covered all over with a red woolen blanket.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Someone raised this covering and exposed a withered face. The
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: eyes did not open. The eyelids, which were like thick films,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: quivered feebly. The flesh of an arm that lay across
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: the breast was eaten away. It looked as if it
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: had been eaten by rats, but it was only the
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: fang of the destroyer that had struck there. This miserable
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: creature was being fanned by a friend, who smiled complacently
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: as he told us that the old man was dying.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Again and again we visited him, and three days later
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: found him apparently unchanged, without eating or drinking, and almost
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: without breathing. He lay curled in an ignominious heap of corruption,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: awaiting tardy death. His companions were in no wise disconcerted,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: but dozed on the neighboring cots, played cards in the corner,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: or sat moodily apart, as if watching for someone. And
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: so they were. They were watching with dogged indifference the
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: approach of the destroyer. They could mark his progress inch
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: by inch in the mortifying bodies of their fellows, and
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: hour after hour, this was the sole diversion of the
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: more moody victims, from cottage to cottage, across lots, through
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: garden spots ablaze with brilliant flowers, and rank with shrubs
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: of brightest green. Lepers were everywhere waiting to receive us.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: They crouched under the thick banana hedges or on the
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: smallest of verandahs, or squatted upon the floor within doors.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: Often we found the walls of the rooms papered with
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: illustrations cut from Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's or the London News,
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: and graphic flaring chromo lithographs. Were not wanting, nor in
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: many cases a crucifix or a holy picture, or the beads.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: But Father Damien made no distinction in the bestole of
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: his favors, and everywhere he was welcomed as a friend.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: It seems strange to me that those doomed exiles, who
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: have only to look upon the disfigured faces of their
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: companions to see the living image of their own, have,
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: in most cases hearts that are comparatively light, and spirits
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: comparatively gay. And yet they are all or nearly all
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: of them, dwelling within sound of the busy hammer that
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: is shaping the coffins which are to enclose their remains.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: That hammer seemed never idle. Coffins were piled where they
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: were visible to all who passed the workshop, and yet
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: two or three per week are called for, and God's
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: acres crowded with the day when we escaped from the
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: green labyrinth of the settlement, I thought of Dante's emerging
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: from the inferno under the guidance of Virgil, and clasping
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: the hand of Father Damien, I entered his house there
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: to digest the experiences of the day. End of chapter six,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven through nine of the Lepers of Molokai by
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Charles Warren's Stoddard. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven. It is a small two story house with
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: stairs leading from the lower to the upper Verandah. Having
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: seated me in his easiest chair, the good Priest excused
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: himself for a few moments, during which I busied myself
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: in filling some pages of my notebook. When he returned,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: he brought with him an an improvised supper, a bit
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: of meat, a dish of rice, fried eggs, and large
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: bowls of coffee with nuggets of sugar on sea biscuits
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: that served as trays and were afterwards to be eaten.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: All this he had prepared with his own hands. Together
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: we discussed it, and then withdrew to the full enjoyment
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: of a pipe and a cigarette. Now I assumed the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: attitude of the interviewer, but found my subject a diffident
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: and difficult one. It was only after considerable persuasion that
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: I gathered the brief record of his life, And even
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: then the modest father was fearful that I might flatter
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: him or give my readers a too favorable impression of
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: one who seemed quite unconscious of having done anything worthy
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: of note. I cannot do him justice, But here in
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: brief is the story of his career. Born in Louvon, Belgium,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: January third, eighteen forty, when he was but four and twenty,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: his brother, who had just entered the priesthood, was ordered
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: to embark for Honolulu, but at the moment fell sick
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: with typhoid fever. Young Damien, who was a theological student
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: at the university, having received minor orders and belonging to
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: the same order, the Society of the Sacred Hearts of
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: Jesus and Mary, commonly called Society of pickpoo At, once
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: wrote to his superior and begged that he might be
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: sent upon the mission in his brother's stead. In one
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: week he was on his way to that far country.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: He was ordained upon his arrival in Honolulu, and for
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: a few years led the life of toil and privation,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: which invariably falls to the law of the Catholic Missionary.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy three, he, in common with others of
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: the clergy, was invited to be present at the dedication
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: of a beautiful chel just completed by Father Lenore at
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Wailuku on the island of Maui. There he met the Bishop,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: who expressed regret that he was still unable to send
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: a priest to Molokai, for the demand was far in
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: excess of the supply. Father Damien at once said, my Lord,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: I hear that a small vessel will next week take
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: cattle from Kawaihei to Kalapapa. If you will permit me,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: I will go there to help the lepers make their
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: Easter duties. His request was granted, and in company with
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: the Bishop and the French consul, he landed at the settlement,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: where he found a colony of eight hundred lepers, of
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: whom between four and five hundred were Catholics. A public
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: meeting was immediately called, at which the bishop and the
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: consul presided. His Grace arose to address this singular gathering
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: and said, since you have written me so often that
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: you have no priest, I leave you one for a
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: little time and imparting the benediction, he returned immediately to
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: the vessel, which was to sail that very hour. Father
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Damien added, as there is much to be done here,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: by your leave, I will not even accompany you to
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: the shore. Thus the good work was at once begun.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: It was high time. The lepers were dying at the
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: rate of from eight to twelve per week. The priest
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: had not time to build himself a hut. He had
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: not even the material with which to build it, and
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: for a season he slept in the open air under
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: a tree, exposed to the wind and the rain. Soon
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: after he received a letter of congratulation from the white
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: residence of Honolulu, chiefly Protestants, together with some lumber and
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: a purse of one hundred twenty dollars. Then he put
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: up his little house and began to feel at home.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: After remaining some weeks at Kloeo, he was obliged to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: go to Honolulu. There being no more convenient priest to
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: whom he could make his confession, he naturally called upon
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: the President of the Board of Health, who seemed much surprised,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: but received the priest with frigid politeness. He then asked
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: leave to return to the settlement of Molokai, and was
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: curtly informed that he might indeed return, but that in
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: that case he must remain there for good. Father Damien
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: explained to this gentleman how necessary it is for one
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: priest to see another at reasonable intervals in order to
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: make his confession, and ask permission to visit Lahaina, on
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the island of Maui, not far from Molokai, promising to
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: return there directly in a small boat as soon as
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: he had attended to his religious duties. This was denied him.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: He was told that he must remain at Kalawao and
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: not leave it on any pretension whatever. Would the board
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: permit the priest at Lehaina to visit Father Damien at Klouaeo.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: Here an eminent physician, one of the Board of Health
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: pleaded his cause, insisting that permission be granted the father
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: to go and come at will. This is the rule
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: in all civilized countries, said he. The priest and the
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: physician are exempt. They have privileges which no one else has,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: and which no one else should have. The doctor was
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: heartily seconded by the French consul, in whose hands the
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: business of the mission was deposited, and Father Damien returned
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: to Calouao on a special permit. Shortly after his return,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: he received an official notice that he must remain where
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: he was, and that on any attempt to leave the island,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: or even to visit other portions of Molokai, he would
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: be immediately put under arrest. The notice was sharply worded.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: This roused the indignation of the priest, and he notified
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: had the Board of Health that if they would attend
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: strictly to their duties, he would attend to his. When
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: it became necessary for him to visit a priest on
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: a neighboring island, he did so, asking no odds of
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: any man. He also visited his scattered flock on the
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: circuit of Molokai, attending faithfully and fearlessly to the wants
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: of his people. Often on these rounds he was the
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: welcome guest of a gentleman, the son of a Protestant missionary,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: and on one occasion the host said to him playfully,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: I suppose you are aware that I have orders to
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: place you under immediate arrest if you presume to leave
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: your leper settlement. And this was the sheriff of Molokai.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Six months later a permit came, granting Father Damien leave
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: to come and go as he pleased. But in eleven years,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: how seldom has he cared to use it. This interview said,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: seeming to be an event in the life of my
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: good friend. It was celebrated with another pipe and an
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: extra sip of coffee, But before the former was finished
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: or the latter had cooled, he was called quickly away
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: to attend the bedside of some passing soul. Chapter eight.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: Father Damien's duties were never ending, from early mass till
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: long after his flock was housed in sleep. He was busy,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: and when at last he had sought his pillow, it
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: was too often to lie awake, planning for the future,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: and perhaps to be called again into the ward rooms
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: to ease the anguish of the sick or the dying.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: The neat white cottages, which have taken the place of
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: the thatched huts of the natives, were erected under his eye,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: and furthermore he personally assisted in the construction of most
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: of them. The small chapel which he found at the
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: settlement has become the transept of the present edifice. He
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: with the aid of a handful of lepers enlarge the building,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: painted it without decorated it within, and there he daily
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: offers the holy sacrifice of the Mass, preaches frequently, instructs
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: the children, and fills all the offices of the church.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: Forty orphan boys and girls are under his immediate direction.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: Houses with dormitories have been erected for them, and the girls,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: under the direction of suitable instructors, are taught needlework and
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: the domestic arts. It has been found advisable to permit
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: those who are of a marriageable age to marry the
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: partners of their choice, and these marriages are duly solemnized
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: in the presence of witnesses. The spiritual wants of the
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: priest's flock were sufficient to fully occupy his time. On
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: Sundays and feast days, there was high Mass at Kaloo.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: The celebrant was then obliged to hasten to color, and
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: there again offered the divine sacrifice. Now at noon he
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: was permitted to partake of a little refreshment the first
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: since midnight. Then back to Coloueo for Vesper's benediction and catechism,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: over again to call a papa to repeat the offices,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: and the last at nightfall home once more to look
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: after the affairs of his people, and to cook his
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: own supper and put his house in order for the night.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: He was indeed jack of all trades, physician of the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: soul and the body, magistrate, school teacher, carpenter, joiner, painter, gardener, housekeeper, cook,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: and even in some cases undertaker and gravedigger. Great was
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: his need of help, and long was he in need
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: of it. Before it came. More than sixteen hundred lepers
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: had been buried under his administration, and the deathbed was
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: always awaiting him, sometimes two or three of them. Help
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: came to him, finally, the welcome aid he had so
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: longed for. We have not seen Father Albert yet, said he.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow I will call for you, and we will visit Kalapaupa.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine. A light buggy that had seen its best
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: days was standing at the door of the doctor's lodge.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: A very comfortable beast that rejoiced in the name of William,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: was being fastened to the vehicle with such fragments of
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: harness as had survived the wear and tear of time.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: Father Damien, the proud possessor of this conveyance then announced
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: himself in readiness, and we set out for Kalapapa, the
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: rival leper village, about two miles distant. It was not
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: a bad road we followed, thanks to the efforts of
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: the energetic priest, But William, whose days are numbered, evidently
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: has no intention of hurrying through any one of them.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: Why you are a little lazy, my William, said the
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: father to his pet, touching him lightly with the stump
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: of a whip. William had paused for a moment, apparently
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: lost in the contemplation of nature. Presently we met a
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: procession of half handed lepers who were laboriously moving a
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: shanty from one side to another. Father Damien tightened his reins, and,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: by way of apology for the possible misbehavior of his steed,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: said he has never seen such a thing, poor beast.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: But William, being absorbed in thought, passed the phenomenon unnoticed,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: and so we came to Callapapa. Beyond the treeless and
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: undulating plane, it is an almost pretty village, bright sunshiny,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: and having an air of prosperity, no doubt, heightened by
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: the newly constructed dock and the freshly painted whale boat.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: That was beached beside. The lesser lions of Kalapapa were
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: soon disposed of, and we adjourned to the neatest cottage
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: in the village. Flowers blossomed before it, and the land
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: was steeped in sunshine. So was the sea that sparkled.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: But a stone's throw from the door yard, this was
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: the home of Father Albert, who, in his age and
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: his infirmities, has still the cheerfulness of that sunshine and
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: the sweetness of his well kept garden spot. He welcomed
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: us in his veranda with silver hair and flowing beard.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: Books and papers were on his table, pictures upon the wall.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: The neatly curtained windows admitted the fresh sea breeze. A
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: light repast was offered us. The hospitality of these impoverished
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: priests is proverbial and worthy to be remembered with the
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: widow's might. Close at hand was Father Albert's chapel. It
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: is as quaint as it is cozy, full of color,
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: odd combinations of color on wool and ceiling. Father Albert whispered,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: it is in Barbaro's taste. But I have sought to
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: please the poor lepers who are fond of this display,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: the altar was like a picture, and there was a
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: goodly number of those beautiful, mild faced, artistically tinted statues
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: of the saints, such as always remind me of the
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: attractive shop windows in the vicinity of Saint soul Piece
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: in Paris. In the main aisle before the altar stood
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: a French organ of which Father Albert was justly proud.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: By an ingenious displacement of the keyboard, the same chord
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: may be pitched in a higher or lower key without
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: changing the position of the hand upon the keys. Moreover,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: when desirable, through a still more convenient attachment, by pressing
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: a finger upon one single note, the complimentary chord in
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: treble and bassis struck at the same moment. It is
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: needless to add that the most indifferent performer need hardly
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: go astray upon this instrument, and that the simplest one
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: finger exercise becomes at once quite imposing. It was Father
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: Albert's pleasure to exhibit the automatic accomplishments of this organ,
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: and he finished with a graceful old fashioned waltz measure,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: skillfully rendered with the air of one who is not
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: quite indifferent to the charms of melody. His thin hands
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: lightly swept the keys, while his face retained the sweet
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: gravity that distinguishes it. There is a small cemetery almost
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: under the eaves of the chapel, where little children are buried,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: as if they would be lonely. Out yonder on the
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: plain there is a large one with an ornamental gateway
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: painted in black and white. In the center of it
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: stands a tall, slender cross, and beyond it, within hearing
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: is the sea. There is a race track along stretch
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: of grass grown road running out to the breezy fishing
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: point with its cluster of rush huts. The sea was
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: like crystal all up and down the coast. Branches of
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: coral and darting fish are visible at great depth. Sharks
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: are not uncommon visitors. And yet there were lepers fishing
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: and bathing among the rocks, the strangely shaped labor rocks
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: that at times received the sea and shouldered it off
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: in avalanches of foam. This is about all there is
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: at Kalapapa, though it is the one port of the Lepers,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: and the small steamer visits it weekly, and sometimes a
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: schooner runs in with a load of long expected freight.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: Little else can be said of it safe to tell
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: the story of the gentle soul who has come to
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: make his home there. Whither Damien's right hand man is
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: fellow priest. But Father Albert can tell his story much
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: better than I can, and I will not touch a
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: line of the letter with which he has favored me.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: End of chapter nine. Chapters ten through twelve of the
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: Lepers of MOLOCHAI by Charles Warren's Stoddard. This LibriVox recording
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Chapter ten listened to the
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: story of another of the Catholic missionaries in Hawaii. Born
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: in France, in the Diocese of Coutense in the year
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty five. Of pious parents richer in the gifts
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: of grace than in the fleeting goods of this world.
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: My studies, as far as philosophy inclusive, were pursued with
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: a certain degree of success at the College of Avrente
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: and the Petit Seminar of Mortines, and I received my
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: degree of Bechelier elatre at the Academy of Paris in
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: eighteen forty five. I entered them the view of the
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: fathers of peak po or of the sacred hearts. At
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: the outbreak of the Revolution, of eighteen forty eight, I
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: was sent with several other young professed to Chile, where
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: I continued my theological studies, at the same time teaching
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: in our colleges at Valparaiso and Santiago. After my ordination
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty, I was, at my own request in
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty two, sent to our missions in Oceanica, attached
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: from the first to the Vicariate of Tahiti. I have
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: remained there a little over twenty years, performing the ordinary
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: missionary duties. In the archipelago so well named Putmu Too.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: Between Tahiti and Le Goumbie, they form a long train
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: of madroporic islets, distant from each other several days sail
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: covered with sand and brush, only a few meters above
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: the level of the sea. At that time they were
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: divided into two sections, the distinction between them being well defined,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: one of which, trading for some time in knacker mother
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: pearl or coconut oil, was to some extent civilized, but
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: unfortunately some deserters from American whaling vessels introduced Mormonism in
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: its highest degree of fanaticism and immorality. The other inhabitants
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: were savages, Cannibals and Pagans. Naturally, Catholic missionary work would
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: begin with the first, and it was already so far
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: advanced as to claim a little band of catechumens and
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: neophytes in three different islands when I arrived myself toward
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: the end of eighteen fifty two at the isle of
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: shechen Anna, the principal one of the group. It was
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: also the boulevard stronghold of Mormonism, whose followers, exasperated at
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: the first successive Catholicity, openly revolted soon after my arrival,
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: killed the corporal of the guards, burned and pillaged the
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: church and presbytery of the village, and seriously wounded two missionaries,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: one of whom carried to the grave the mark of
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: the deep wounds he had received on his head. I
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: remained several years assisting the first missionaries to spread the
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: good tidings of the Gospel in those Mormon isles, and
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: then I obtained from Monseigneur Jonne, our Vicar Apostolic, permission
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: to go to the Pagan and Savage isles. The Annals
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: of the Propagation of the Faith, the Weekly Record of
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: the Catholic Missions, have published in part a resume of
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: my dangers, my labors, and my success in those isles
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: through which I traveled during five or six years. I
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: believed that my remarkably lean conditions save me several times
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: from the teeth of these cannibals. My bold and firm
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: bearing in some way magnetized those big fat fellows of Cannox, who,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: in moments of a savage fury, several times threatened to
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: put an end to me. In eighteen seventy two, I
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: was the sole survivor of the four first missionaries to
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: the archipelago. But the fatigue and privations endured among these
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: poor isles had completely ruined my health. I was then
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: sent to France, where I arrived about the end of
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: the year eighteen seventy three. I had the happiness of
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: visiting the new and famous pilgrimages of pont Man Lords
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: and La Salette. Still better, I had the good fortune
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: to visit Italy Milan, where I venerated the precious body
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: of Saint Charles resting in a rich mausoleum under the
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: grand altar of the most magnificent church in the whole world, Loretto,
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: where I said Mass twice in the Sancta Casa of Nazareth, Rome,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: where I remained two weeks and had two audiences with
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: the Sovereign pont of Pious the night, one public, the
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: other private and personal. After so many unexpected graces and blessings,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: my only desire was to return and die among my
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: dear Pumutu. But the doctors in Paris who were treating
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: me thought it unadvisable and would only permit me to
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: go to the Sandwich Islands, where the climate and food
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: seemed to them more suitable to my condition of health.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: I arrived here in eighteen seventy four, and for nearly
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: five years I have been engaged in company with the
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: celebrated Father Damien in the care corporal and spiritual of
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: my dear brothers, the Lepers of Molokai. My health to
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: day is perfectly restored, and I feel myself able and
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: ready to rejoin at Pumutu, my old confrere Fa the Fierenz,
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: who wrote lately in the Annals of the Propagation of
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: the Faith that the old Mormon Isles are at the
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: present day mostly Catholic, and that the savages and Pagans
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: are almost wholly civilized. And Christianized. I am, however, very
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: happy and content in my present work, and I leave
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: entirely to my superiors to dispose of me as they
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: think best. Chapter eleven. The local press of Honolulu, at
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: least a portion of it, has found much fault with
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: the Ministry for having neglected to segregate each individual leper
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: in the kingdom long ago. It is true that for
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: some time after the introduction of the plague, the Board
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: of Health took little or no action toward the prevention
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: of its development. But it is likewise true that in
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: the last fifteen years, two thousand, five hundred lepers have
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: been banished to Molokai. The average death rate is one
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty per annum. There are always between seven hundred
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: and eight hundred lepers at the settlement, and these are
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: provided for by the government. The last biennial appropriation of
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: ninety thousand dollars is insufficient, as the President of the
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: Board of Health asserts. For Beside the settlement on Molokai,
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: there is a branch hospital near Honolulu where doubtful cases
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: are held for treatment, and this is nearly always filled.
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: From this branch hospital, called Kakako, the confirmed lepers are
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: shipped to Molokai. Kakako, like Trakhidi, is in charge of
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: a sisterhood. The Bishop of Oba, whose life is devoted
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: to the spiritual welfare of the Hawaiian race, at the
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: urgent request of the King and Queen, sent Father Leonore
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: to America to obtain, if possible, the aid of such
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: sisters as were able to endure the hardships of service
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: in Hawaii. Seven ladies of the Franciscan Order established at Syracuse,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: New York were shortly on their way. Others are expected
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: to join them, and then some of these devoted sisters
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: will locate at the Leper settlement on Molokai. The settlement
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: has been visited by the Princess Regent, and if I
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: mistake not by the Queen. Also both take the deepest
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: interest in the welfare of the unfortunates, and in eighteen
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: eighty four a very successful fair was held in Honolulu
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: for the benefit of the lepers. On this occasion the
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: several booths were in charge of the Queen, two Princesses,
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: and the first Ladies of the Little Capital. Nor is
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: the King unmindful of the devotion of the cat Atholic
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: mission to the good work In eighteen eighty one, Bishop Hermann,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: then coadjutor to the late Bishop Magrae, paid a formal
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: visit to Coloueo. It was a great day for the
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: leper settlement. The Bishop was to be received with salutes,
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: music and banners. Triumphal arches were erected presently, all being
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: in readiness, a swarm of volunteers went out to watch
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: for the first signs of his lordship's approach. Intense excitement prevailed,
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: and when at last a group of tiny figures was
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: discovered climbing down the huge precipice above Coloueo, the enthusiasm
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: of the poor lepers knew no bounds. It was a
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: happy day for Father Damien, but he was not then
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: aware of the fete that was in store for him.
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: When the Bishop reached the base of the Polli the cliff,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: he was received by Father Damien and a deputation from Coloueo.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: They then mounted horses and rode solemnly into the plain.
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: The good Bishop, who had been overtaken by a rain storm,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: was drenched to the skin, but his discomfiture was soon forgotten,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: for at the first triumphal arch he was received by
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: a body of eight hundred lepers, with banners flying cheers
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: rent the air the brass band lepers, all of them
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: struck up a march, and the procession advanced on Coloeo.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: In front of the chapel was another arch, more beautiful
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: than the first. Here the entire population had assembled to
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: welcome the distinguished visitor. He excused himself for a few
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: moments only in order to change his dripping garments for
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: dry ones, and returned to receive the formal welcome and
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: congratulations of the inhabitants. Songs were sung, addresses of welcome delivered,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: and then his Lordship rose to reply. The delight of
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: Father Damian, the most modest of men, had almost made
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: him bold, But to his embarrassment, he found himself summoned
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: by his superior to receive publicly the congratulations of the many,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: who were eager to express their admiration and gratitude for
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: the noble self sacrifice displayed by the young priest. Moreover,
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: added the Lordship, I am commissioned by his Majesty to
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: place upon your neck this testimonial of his esteem. And
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: with that the bishop hung upon the breast of the
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: bewildered father. The glittering cross of a night commander of
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: the Order of Kalakaua. The first a thousand voices rent
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: the air. Cheer upon cheer, cheer upon cheer, woke the
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: slumbering echoes of that silent shore. And there were those
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: who wept with joy at the honor so justly conferred
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: upon their beloved pastor. Father Damien and his confusion. We
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: was about to remove the babble, when he was at
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: once ordered by the Bishop to allow it to remain,
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: at least so long as he was a guest at Coloeo.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: And again the banners waved, the women wept, and the
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: shouts of the people mingled with a trumpet blast of
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: the band boys. For a red letter day had stolen
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: unexpectedly into the melancholy annals of Coloo Chapter twelve. High
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: Mass at Kloeo, the solemn mystery offered almost in the
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: spirit of a requiem, for the participants are doomed and
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: the living are well nigh dead. I was directed by
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: Father Damien to a small enclosure at the left of
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: the altar. It was not unlike a witness box, a
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: railing enclosed a single seat, and no leper was ever
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: permitted to open the gate that shut me in. The
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: neatly robed sanctuary. Boys were all disfigured, some with pitiful
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: desay distorted features, But fortunately none of these seem to
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: suffer any pain or much inconvenience, though fingers and toes
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: are in many cases missing, and the eyelids are thickened
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: and drawn out of shape. The very beautiful sacramental vessels
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: of richly wrought gold were sent to Father Damien by
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: the Superior of Saint Roche in Paris. They are used
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: only at high mass, with the greatest sweetness and gravity.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: The celebrant proceeded. The chapel was filled with worshipers, and
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: all of them seemed to be singing or trying to sing,
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: simple refrains that sounded strangely enough in the hoarse throats
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: of the singers. The devotion of the Catholic Hawaiian is remarkable,
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: because the race is much given to childish levity, and
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: I have nowhere else seen such evidences of genuine contrition,
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: certainly not in the meetings presided over by Native ministers.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: The American Protestant missionaries having retired from the field and
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: left it in the hands of the Aborigines. What a
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: contrast was here, the bright altar, cleanly furnished, the young
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: priest a picture of health, chanting with clear, ringing voice,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: the paternostera at his feet, the acolytes, upon whose infant
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: features was already fixed the seal of early death. Beyond
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: the altar, railing corruption ran riot. There was scarcely a
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: form in that whole congregation from which one would not
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: turn with horror. And many of these worshipers seemed actually
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: to have risen from the corruption of the grave. The
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: solemn boom of the sea surf was fit accompaniment to
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: that most solemn service, and the long low sow of
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: the sea wind was like a sigh of sympathy. The
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: very air was polluted, the threaded odor of the charnel
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: house pervaded it, and all that chamber of horrors seemed
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: but the portal of the tomb. This is the feast
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: of the Master, as celebrated at Colaweo, And to celebrate
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: it thus is Father Damien's blessed privilege. I thought of
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: that verse in Saint Luke, and as he entered into
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: a certain town, there met him ten men that were
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: lepers who stood afar off and lifted up their voice, saying,
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: Jesus Master, have mercy on us. Verily their prayer is answered,
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: for He hath mercy on them and blesses them in
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: the person of this his servant. End of Chapter twelve,
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: Chapters thirteen through fifth, and the Epilogue of the Lepers
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: of Molokai by Charles Warren's Stoddard. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Chapter thirteen. There is yet much
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: to be done for the lepers. Many who seem whole
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: and sound, who are still in the full enjoyment of
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: life and liberty, are doubtless the unconscious victims of a
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: disease that has been declared incurable by the best medical
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: testimony of the age. The germ has been planted, it
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: has possibly been inherited, and sooner or later it will
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: make itself visible. The law of segregation must be enforced
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: until the last leper has ended his miserable existence and
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: the survivors are delivered from the ravages of the plague.
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: The fear of contagion and of possible infection hangs over
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: the ill fated kingdom. The Hawaiians are a susceptible people,
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: possessed of much physical beauty, and of but little strength
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: and endurance. They succumb easily under the influence of diseases
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: that with us are of small moment. With them, the
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: measles are almost as much to be dreaded as the smallpox.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: They need the same watchful care that one gives to
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: an unreasoning child. They have lives of reckless intercourse and
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: seem to invite epidemics. Your Hawaiian in a high fever
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: will deliberately plunge into the sea and remain there in
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: the hope of cooling off. The chill of the grave
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: too often follows this amazing act of stupidity. The lepers,
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: once gathered together, should be forbidden all intercourse with those
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: who are not lepros. They have no fear of contagion.
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: They divide their garments among their friends. They pass a
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: pipe from mouth to mouth Indian fashion. They marry even
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: where one or the other is known to be lepress.
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: At Kakako, the lepers are on one side of a
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: high picket fence. Their friends on the other side spend
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: hours daily in affectionate intercourse, passing the pipe back and forth,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: fonding one another, and even kiss At meeting and parting.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: That the sisters of Kakako, who certainly have their own
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: poor lodgings, but who are constantly mingling with the lepers,
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: may yet fall victims to the plague is by no
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: means unlikely. Even where great care is taken to avoid
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: contact with a leprous person or a leprous object, the
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: leprosy has finally developed, and in such cases the direct
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: cause of it cannot be traced. Father Damien's escape, after
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: eleven years of intimacy with the worst known cases, after
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: having nursed the sick and buried the dead more than
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: sixteen hundred of them, can be looked upon as almost miraculous.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: He is working with them and for them, night and day.
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: His intimates are lepers. His house is hardly ever free
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: of them. It is true that he does his own
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: cooking and his own housework, and whatever is to be
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: done about the altar, a native, not a leper, washes
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: for him and mends his clothing when necessary. But the
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: tools that are so often in his hands are handled
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: by lepers. And whatever is passed about the village comes
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: to him from those who are to put it broadly,
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: in all stages of decomposition. This is also the case
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: with all who are brought in contact with lepers at large,
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: those who are not at the settlement, and it must
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: continue to be the case so long as a leper
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: is left unconfined. I remember how one day, as we
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: were walking among the wards of the hospital at Kloeo,
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: Father Damien turned suddenly to us and said, Ah, here's
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: something dreadful I must show you. We approached what seemed
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: a little bundle of rags or rubbish, half hidden under
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: a soiled blanket. The curious doctors were about to examine
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: it when the good Father seized me and cried, excitingly,
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: you must not look, you must not look. I assured
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: him that I was not at all afraid to see
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: even the worst that could be shown me there, for
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: my eyes had become accustomed to horrors, and the most
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: sickening sights no longer affected me. A corner of the
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: blanket was raised cautiously. A breathing object lay beneath a face.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: A human face was turned slowly towards us, a face
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: in which scarcely a trace of anything human remained. The
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: dark skin was puffed out and blackened, a kind of
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: moss or mold, gummy and glistening covered it. The muscles
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: of the mouth, having contracted, laid bare, the grinning teeth,
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: the thickened tongue lay like a fig between them. The
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: eyelids curled tightly back exposed the inner surface, and the
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: protruding eyeballs, now shapeless and broken, looked not unlike bursted grapes.
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: It was a leprous child who, within the last few
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: days had assumed that horrible visage. Surely the grave knows
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: nothing more frightful than this. Similar cases are rare. Perhaps
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: this was the only one of precisely such a nature.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: But the uncomplaining sufferer before us was, after all merely
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: a leper, and so long as leprosy remains in the land,
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: other victims, like unto this one, may sit watching and
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: praying for death from hour to hour. Within the last
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: few weeks, a hospital or home for leprous children has
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: been founded at Kacaako, near Honolulu. It was solemnly opened
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: by their majesties, the King and Queen. The Queen gave
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: the key of it into the hands of the superior
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: of the Sisters, who have charge of the branch hospital
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: at Kacako then the King graciously decorated the lady with
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: the order of Kapolani. Father Leonore, through whose earnest efforts
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: the aid of the admirable Franciscan sisters was secured, has
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: also been decorated by the King. Indeed, their majesties and
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: the present Cabinet have shown the deepest interest in the
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: welfare of the lepers, and probably all that it is
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: possible to do for their relief and for the security
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: of the nation is being done. In this respect. The
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: little Kingdom of Hawaii is worthy of the sympathy and
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: the admiration of the world. Better accommodations are needed at
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: the settlement, a much larger appropriation. And as for the
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: priests who have consecrated their lives to this glorious work
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: of mercy, is there any wish of theirs which should
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: not be heated, any request with which the government should
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: not comply Chapter fourteen. In those last days, I used
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: to seek the Father and find him now at the
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: top of a ladder, hammer and nail in hand, or
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: in the garden, or the hospital ward, or the kitchen,
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: or away on a sick call, as the case might be.
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: It was seldom he could sit with me. For not
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: a moment was he really free. Once I captured him
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: on a plea of paying my parting call. With the
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: greatest reluctance, and only at my urgent request, he went
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: in search of his decoration. It was found in its
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: neat Morocco case, hidden away in an unvisited corner, with
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: a dust and inch thick on it. It is not
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: for this that I am here, said he disparagingly, and
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: he acknowledged that he had never put the ribbon about
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: his neck. Indeed, he had hardly looked at the bauble
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: since the day when the bishop desired him to wear
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: it for the gratification of his simple flock. Once I
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: wandered alone into the chapel, a small organ was standing
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: near an open window. Beyond the window was the very
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: pandanus tree under which Father Damien found shelter when he
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: first came to Colaeo. I sat at the instrument, dreaming
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: over the keys, and thinking of the life one must
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: lead in such a spot, of the need and the
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: lack of human sympathy, of the solitude of the soul
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: destined to a communion with perpetual death, and hearing a
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: slight rustling near me. I turned and found the chapel
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: nearly filled with lepers, who had silently stolen in, one
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: after another at the sound of the organ. The situation
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: was rather startling, but when I asked where Father Damien
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: might be found, they directed me and stood aside to
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: let me pass. I found him where I might have
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: known he was likely to be found, working bravely among
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: his men. He by far the most industrious of them all.
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: As I approached them, unobserved, the bell of the little
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: chapel rang out the Angelus. On the instant. They all knelt, uncovered,
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: and in their midst the priest recited the beautiful prayer,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: to which they responded in soft, low voices, while the
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: gentle breeze rustled the broad leaves about them, and the
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: sun poured a flood of glory upon their bowed forms. Lepers,
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: all of them save the good pasture, and soon to
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: follow in the ghastly procession, whose motionless bodies he blesses
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: in their peaceful sleep. Angelus Domini, was that sight not
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: pleasing in the eyes of God? Chapter fifteen Farewell. The
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: time had come to say farewell. The evening before our departure,
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: we saw a pleasant phase of life at the leper settlement.
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: The little steamer that visits them at intervals was due
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: long before sunset. A faint smoke cloud on the horizon
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: heralded her approach, and the news spread like wildfire from
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: Colawayo to Calapapa. The excitement grew as the steamer drew near,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: and when she passed the little land of the proscribed
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: and blew a shrill, long blast that was echoed in
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: a half dozen neighboring valleys. Everyone who was able to
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: leave his bed was on his way to the landing.
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: Many horses are owned at the settlement, and there is
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: dry pasturage for many more. The cavalcade and the infantry
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: soon depopulated one village and filled the other to overflowing.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: More Lepers were arriving and were welcomed with tears of
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: sympathy to their new home. The scene was pathetic beyond description,
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: and were not evident that the exiles are as comfortable
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: and as happy in course of time on Molokai as
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: they can be anywhere in the world. Nature would revolt
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: at the spectacle. It is undoubtedly best as it is,
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: and it is as well as it can be under
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: the circumstances. That was a gala night at Kalapapa, but
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: we were thinking most of our departure. On the morrow.
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: We had chosen another trail up the poli. There are
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: but two, and it may almost be said of them
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: that each is more dreadful than the other. As is
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: usually the case, we were assured that the ascent was easy,
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: that it had been made in fifty minutes, and without
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: suffering much fatigue. We began gaily enough. The path bordered
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: a pretty curve of the shore, and then led up
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: onto a wooded plateau, where the view was charming, the
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: air delicious. For a time. We threaded a grove, and
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: beyond that the trail was shaded at intervals, while the
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: underbrush hedged us in. As we rounded the shoulders of
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: the cliff, anon came steep acclivities with stretches of bare
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: sun heated rocks, where our hearts fainted at least minded.
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: There was one terrible bit of wall like cliff that
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: was almost perpendicular. It crumbled as we clung to it
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: like cats, and when I looked below to find footing,
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: I discovered that the rock upon which I was stretched
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: in an agony of suspense was apparently overhanging the sea.
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: The deep green water was far below me. I felt
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: as if I were climbing into the sky, and then
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: I nearly fell from sheer fright. But a cloud blew
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: down upon us. They fly low in that latitude. In
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: this thin disguise, I tried to forget that I was
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: suspended in mid air by my eyelids, with nothing but
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: soul leather between me and a thousand feet of space,
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: with certain death at the lower end of it. We
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: were rained upon and shined upon, covered with dust and debris,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: And when we reached the top of the Polly, I
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: was dizzy and parched with thirst. It was my last ascent.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: We made it in two hours and forty minutes, with
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: my heart knocking wildly at my ribs all the way up.
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: It is the mountain of difficulty. Surely no leper may
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: ever hope to scale it, nor was ever so weird
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: a spot dedicated to such sorrow and long suffering. Before,
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: with health and companionship, one might endure banishment. But these
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: lepers are dying by inches. They sit about much of
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: the time with an air of hopeless resignation, sit there
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: waiting for the grave to open and receive them the
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: martyrs of Molokai. If we pity the lepers, who are
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: fortunately soon comforted after every grief, what shall we say
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: of those servants of God who have dedicated their lives
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: to this noble work. Think of their unutterable loneliness, shut
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: in between vast stretches of sea and sky, a solitude
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: that has driven men mad before. Now they receive no guests,
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: for no one cares to visit them. Very few of
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: their friends write to them, for some are even afraid
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: to receive a reply. Their meager rations are sometimes unavoidably
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: cut short. Yet one hears no complaint from them. In
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: their own behalf. It is always a compassionate appeal in
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: behalf of their charges. These are their companions, if the
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: uncompanionable can be called such, these the helpless and the hopeless,
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: And over the devoted heads of those involuntary martyrs, hangs
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: ever the possible yea the probable fate that is hourly
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: expiated in revolting and ignominious death. Take heedo, people, lest
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: in these self sacrificing ministers, ye entertain an angel unawares,
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: untrumpeted incomparable heroes verily they shall receive their reward. Epilogue.
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: When I laid down my pen at the close of
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: the last chapter of this lamentable narrative, it was with
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: a sigh of relief that I turned to more cheerful themes.
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: I believed that the worst had been told, and that
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: henceforth I could think of the pastor of Molokai as
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: of one's standing so sentinel over the haunt of affliction,
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: wrestling night and day with the Angel of Death, his
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: body clean as the soul that encases it, uncontaminated in
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: the midst of contamination, an impenetrable armor shielding him from
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: the poisoned darts that assail him on every hand, and
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: he a living witness to the certitude of a special providence.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: Such indeed he has been for more than a decade,
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: but within a twelvemonth from the time when together we
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: sat with the dead and the dying, when I saw
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: with my own eyes the evidences of his wholesome and
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: holy influence, and heard with my own ears of the
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: works of mercy to which he has consecrated his life,
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: heard it from the lips of those whose hearts were
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: overflowing with gratitude, in one brief year. He has been
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: seized treacherously, I might almost say, and his fate is
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: seen in common with that of his ill starred flock.
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: Yet there is more Christian valor in his surrender than
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: in many a conquest that is blazoned in the annals
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: of history. Listen to these passages from a letter recently
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: received from Kalaweo. Since March last, my confrere father Albert
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: has left Molochai and this archipelago and has returned to
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: Tahiti and the Pumutu. I am now the only priest
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: on Molokai, and am supposed to be myself afflicted with
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: this terrible disease. Impossible for me to go any more
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: to Honolulu on account of the leprosy breaking out on me.
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: Those microbes have finally settled themselves in my left leg
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: and my ear, and one eyebrow begins to fall. I
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: expect to have my face soon disfigured. Having no doubt
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: myself of the true character of my disease, I feel calm, resigned,
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: and happier among my people. Almighty God knows what is
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: best for my own sanctification, And with that conviction I
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: say daily a good fiat voluntas tua. Please pray for
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: your afflicted friend, and recommend me and my unhappy people
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: to all servants of the Lord. It is the beginning
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: of the end. Already his garment is a winding sheet,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: and the grave awaits him in the mouth of the
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: dark valley? Is this the reward of virtue and a piety,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: humility and devotion. No, all worldly distinctions are as nothing
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: in comparison with the home which awaits him eternal in
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: the heavens. Death, even such a death as his, comes
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: honorably to one who exchanges a life of voluntary sacrifice
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: for a crown of glory. A little while and he
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: will have perished in the file embraces of that ghoulish monster,
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: whose ill begotten brood is scattered even unto the ends
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: of the earth. It is not impossible, yea. It is
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: not improbable that at some future time in these United
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: States it may become necessary to enact special laws for
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: the protection of the people at large and the segregation
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: of those who have fallen victims to the most dreadful
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: of all scourges. The seeds of the plague are sown
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: in the track of the Chinese coolly, and the fact
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: should be considered in season for anon, we may hear
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: the hopeless cry ringing from shore to shore. Too late,
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: too late, Reverend and beloved father. At your feet I
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: lay this tribute in memory of our last sad meeting
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: and parting. In my heart. You live forever. Nothing can
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: touch you further, and when you are laid to rest,
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: I believe that you will have achieved a record of
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: modest heroism, almost without parallel. In these times degradation. It
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: may be in the eyes of many the death in life,
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: the slow sure foot of decay. But out of the
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: luam of this corruptible body springs heavenward the invisible blossom
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: of the soul. O, my friend, forget me not, as
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: I cannot cease to remember thee when the fragrance of
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: that flower shall gladden the path of paradise. End of
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: the epilog and of the Lepers of Molokai by Charles
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: Warren Stoddard