Alice M. Hayes

“ Once a leper, always a leper, is the sad outcome of my many years close observation, let the treatment be what it may. It behoves us, therefore, as human beings, simply to do all in our power, in whatever part of the world leprosy prevails, to establish retreats in which its victims can be housed in seclusion, apart from intercourse with the general public, where they can obtain proper shelter, be provided with suitable food and clothing, and where medical comforts can be placed at their disposal. ”

“ Brother John could hardly trust himself to speak to poor Bella, while she herself seemed ready to cry. I looked at the miserable bareness of the place, and at the native women squatting about on the floor, and inquired if they had no chairs or washstands, or any more furniture than what I saw. They shook their heads. The Jewess pointed to a little oil-stove that was worn out and full of holes, and asked me if I would try to get her a new one, as she had no stove to boil water for her tea. I found that they washed themselves at a tap in the enclosure, but had neither bath-tubs or washstands. ”

“ Before I had known the dear old Mother Provincial an hour, I found myself telling her of all my woes and troubles, and, encouraged by her kindness, I felt better able, after such visits, to do battle with the world; for there is nothing so comforting as the genuine sympathy of one woman with another. She would give me an encouraging tap on the shoulder, and say, “Go on, dear; continue to do your best for those poor lepers, and we will pray for you; all the nuns will pray for the success of such a work as yours. It is so nice to see the young thoughtfully working for the sorely afflicted.” ”

“ The effects of a visit to a leper asylum, or to a single individual leper with whom I have had to remain in conversation, produces a sensation quite dissimilar to that resulting from personal contact with any other disease. A peculiar sensation is produced in the mouth, and an irresistible feeling that one has inhaled some disgusting and noxious material, which clings to the tongue, the lining membrane of the mouth and fauces. ”

“ We throw the poor things a few coppers in passing; but, as there are no lepers in England, the majority of us know little about the horrible disease from which they suffer, and are therefore inclined to regard them as ordinary beggars. I had read “Life and Letters of Father Damien,” and from that little book, which was lent me by the nuns of the Loretto Convent in Calcutta, I learned something of leprosy; just enough perhaps to make me wish to know more and to see for myself what was the condition of the sufferers. ”

“ They thus transform themselves, if not into a danger to their fellow-creatures, at least into a most objectionable nuisance and eye-sore to the whole community. To look upon the streets and roads of an Indian Station on Sunday morning (and this was the manner these wretched creatures adopted to enlist the sympathies of their fellow beings in my own station) , lined with rows of lepers, exhibiting their disgusting sores and their maimed and deformed bodies to the public gaze, was a sight that could not fail to touch the hardest and most indifferent heart. ”

“ My first impulse was to fix the dirty rag for him; but I suddenly remembered that contact with this terrible disease might possibly be fatal to me, so passed on. In the next ward, which was even in a dirtier state than any that I had previously visited, the native lepers were crowded together as thickly as possible. A horrible smell pervaded the place. Bits of dirty stained bandages hung here and there. On the floor, curled up on a piece of Indian matting, lay the form of a man in the last stage of leprosy. ”

“ In India it is not safe to stroke cats or dogs, or to allow them to sleep in beds with children; for it is possible for them to transmit disease from place to place. Sorry as I would be to deprive poor Bridget of any small pleasure, I must say that I do not think [Pg 86] a cat should be kept in a leper Asylum; for it is almost impossible to keep one shut up or control her movements at all times, and there is nothing to prevent her, after having been stroked by lepers, and licking their sores, from going to a healthy person and being kissed and fondled by young children. ”

“ The horror and disgrace of a European leper woman begging in the streets was an idea that they could never have tolerated—anything rather than that. There is a certain amount of sympathy accorded to native lepers, but Europeans afflicted in like manner are regarded more as wild beasts than as human beings. ”

“ In the Bombay Asylum there are cells for refractory subjects; but in Calcutta they are sent out with their disease and misery into the streets to mix with healthy persons, and to prove a source of danger to all those with whom they come in contact. They are not again entitled to even the wretched shelter and protection afforded at the Calcutta Leper Asylum. It is high time that such scandals as these were made known, and that prompt action be taken by Government for the segregation of very bad lepers like the man of whom I speak ”

“ In Calcutta this is not done, and up to the time of writing, Europeans are herding with natives in a ward entirely devoid of furniture, except a bed each. This is not from necessity or want of funds; for the District Charitable Society is one of the richest in Calcutta. I may here explain to those of my readers who have not lived abroad that, however poor and miserably afflicted a European man or woman may be, the one possession to which they cling, and on which they hang their last shred of personal pride when everything else [Pg 60] in the world has left them, is their nationality. ”

“ The doctors engaged on the Leprosy Commission have visited the inmates of the Calcutta Asylum, have had them photographed, and made a number of inquiries into the antecedents of each leper; but up to the present nothing has been done by Government for the proper housing or immediate relief of these sufferers. What I have written has been done in the earnest hope that their cause will be taken up by some kind people, who will act promptly in establishing them where they will receive the kindness and care accorded to sick people. ”

“ If the intense heat makes bathing and a change of clothes so imperative among all persons, rich and poor, my readers will at once recognise the necessity of providing those afflicted with a [Pg 84] loathsome evil-smelling disease like leprosy with a liberal quantity of clean linen; at least, during the hottest months of the year. I used to pity poor Daisy and Bella very much in the terrible heat. Bridget had no sores, nor did she seem affected at all like those poor girls; for there was never any bad odour discernible in her little room. ”

“ It was from her I learnt that they never leave the convent except to go to another, nor do they walk in the public streets. I ventured to say that it was a pity such good women should shut themselves up when they might be doing work in the world among the poor and sick. “We are not,” they replied, “permitted by our Order to go out; we teach the young. There are nuns, sisters of charity, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and many other Orders, whose work takes them into the world. We teach and help to clothe poor children.” ”

“ Before admission, all agree to become permanent residents and to live apart. I had studied with care the beneficial effects of segregation which had been adopted in the retreats in Norway and Sweden, with the marked diminution in the number of cases imported during the decades succeeding the foundation of these institutions, and, acting on this principle, the Dehra Dun Leper Asylum was opened in 1879, and has been in existence ever since. ”

“ We know of two other cases of leprosy among acquaintances of our own in India; but these are only in their first stages, and are not sufficiently advanced to prevent the sufferers from appearing in public. I may mention that the Lancet of the 18th July of this year (1891) reports a case of leprosy at Lisburn (Ireland) in a man who had contracted the disease at Rangoon (Burma) , where he had resided ten years. There have been many other instances of Europeans contracting the disease abroad. Any destitute white man who became a leper in India would have to remain there ”

“ Her fingers and toes were in much the same state as those of poor Bella, and she wore a green shade over her eyes. There were a couple of wicker chairs in her little room, also an accordion, with which the superintendent told me she used to accompany herself to songs; that she had a sweet voice, and often sang to the other lepers. “To whom do these women apply for their wants?” I asked. “To me,” said Mr. McGuire. “I come here once a week.” “But is there no woman to look after such things?” “No,” he said; “women don’t care to come to such places as these.” ”

“ The majority suffer in variously painful degrees, according to the organ or part implicated, and it is a mistake to think that their sufferings are little. Many, in the earlier forms of the ailment, lose their sense of sight, smell and taste, and when their lungs or throat is attacked (a common form) , their agonies are dreadfully distressing and painful to behold. The inroads of the disease are slow and gradual, which makes it all the more trying, and the painful and lingering death to which most are doomed is a condition that one dreads to dwell on. ”

“ The address given me by the woman who came to my house was in a lane off Chandney Choke, one of the lowest and most thickly populated of the slums of Calcutta. It is here one may see exposed for sale everything that it is possible to imagine, from a hammer and nails or a button hook, to a complete outfit for man or horse. Side by side with legs of thin miserable-looking mutton will be seen a set of harness, gaudy and cheap; saddles that make one feel sorry for the unfortunate horse or pony on whose back they will be placed ”

“ If the would-be reformer acts contrary to this dictum, he will make such officials his bitterest enemies. In such an ignoble category, men like Dr. MacLaren, superintendent of the Dehra Dun Asylum, and Mr. Ackworth and Dr. Weir, of Bombay, find no place; for their object is not to gain credit for charitable work they do not perform, but to relieve and comfort those under their kindly charge. ”

“ I may mention that one of the peculiarities of leprosy is that those suffering from it can bear heat very badly. Hence, lepers, as a rule, like to sit in the shade and to keep out of the direct rays of the sun. I have often heard them complain that their blood seemed to be on fire. The skin of the Jewess had changed to a strange blue colour, possibly by reason of the medicines she had taken, but she was not disfigured with loathsome sores like Daisy and Bella ”

“ In India, I found death was such an intimate acquaintance that his terrors, in the case of others, were too often regarded with callous indifference; and that the fact of the English residents being but temporary sojourners made them disinclined to support permanent charitable institutions, although they are extremely liberal, at the time, when personally appealed to, in the cause of suffering humanity. ”

“ I have had, of course, ample opportunity of studying the nature of the disease, and its effects on the different organs of the body, and in the many examinations I have made, post mortem, I can testify that not a single organ in the whole body is exempt from the attacks and inroads of this dire and loathsome malady. It invades the brain, spinal nerves, the eyes, tongue and throat, the lungs, the liver, and other digestive organs. ”

“ A leper falls fainting by the way-side, he is seized by the police, and conveyed in a third-class hackney carriage to the asylum. As soon as he has had his wounds dressed, has gained a little strength, and finds himself able to do so, he walks out into the streets again to beg. ”

“ Michell. Before leaving Calcutta I spent about £20 of the fund money in the purchase of cotton chemises, wrappers, nightgowns, and handkerchiefs for the women, and shirts for the men in the Leper Asylum; as it is necessary during the intense heat of Calcutta to change one’s underlinen frequently. When I first saw the lepers, they were complaining bitterly of the want of clean linen, and were delighted when I was able to procure a good stock of it for them. Healthy persons, even among the natives who can afford to do so, change their linen frequently during the hot weather. ”

“ Besides, a young clergyman came here once—only once—and promised to send me some picture-books, but he never sent them; so you see we haven’t much faith in people now: we only believe them when we see them keep their promises.” I often used to find Daisy, the Jewess, and Bella together in Daisy’s little room, talking of their affliction. Suffering and sorrow have bound at least two of these women together in the holiest ties of friendship and love. One day I found them much depressed. I know not what had happened: I think there had been trouble with the officials. ”

“ Mother Provincial not only encouraged me with words, but she got up a subscription among the nuns and sent me a sum of money for my leper fund. She did all this in her quiet, sweet way, knowing that I professed a different [Pg 92] creed to that of her own; but she waived all prejudice, because she thought I was doing a good work. I have nothing but the pleasantest and most grateful recollections of the nuns; for I invariably found them the same kind friends, through good and evil report, all the time I was in Calcutta. ”