Uj^ionj (X»RNELL 2) V UNIVERSITY Sb37 LIBRARY BV2637.fiTL5l9To'""'-"""y The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006550598 LEPERS Extracts from ipress IRotices of fftrst ]E£)ftion. "This absorbing book."— The Standard. " Exceptionally attractive." — Sheffield Independent. "Wonderfully interesting." — Bristol Daily Mercury. "Well got up, amply illustrated, . . . valuable." — Aberdeen Free Press. "Full of pathos ... A deeply interesting record." — Nottingham Guardian. " In this thrilling story many chapters are stranger than fiction, . . . and admirably told." — THE Scotsman. " It is impossible to read these pages full of records of . . . self-sacrifice without emotion." — Newcastle Chronicle. " This interesting and pathetic work. ... It is interesting from a scientific, geographical, and historical point of view." — Irish Times. " This handsome volume, with its numerous illustrations, is another addition to the romance of missions . . . It is a powerful contribution towards Christian Apologetics. . . . Our readers should make haste to possess themselves of this noble record of Christian work." — St. Andrew. WELLESLEY C. BAILEY. Esq. LEPERS THIRTY-SIX YEARS' WORK AMONG THEM :Belng tbe IbistocB ot tbc /iRfssion to OLepers in 3n£)la anO tbe East, 1874=1910 JOHN JACKSON, F.R.G.S. Author of "Mary Reecl," "/« Leper Lanti," Ss'c. WITH A SHORT INTRODUCTION BV THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA TWO MAPS AND MANY ILLUSTRATIONS NEW AND REVISED EDITION MARSHALL BROTHERS, LTD LONDON &• EDINBURGH THE MISSION TO LEPERS .^^^^ y < \^ ^ EDINBURGH 28 NORTH BRIDGE ',,'•" DUBLIN ROGALAND, COWPER ROAD LONDON 33 HENRIETTA STREET, STRAND, W.C, jVW^K I',,,, \ I" 10 / R. W. SIMPSON AND CO., LTD., PRINTERS, RICHMOND, LOMSON. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. I SUPPOSE there is scarcely any word in the English language which brings with it the suggestion of such utter misery and desolation as does the one word leprosy. From childhood upward we learn something of the horrors of this disease, and of the laws which com- pelled the leper's separation from his family and friends : we see him bowed down by physical and mental sufferings, and our imagination is painfully stirred by that terrible passage, " The leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a cover- ing upon his upper lip, and shall cry. Unclean, unclean." Passing onward through the ages we find recorded in the New Testament the same suffering, the same isola- tion, and the same misery. But, the Light has come into the world, and He who healed the sick and cleansed the leper has left us an example that we should follow in His steps. Yet the knowledge gained, and the sentiments of compassion excited in us by our reading of the Old Testament and by the lessons we have learnt from the New, need to be carried down to the present day and translated into practice. Here, in England, where we do not see the disease, we are too apt to think of the leper as a pathetic figure in the remote past, or as a mere type of moral pollution, and entirely to ignore the fact that he is a living human vi INTRODUCTORY NOTE being — a fellow creature crying out to us in his sore dis- tress for shelter from an outcast existence, and for the physical alleviations it is in our power to give him. Appealing to us in his extremity for material aid, he is unconscious of the better and greater blessings we have to bring him, — the knowledge ofa loving, pitying Saviour, — and a hope beyond the grave. This History of the Leper Mission is intended to crystallize into actual knowledge the vague ideas we hold with regard to the lepers of our own day. It brings before its readers the numbers of these unhappy people, the greatness of their need, and the joy with which they receive the Gospel of salvation. It incidentally sets forth the devotion of those men and women who give their lives to work amongst the lepers, and who renounce so much that is easy and pleasant and delightful in life, for the one joy of bringing relief to physical sufferings and a spiritual awakening to souls steeped in ignorance, hope- lessness, and apathy. I think it may be said that the Mission to Lepers in India and the East has been entirely successful ; founded only thirty-one years ago, there are already sixty stations in India, and eighteen in China, Japan, and Sumatra. For the support of fifty Asylums and Hospitals the Mission is entirely responsible, the others being given grants, or provided with Christian teaching. A very important work is also carried on for the rescue of the children of lepers. The disease is found to be not hereditary, and if only the children are brought up in good surroundings they grow up perfectly healthy. In the twenty-two homes supported by the Mission, five INTRODUCTORY NOTE vii hundred boys and girls are being saved from incurable disease and from a life of utter misery. It is now many years since I visited two Leper Asylums in India, and since I saw maimed and miserable creatures suffering from this disease begging round the temples in Burma. But the impression made upon one by such sights does not pass away, and I am glad, on behalf of these unhappy beings, to undertake so slight a task as the writing of these few words, if by so doing I can in the smallest degree aid the Founder of the Leper Mission or the writer of this book to make known the needs of the lepers for whom they themselves have done so much, and to ask all who read it to promote by their contribu- tions the extension of this truly merciful and Christian work. AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE burden of this book is the cry of the leper. It is an attempt, not only to portray the dire needs of these helpless people, but also to demonstrate how those needs may best be met. This it seeks to do by a recital of the methods and results of thirty-one years' work among them. The workers will be found to be representative of many Churches and of several nationalities. The unifying body which has sustained and directed their labours is the Mission to Lepers in India and the East, and of this Society a complete and consecutive history will be found in this volume. The scope of the book is co-extensive with the field of the Mission, namely, India — with Burma and Ceylon — China, Japan and Sumatra. This should be borne in mind, as it accounts for the omission of noble work done among lepers in other lands by other workers. . . . But when it is added that the following pages contain a record of labour among lepers at seventy-eight stations, it will be clear that by far the greater part of such work is included. The absence of reference to similar efforts in other places or lands is therefore to be ascribed to the plan and purpose of the book, and to the limitations thereby imposed, and in no wise to lack of sympathy with the devoted labours of many whose names are not mentioned. London, January 1st, 1906. PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. A BRIEF explanation is called for in connection with the present issue of this book, following as it does the original edition after a lapse of five years. During this period, as will be seen from the concluding chapters, the Society of whose work this volume is the record has continued to extend its operations. For the first time in its history the total number of sufferers who are supported by the Mission, or to whom its operations offer the advantage of Christian teaching, reached at the end of igog a total of more than 10,000. In order to bring the book within reasonable limits as to size, con- siderable sections of non-essential matter have been omitted. This has afforded room for a short account of the Author's tour in the Far East in the Winter of igo8-g — a tour which enabled him to write, as an eye-witness, of the condition of the lepers and of the work among them in China, Japan and Hawaii, as well as in India and Burma. While dealing less fully than the original edition with some details of the work of the Mission in its earlier years, the present version will be found to bring the record up to the Autumn of igio, and leaves the Mission in the full tide of its beneficent activities — considerable developments having been planned or undertaken this year, JOHN JACKSON. London, October, 1910. CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I. — Introductory i The Leper in Literature — The Church and the Leper — Census Difficulties — Three New Commandments — The Tender Mercies of the Wicked. Chapter II. — 1874-1878 9 Almora Asylum Founded — Many Lepers in the Mountains — The Outcasts of Bombay — Mr. Bailey's Introduction to the Lepers. Chapter III.— 1874-1878 {concluded) - - - - 14 Irish Sympathy — Leprosy the Leveller — Mr. Bailey Returns to India — Ninety Miles for Shelter — First Lepers Supported — Eager Listeners. Chapter IV. — 1879-1883 23 Aid for Almora — Saving the Boys and Girls — Sixty-One Leper Children — Contagious but not Hereditary — Death of Dr. Newton. Chapter V.— 1879-1883 {concluded) .... 29 Interdenominational and International— The Mission to Lepers and other Societies — Cheerful Christian Lepers — Ilahi Bakhsh. Chapter VI.— 1884-1888 .... - 34 Mr. Bailey's Indian Tour — Home Organisation — A Sad Com- munity at Tarn Taran — Beginning at Chandag — Calcutta and Rurki — Purulia — Madras — More New Centres. Chapter VII. — 1889-1893 - - - - - 45 Father Damien — Legislation for the Lepers — Miss Reed's Appointment — U.S.A. and Canada — "The Story of the Mission." CONTENTS Chapter VIII. — 1889-1893 (continued) - - - - 52 Commencement in China — Causes of Leprosy — Siao Kan Opened— Help for Japan — Gathering in Burmese Outcasts — The "Christaram" Asylum — A Missionary Quilt. Chapter IX. — 1889-1893 (concluded) - 64 Shopkeeping Lepers — Poladpur and Pui — "Where are there any Feet?"- A Group of New Stations — Happy Laloo — Lepers at School — Blind Mussuwa. Chapter X. — -1894-1898 - - 73 London Office Opened — Organising Secretary Appointed — Surprising Contentment — A Model Auxiliary. Chapter XI. — 1894-1898 (continued) - 82 Gangai Bai — Chandkuri Commenced — The Famine and the Lepers — Dr. Griffith John — Hopeless Japanese Lepers. Chapter XII. — 1894-1898 (continued) ... - go " What He could not do '' — Supply and Demand — Light and Shade — Steady Growth — Christmas Festivities. Chapter XIII. — 1894-1898 (concluded) - - - 96 The Attraction of Repulsion — Human Wrecks — The Berlin Conference — The Pakhoi Fund — The Lo Ngwong Children's Home. Chapter XIV. — 1899-1903 - - - 100 A Blessing in Disguise — A Startling Discovery — Dangerous Conditions — " Heaven for the Lepers"— The Story of Ram Lai — Zindi the Drummer^Bombay and the Lepers. Chapter XV. — 1899-1903 (continued) - - - no The Lepers of Central India— " The Christ Treatment"— Twenty Child Lepers — Solving the Problem — Helping Themselves. Chapter XVI. — 1899-1903 (continued) - - . . us Beginning at Bankura— A Good Investment — The " Edith " Home — Grateful Lepers— Asaph of Urikel — The Old Soldier — New Asylum at Tarn Taran — "From Hell to Heaven" — Sympathy from Non-Christians. CONTENTS xiii PAGE Chapter XVII. — 1899-1903 (continued) - - - 124 Lepers Burnt Alive — Light in the Darkness — Hope for Canton — The Blind Singing Girl— Ever Open Doors— 149 Baptisms — Death of Mr. Uffmann. Chapter XVIII. — 1899-1903 {continued) - 133 Thirty Denominations — How the Problem may be Solved — Sir Andrew Fraser's Approval— Progress in China — Out of their Poverty— Prayers and Gifts — Taking the Collection. Chapter XIX. — 1899-1903 {concluded) - - 142 Christian Endeavour Among the Lepers — Welcoming their Friends — Loyal Lepers — To the Third Generation- Redeemed Lives — Auxiliary Agencies — Some Specimen Cases. Chapter XX. — 1904-1905 - - 153 The Dhar Asylum — The Lepers of Tungkutt — Across the Atlantic — A Valuable Volunteer. Chapter XXI. — 1906-1910 - - - - - 160 Continued Expansion— Mr. and Mrs. Bailey visit India — Interesting Letters — European Lepers — A Tour Round the World — A Visit to Molokai — Government Action in Japan — Christmas at Canton— Sympathy from Sir Robert Hart — Penang and Mandalay — My Visit to Bankura and Purulia — Death of Mr. Hahn — Mr. Anderson at Work — Revival at Allahabad. Chapter XXII. — 1906-1910 - - ... 1^9 The Grace Otway Mayne Asylum — Co-operation with Govern- ment—At Rawal Pindi and Poena— " A Real Christian Mission"— Help for the Lepers of Madura— Lepers as Butchers and Bakers — A Touching Service at Raniganj- Help for Korea— A Leper Island— A Tragedy in the Philippines — Medals for Missionaries — The Bergen Con- ference-Important Resolutions— Home Matters— Grateful Thanks, INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS FACINQ PAGE Wellesley C. Bailey, Esq. . . . {Frontispiece) Cases of Anaesthetic Leprosy, Sabathu . . . .10 Leper Women, Chamba Asylum . . . .22 Group of Untainted Boys at Tarn Taran . . .26 The Church of the Rurki Asylum, with Native Pastor and Catechist ....... 38 A Case of Tubercular Leprosy at Sholapur, India . . 50 Three Lepers at AUeppey, Travancore . . . .50 Kucheng Asylum Chapel ..... 56 Untainted Boys, Purulia. Winners of Prizes at the Coronation Sports open to all comers . . . . .62 Native Doctor, Purulia Asylum, and Class of Untainted Boys in training for Medical Assistants . . . .62 The Dispensary, Purulia Asylum, with Native Doctor and Students ....... 72 John Jackson, f.r.g.s. ...... 76 Leper Children, Chandkuri Asylum .... 84 Leaders among the Christian Lepers, Purulia : Some with Musical Instruments ..... 90 Group of Lepers, Mungeli Asylum, C.P., India . . 104 Lepers in the Mandalay Asylum — representing seven nationalities . . . • • • .120 xvi INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Un Ho, the Blind Teacher at Canton, with one of her Classes 128 Native Helpers, Purulia Asylum . . . . .138 Arch erected at the Mandalay Asylum in honour of Lord Curzon's visit . . . . . .144 Leper Helpers, Mandalay (each with symbol of office) . .150 The Holt-Skinner Memorial Hospital, Bhagalpur Asylum, with Group of Lepers . . . . . .160 Mr. Otsuka (the Superintendent) and his wife dressing a bad case at the Tokio Asylum . . . . .170 The late Rev. F. Hahn and Native Staff, Purulia Asylum . 174 Lepers at the Tokio Asylum, with Christmas decorations put up by them ....... 186 Inmates of the Asylum at Kumamoto, Japan . . . 186 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY IN all the long procession of the ages there is no more truly tragic figure than that of the leper. Inspired both by traditional association and by natural horror, men have shrunk from him as a creature cut off from all the interests of healthy humanity. His cup is full to the brim with bitterness, and includes in it every ingredient of sorrow. Disease both loathsome and lifelong ; expulsion alike from home and city : forfeiture of social and legal rights ; all these, together with the consciousness that he is an outcast and that life holds for him no hope, combine to make the lot of the leper the very quintessence of misery and despair. Indeed, the very word has become the synonym for all that is foul and repulsive. In all ages and in all lands it has been the same. How complete a picture, though in a few words, the Pentateuch gives us of the leper. With garments rent, with bared head and covered lip, and with his warning cry of " Unclean 1 unclean ! " the defiled man dwelt alone — "without the camp." In New Testament times, the ten men who sought help from the Divine Healer were found outside the village, and uttered their cry from afar off. The testimony of secular literature confirms that of the Sacred Record concerning these most pitiable of all the sons of affliction. History tells of several Royal lepers, including Henry IV. of England, Robert Bruce of Scotland, and Louis XIV. of France. It is not surprising B 2 LEPERS-INTRODUCTORY that a fate so charged with every element of tragedy has been the theme ahke of poem and of romance. Chaucer writes of one whose " ugly leper's face" had been before as " white as lely floure." Tennyson makes touching reference to the ritual of the mediaeval Church when he causes the leper's bride to say, (( ( Libera me, Domine!'' you sang the psalm ; and when The priest pronounced you dead, and flung the mould upon your feet, A beauty came upon your face not that of living men, But seen upon the silent brow when life has ceased to beat." Lowell's Sir Launfal and the holy Francis of Assisi agree, first, in turning from the leper in loathing, and then in beholding in the diseased outcast " an image of Him who died on the tree." Who that has read " Ben Hur " can forget the ghastly discovery of the imprisoned lepers ? The graphic pen of R. L. Stevenson has not only enabled us to see the English leper of the Middle Ages stealing through the forest in the grey dawn, with his hooded gown and his wooden clappers, but has moved our pity for the lepers of Molokai as well as our admiration for Damien's self-sacrifice on their behalf. Finally, the Indian leper of to-day has not escaped the keen vision of Kipling, and even his powerful pen has depicted no more terrible object than the ghastly creature who leaps out upon the drunken Englishman as he desecrates the Hindu shrine. Kipling's leper may serve to introduce us to the topic of which this volume treats, namely, the lepers of our own day and some efforts for their bodily and spiritual welfare. In no respect, probably, does Christianity stand out in sharper contrast with the ancient creeds of the East than in its recognition of the importance of the present life and the value of the individual soul. The earthly existence that Hinduism regards as but one in a series of CHRISTIANITY AND THE LEPERS 3 innumerable incarnations is, according to the evangelical conception of Christianity, the sole period of probation on which depends eternal weal or woe. In place of the Buddhist hope of ultimate absorption into the universal soul, the Christian contemplates everlasting life with the personal consciousness intensified. In so far as the Christianity of our day affirms the supreme importance of the human spirit, and of its future destiny, it is un- questionably in accord with the teaching of its Founder and of His Apostles. The vision which bade Peter call nothing common or unclean was but a reassertion of the principle laid down by Christ when He declared that service rendered to the sick, the hungry, and the prisoner, was rendered unto Him. If we bear in mind that it was not till the dawn of the nineteenth century that the Christian Church began slowly to awaken to the duty of evangelising the world, we need not wonder that it was only during the last quarter of that century that she began to realise her responsibility to the lepers — at first very slowly, but happily, of recent years, more rapidly. Missionaries of many societies have begun to recognise that even the leper, outcast and helpless though he is, has his share in the great redemption. Moreover, the Christian spirit that alone inspires and sustains the missionary enterprise is ready to acknowledge his extreme need as his strongest claim. It may be regarded as an evidence alike of the deepening tone and the widening scope of Christian missions that the Society, of whose origin and growth this book is the record, is carrying on its beneficent operations in as many as seventy-nine stations. And a gratifying proof that this spirit of Divine compassion and practical helpfulness is permeating Protestant Christianity as a whole, is found in the fact that these stations are maintained in co-operation with missionaries of thirty 4 LEPERS- INTRODUCTORY societies, including British, Continental, American, and Canadian. Before presenting a consecutive account of the origin and development of the Mission to lepers, it will be well to demonstrate the necessity for such a society and to narrate the circumstances in which it came into existence. Available information as to the numbers and condition of the lepers of India and the far East a generation ago is scanty and not very reliable. Census statistics and other official figures have always been, even on the admission of their compilers, valuable mainly as factors from which to estimate the actual number of sufferers from a disease which is regarded as a disgrace, and is naturally concealed wherever possible. It may be assumed that the most recent census of India, that of igoi (in which the present writer was included while travelling between Agra and Lucknow), was more complete and accurate than any former one. Yet we find, with regard to leprosy, that the Official returns gave the number of lepers as 97,340. When to the numerous omissions due to incomplete instructions and incorrect diagnosis are added the multitude of cases in which the disease must have been successfully concealed, either through the efforts of the lepers themselves or of their relatives, it will be seen that any result arrived at can at best be but a rough approximation, and certainly must fall far short of the full total. That this conclusion is fully warranted is shown by the following typical extract from district reports of the census of igoi. " The return is no doubt incomplete, since leprosy carries with it certain social disabilities, and there is naturally great reluctance to admit the existence of this dreadful disease. Incipient cases too, are bound to be overlooked, for the leper himself is often ignorant of the fact that he has the taint." (Rajputana). LEPERS BURIED ALIVE 5 The estimated number of lepers in India must vary, according as it is regarded from the standpoint of the official enumerator or from that of the philanthropic missionary. But when it is reilected that it is lepers we are dealing with — homeless outcasts, lifelong victims of the most hopeless disease known to mankind — the mere official figures are sufficiently startling. In British India alone, at the time our narrative begins, there were returned about 135,000 cases. And this number, appalling in itself, must, in the opinion of those well qualified to judge, be doubled, if not trebled, to arrive at the ghastly total of Indian lepers thirty-five years ago. And what was their treatment and condition ? On this point the following incidents are sadly suggestive. At the close of the Punjab campaign in 1846 Mr. Robert N. Cust was placed in charge of a newly-conquered district as Magistrate. Summoning the head men of the villages to Hoshyarpore, he explained to them the principles on which they would be governed, and, writes Mr. Cust to the author, " I ended my speech by saying in a loud, clear voice : Listen to my three new commandments : — ' Thou shalt not burn thy widows. Thou shalt not kill thy daughters. Thou shalt not bury alive thy lepers.^ " A striking commentary on the last of these prohibitions is found in the life of Lord Lawrence, where it is stated that a man suffering from leprosy came and petitioned that he might be buried alive. This terrible request was probably prompted by a superstitious belief, still prevalent in some parts of India, that if a leper suffers himself to be buried alive the disease will not descend to his children. A recent instance of this hideous practice occurred in the United Provinces. The wife of a gardener was stricken with leprosy. In order, as she 6 LEPERS-INTRODUCTORY supposed, to save her children she begged her husband to bury her alive. At length he yielded to her persistent request, and, together with his son, dug the grave. In the presence of four neighbours the poor victim to a barbarous belief was thus sacrificed. The facts in this case were substantially proved in the course of a magisterial investigation. And this last, be it remembered, is a modern instance and occurred in a district under direct British rule. After this it need scarcely be added that in days when suttee and infanticide had but recently been suppressed, the many thousands of homeless and outcast lepers were found under conditions of poverty and misery that made their existence literally a living death. As this volume is mainly the record of a Society whose beneficent work, though begun m India, was later to extend to countries farther east, it should be noted that the vast multitude of lepers in China, Japan, and other parts of the distant Orient were, and are, in no better case than their fellow-sufferers in India. Naturally our knowledge of the number of lepers in China is even less complete than in the case of India. But of the existence of a vast host of them in that great Empire there is no doubt. Dr. P. B. Cousland, of the English Presbyterian Mission, Swatow, says on this point : — " It [leprosy] is most common on the south and south-east coasts of China, and diminishes in frequency as you proceed north- wards, until, in the extreme north, it is only met with among emigrants from the south. " In the region of which Swatow is the treaty port, leprosy is extremely common. Travelling in the country you meet lepers everywhere, and in all stages of the disease, from the earliest manifestation to the most loathsome and disfigured state. " Supposing we estimate that in the last thirty years we have seen one out of every five lepers in this region, this would bring the total number of lepers, in a tract of country with a population rather less than that of Scotland, to about 25,000, and this number, in my opinion, is probably under the mark." "THE TENDER MERCIES OF THE WICKED " 7 The prevalence of leprosy in the Province of Canton is shown by the existence of villages inhabited by these outcasts near, but of course outside, the principal cities, and in this Province alone there are upwards of 10,000 lepers. As in the case of India, a lurid light is thrown on the treatment of lepers in China by an incident which occurred during the latter half of last century. The mandarin of a certain district, finding the presence of these unfortunate people an offence to him, hit upon a method that can only be described as diabolical in its combination of treachery and cruelty. To the delight of the lepers for many miles around it was notified that a great feast was to be given to them. Attracted by such unwonted kindness they assembled in crowds. While these unsuspecting people were feasting the building was set on fire by order of the mandarin, and the lepers who escaped the flames were shot down by soldiers placed on guard for the purpose. In Japan it might, perhaps, be expected that the leper would be treated with less inhumanity. But there, as in all other lands, and in all ages, the life of the leper is a " dual tragedy of shame and despair." Miss H. Riddell writes : — " It is not generally known that leprosy exists in Japan, but it has done so for many generations, in all classes of society, and is one of the seven reasonsfor which divorce is granted. Kind as the Japanese are to suffering generally, it is a very usual supposition that leprosy is not a disease according to the law of nature, and having no natural cure, those afflicted by it cannot therefore be of the same order of humanity as others. It would seem that for the leper there is no hope either in this world or the next, unless we take it to them." The author was informed (in igog) by the head of the Imperial Medical Department in Tokio that there are in Japan 28,000 families in which the disease is known to exist. 8 LEPERS-INTRODUCTORY One more glimpse into this inferno must suffice. In the large island of Sumatra, in the Dutch East Indies, it was not uncommon as recently as igoo for lepers to he burned alive. Hear the evidence of a resident of many years, an agent of the Rhenish Missionary Society : — " I have told you about my poor leper, Nai Haseja, whom I used to visit regularly. She lived alone in a little hut made of bamboo, with straw roof. Her neighbours were very frightened of her, and wanted her to go away, but she refused. Last week, Brother S. rode past there, and saw smoke rising. He went closer, and saw a terrible sight, the hut and the brushwood burnt to the ground, and the bones in the midst. "The lepers are not considered to be neighbours any more, and even the Christians don't think it so very bad to kill them, though no Christian would do so. In old times a father would bum his own son, and once the chiefs got all the lepers together in one village, and burnt them all." Surely facts such as the foregoing, whether as regards the lepers who are our fellow-subjects in India, or those who are merely our fellow-creatures in these other great Eastern lands, more than justify the existence of a special Society for their relief. Upon our Christianity and our humanity alike, misery so intense and so un- mitigated has an undeniable claim. CHAPTER II 1874-1878 PRIOR to the formation of the Mission to Lepers the needs and sorrows of these sufferers had appealed to a few humane hearts, and a few local attempts had been made to relieve them. In justice to these pioneers some reference should be made to their work. Moreover, to direct attention to these points of light, will serve to show how widespread and dense was the dark- ness that brooded over the lot of the leper thirty-five years ago. The earliest effort of which the writer possesses definite information is the foundation of the Almora Asylum for the destitute lepers of the Province of Kumaon. The lovely valleys of this district of the lower Himalayas contain many lepers, whose numbers are augmented by refugees from Nepal, in which country the leper is said to be treated with cruel inhumanity. There are known to be upwards of a thousand lepers in the Almora sub- division alone. There was, therefore, urgent need for the establishment of a refuge for them. In the year 1835 ^ young Ensign (the late Honourable Sir Henry Ramsay, C.B., K. C.S.I.) of the regiment then stationed at Almora, was moved to give occasional relief to the lepers of that town, an effort which developed into the present Asylum. Later a house was occupied in the Bazar, but this soon became inadequate, and in 1854 a public appeal was made. The Christian community generously responded ; a small estate on a picturesque slope facing the north, lo LEPERS, 1874-1878 about a mile distant from the southern entrance to Almora, was bought, and on it were erected twenty-five rooms with accommodation for fifty inmates. Since then adjoining land has been acquired, on which additional houses have been built, and the whole site now comprises upwards of six acres. By 1866 upwards of 100 lepers were finding shelter — a minimum which has been maintained ever since and frequently considerably exceeded. At Sabathu, twenty miles from Simla, and at a height of nearly 5,000 feet, is an asylum for lepers which may be said to date from 1868. It is well known all over India, and must ever be associated with the name of the late Dr. John Newton, of the American Presbyterian Mission. On his arrival in the year named, Dr. Newton found a few lepers sheltering in a small poor-house, and to these his instincts as a medical missionary prompted him to give special attention. The neglected condition of these sufferers is depicted by Dr. Newton in a letter to Mr. Wellesley C. Bailey : — " There is no class of the people who have so moved my pity as the lepers in these hills. They are very numerous in this region. I think I may say that at least half of the families in the villages about here have one or more members infected with this dreadful disease." The appeal of this devoted friend of the leper met with a generous response, and from then up to the present the Asylum at Sabathu has been largely aided by the Mission to Lepers, both by the provision of new buildings and by annual grants for the maintenance of their occupants. One of the early workers among the lepers of India was the late Rev. James Vaughan, of the Church Missionary Society, who about the year i860 began to visit the inmates of the Calcutta Asylum. Not a few converts a n) 1 tfl -^ 1-1 < o w. z o ~- A FRIEND FOR THE LEPERS ii rewarded his efforts, which were continued later by other missionaries of the same society. The Uharamsala at Bombay (which has now given place to the new asylum at Matunga) is the last of the important refuges for lepers to which reference need be made as existing at the period when the Mission to Lepers was founded. This was a shelter not only for lepers, but for blind and helpless people in general, and the conditions under which they were herded together were deplorable in all respects. If such was the lot of the lepers who were inmates of what was known as the District Benevolent Institution, how can words depict the fate of the thousands who were homeless, diseased, and destitute ? Imagination itself cannot exaggerate the horror of their fate. It was surely high time for their cry to reach the ear of the Lord of ■ Sabaoth, and for Him to call forth and qualify some one who should make them his special care. We have now to relate to whom the call came, and how it was re- sponded to. The chosen instrument for this purpose proved to be Mr. Wellesley Cosby Bailey, who at the time the needs of the lepers came under his notice and touched his heart was acting as headmaster of a mission school at Ambala, in the Punjab. In Bombay, in October, 1871, he was united in marriage to a lady who has, during all the years since, proved a sympathetic and devoted helpmeet. The author is restrained from anything beyond a brief and altogether inadequate acknowledgment of the valuable services rendered by Mrs. Bailey to the Mission to Lepers for thirty-five years. Not only has she been her husband's constant counsellor and colleague, but she conducted for many years a large correspondence on behalf of the Society. She has travelled many thousands of miles in 12 LEPERS, 1874-1878 the interests of the Mission, and has most ably pleaded the cause of the lepers all over the United Kingdom. Mrs. Bailey is one of those workers whose service is mostly unseen, and whose " praise is not of men, but of God." Although he became an agent of the American Presbyterian Mission without special knowledge of the lepers or interest in them, Mr. Bailey was introduced to what has proved his life-work within a month of joining the Mission. The incident, though not striking in itself, has proved so fruitful in its results that it should be given in his own words : — " It was at Ambala, in the Punjab, in December, 1869, that I had my first introduction to the lepers. I had just joined the American Presbyterian Mission, and the senior missionary at the station was the well-known Dr. J. H. Morrison. One morning he asked me to accompany him to the leper asylum. To my surprise I found it was but a little way off", )ust on the other side of the road from my house, yet perhaps numbers had, like myself, passed by in utter ignorance that within a stone's throw of the public high- way men and women suffering from the dread disease of leprosy were being sheltered and kindly cared for. The asylum con- sisted of three rows of huts under some trees. In front of one row the inmates had assembled for worship. They were in all stages of the malady, very terrible to look upon, with a sad, woe-begone expression on their faces — a look of utter helpless- ness. I almost shuddered, yet I was at the time fascinated, and I felt, if ever there was a Christ-like work in this world, it was to go among these poor sufferers and bring to them the con- solations of the Gospel. I was struck by the way in which their poor, dull faces would now and then light up as Dr. Morrison explained some precious , comforting truth from the Word of God. " Such were my first impressions, confirmed by subsequent experience ; for I have ever found that the Gospel has a special power amongst these poor outcasts. After a while. Dr. Morrison, seeing I was attracted by the work, offered to make it over to me altogether, and from that time it became essentially my own. Ere long I began to realise the blessing which such institutions confer, not only on the lepers themselves in bringing relief to mind and A MODEST BEGINNING 13 body, but also to the public generally, by removing from their sight such pitiable objects, as well as probably checking the spread of the disease through contagion. These impressions were afterwards deepened by a visit to Sabathu, where the devoted Dr. Newton visited as a father among the inmates of a small asylum. On a Sunday morning there I made one of my first attempts to conduct a whole service in Hindustani. It is many years ago now, yet the one thing which I clearly recollect about that service is the little group of lepers, sitting apart from the rest of the small congregation, and yet worshipping under the same roof; the reverent, earnest way in which they took part in the service was not to be forgotten. I remained in Ambala until 1872, and continued to visit at the asylum with an ever-increasing interest." Though Mr. Bailey's personal ministry among the lepers of Ambala ceased with his removal to Ludhiana, further help was to reach them through his agency, as a long series of grants to the Ambala Asylum was subsequently made by the Mission to Lepers. CHAPTER III 1874-1878 — (continued) IT was during Mr. Bailey's furlough in 1874 that the Mission to Lepers was founded. His description of the pitiful condition of these sufferers as he had seen them at Ambala, Ludhiana, and elsewhere, stirred the sympathy of those to whom, in a quite informal way, he spoke of his desire to help them on his return. Among the very first to take a practical interest in the idea was Miss Charlotte E. Pim, of Alma, Monkstown, Dublin. Once awakened, Miss Pim's sympathy for the needs of the lepers has never flagged. The Mission was born in the house in which so many years of quiet and self-denying labour have been expended by Miss Pim, and in which so many of the friends of the lepers have been hospitably entertained. Miss Pim virtually acted as Honorary Secretary from the first, and still retains that position, though failing health has rendered it necessary that much of the actual work should be deputed to others. The modest ambition of Miss Pim and the friends associated with her was, at first, to raise £30 annually to enable Mr. Bailey on his return to relieve a few lepers at his own station, and in addition to his ordinary work. But the seed had been dropped into fruitful soil in the warm hearts of Irish Christians. From the first, and as if to stamp the movement with His approval, God gave " exceeding abundantly," and at the end of that year not merely ^30 but nearly twenty times thirty had been given. LEPROSY THE LEVELLER 15 This gratifying result, which was rightly regarded as a mandate to go forward, was brought about by an informal meeting in Monkstown, followed by the publication of a modest little booklet, giving the gist of what Mr. Bailey had said verbally. This simple tract of sixteen small pages was entitled " Lepers in India." It has been often reprinted, and has been the means of creating much interest in the work of the Mission. It deserves quotation, and a short extract or two from it will illustrate the origin of the Society. Speaking of the need for the work it is stated : " In India the lepers are often turned adrift by their friends, and cast out of house and home, to wander about the country in the most pitiable condition imagin- able. Their hands and feet drop off bit by bit, joint by joint, until they have nothing but the bare stumps left. As they are unable to work for themselves, they have to eke out their living by begging from door to door, and take whatever is thrown to them — and thrown to them it often is, as if they were dogs. When too ill to totter along on their poor stumps, they sometimes lie down and die from exhaustion. The disease attacks them generally in the hands and feet, and often in the nose and face. The bridge of the nose falls in, and gives them a most forbidding appearance." Beyond this loathsome physical suffering, we have also a glimpse of the social ostracism which accompanies leprosy. There came into the Ambala Asylum in these first days a man to whom the usual question was put, " What is your caste ? " " Never," says Mr. Bailey, " shall I forget his reply and the way he gave it." " Ah, sir," he said, "/ was a Brahmin, but now I am nothing." Those who know that to most Hindus, and above all to the Brahmins, caste is dearer almost than life itself will appreciate the sad significance of this answer. Having noted how the first impulses of pity were i6 LEXERS, 1874-1878 aroused in the homeland, we now revert to India to trace the outcome there of sympathy awakened here. In No- vember, 1874, Mr. and Mrs. Bailey returned to India, and settled in Chamba (in the Himalayas) early in 1875. Chamba is the capital of the large native State of that name situated between Kashmir and Thibet. Though placed there for general mission work, Mr. Bailey was soon making active enquiries concerning the many lepers in Chamba State, not a few of whom were found among the patients at the dispensary in the City. For the sake of clearness it may be noted here that so far as is practicable this history will treat of the various Asylums and Stations of the Mission to Lepers in the order in which the Society established them or became connected with them. The record will be presented in quinquenniums — or periods of five years. The work at each station will be mainly dealt with under the period in which it was begun — only occasional and supplementary references being made to it in subsequent chapters. By this method it is hoped to convey a clearer impression than by oft-recurring allusions scattered through the entire volume. Some departures from this rule will prove inevitable — especially in cases in which work has been greatly extended or has developed features of especial interest in later years. In pursuance of this plan, therefore, it has to be recorded that before the first Asylum to be erected by the Mission was built at Chamba, very substantial help was to be afforded to the Asylum at Sabathu to which reference has been made in our introductory chapter. In considering how to use to the best advantage the funds entrusted to him, Mr. Bailey was prompted to write to Dr. Newton, with whom he was already well acquainted, suggesting that additional inmates might be admitted to the Sabathu Asylum. How opportune was this offer will be gathered from Dr. Newton's reply : — NINETY MILES FOR SHELTER 17 '' What you say about the lepers ahnost startled me (he wrote). I had, whilst walking from K , been turning over and over in my mind the question of what to do to get funds to meet the wants of these people. I have eleven in the poorhouse ; but there are hundreds in this region, and I have been compelled to refuse admission to many most urgent and pitiful cases of late. If you can help me with funds, the number of lepers in the Sabathu Poorhouse will almost certainly be trebled or quadrupled within the first two or three months after it has become known that it is possible to procure admittance. . . ." The reply to this was to authorise the immediate recep- tion of these urgent cases as the first definite result of the new movement. As these were the forerunners of many thousands to be subsequently sheltered and succoured, the record of their names and other particulars as copied from Dr. Newton's register is reproduced on the following page. Short as this list is, it is nevertheless deeply suggestive. It is typical of the Christ-like work the beginning of which it represents, that the first leper woman to be definitely supported by the Mission should have begged her way for ninety miles over the Himalayas with her two little children ! It is noteworthy also that of the first five to be supported by the Mission, two were untainted children of lepers. Thus, from the very beginning the work has embraced not only the lepers, but their healthy offspring. This was only the first instalment of much- needed help for Sabathu. In 1878 ten more houses were erected by the Mission, and in 1879 we find thirty lepers being supported from its funds. That this support was as much needed as it was appreciated we learn from a letter of Dr. Newton in 1878, in which he tells of lepers coming from all quarters craving for admission. This substantial help both for buildings and maintenance, which contributed so largely to the success of the Sabathu Asylum, has been continued ever since. c i8 LEPERS, 1874— 1878 X H < w < Pi W Ph w pq oi j2^ lliild bo in bo "■• Iss.s c bo.S „ S ^. ^ ^ti-Q "" — C 5.2 u bp = So «!;_>» 1 „ fe ^ Cfl " fe .« O-d bfirt S.S to rt rt "^ 5 ^3 U >.J3 J3 0) ■"•£ rt . S S « 1^ P"^ 0) 1./^ i-n m vn 1— c ^.2 r^ t^ *>^ r r^ 00 00 00 CO . V 3 u 8 " a =3 > ■•i '•i - 3 g 2'rt II 2 in en " rtC/3 bo W « «u 3 :? ^ u °fe- u "3 if ? S2 "£ a c ^ ^ o« en OJ 3 " In sr •§ t/3 ^ ^ uoi3;|3-^ a K ffi ffi K s (x< s s S u u^ \r\ tN. U^ nD -^ ■;^ n CO . rt 3 s .i4 '.H ca >^ .C 0) "5 tfl Q >3 ^ nl „ N to ■* u^ ^ LEPERS AND LOVELY SCENERY 19 The city of Chamba is surrounded by some of the finest scenery of the Himalayas. Here, amid forest- clad mountains and fertile valleys, the presence of the diseased and destitute leper was a foul blot on the natural beauty of the scene. While rambling by the river, or along the mountain road, the eye would all too often be shocked by the sight that met Lowell's Sir Launfal. Happily, however, there was one eye that looked in pity on the lepers of Chamba, and one who thought, with the knight of the legend, " I behold in thee An image of Him who died on the tree ; Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns, Thou also hast had the world's buffet and scorns, And to thy life were not denied The wounds in the hands and feet and side." Settled in Chamba, Mr. Bailey is soon concerned as to the needs and numbers of the lepers of his district. He writes : — " I have lately been on tour . . . and find that leprosy exists to a most appalling extent. . . In four villages in a direct line from where my tent was pitched there was not one without a leper, while in all there were seven, and in one village alone there were three. At another place where I stopped for a night (Himgri) I found four lepers within about an hour; and so at almost every place I went to they were to be found." Further investigation proved that in Chamba State, as a whole, leprosy was even more prevalent than the extract just quoted would suggest. In the following year, Mr. Bailey reported that in all directions they were very numerous, and estimates the total number at about 800^ in this one native state. By the end of 1875, eight houses for the lepers of Chamba, constituting the first new Asylum founded by the Mission, were ready for occupation. The fact that the 20 LEPERS, 1874— 1878 first inmate was a young Brahmin (Matalabi by name) proves what a leveller of caste is leprosy. One by one these sufferers found their way to this haven of refuge. They were of various creeds and castes. Fol- lowing the Brahmin was a young Mohammedan, Rasullah, who quite eagerly received the Gospel, and who, when informed that the end was near, replied, " I am ready ; whether I live or die, my trust is in Isa Prabhu (Jesus the Lord)." Boys came, and women, until the small Asylum was overcrowded, and within a year from its completion the question of enlargement had to be faced. In accord- ance with the principle observed throughout by the Mission, of keeping the sexes apart as far as possible, a separate site was secured from the State, upon which six houses for women were built early in 1877, and speedily occupied. The Society's first church for the lepers was erected at this station in 1877. Mr. Bailey describes it in his letter of that year as a " bright, cheery, and com- modious building," which could also be used as a school, and serve as a gathering place generally. From the first the Mission has provided medical treat- ment for the lepers. In the early years of the Chamba Asylum this was under the care of Dr. Barkhurdar Khan, a much-respected native physician and a Christian. His report for 1877 merits quotation ; " All the lepers have been regularly kept under Gurjun oil treat- ment. The oil apparently checks the progress of the disease, and its effects are well marked in (i) healing up ulcers ; (2) causing the return of sensibility ; (3) in giving tone to the muscles, and in improving the general health ; while at the same time there is no appreciable diminution in the deposited tubercle." The combination of physical relief, social comfort, and spiritual hope brought into the lives of the lepers is indicated by the Sabathu report for 1878. And in perus- EAGER LISTENERS 21 ing this extract the reader is asked to remember that, though it refers to so early a period and to one of the first Asylums to which the Mission rendered aid, it is quoted because it is typical of the Society's work in all its Asylums for thirty-five years. Wherever these outcasts have received shelter, sympathy, and Christian kindness, the same results have followed : sufferings have been alleviated, health and spirits improved, broken hearts bound up, and lives trans- formed. " When the lepers are gathered together for ' family worship ' in the building which is both prayer-room and dispensary, they present a sight of deep interest, which gives rise to very mingled emotions of pain and pleasure. The room is now filled to over- flowing, so that a number of the lepers sit in the verandah near the doors. It is painful to see such a mass of diseased, mutilated^ suffering human beings. To strangers the sight is always very horrible ; but to my wife and myself, who see them daily, and who are able to contrast the miserable, half-starved appearance of them when first admitted with the manifest improvement wrought by a few weeks of medical treatment and improved diet, there is more of pleasure in the sight than of pain. Nor could any stranger present on such an occasion help sharing the pleasure. He would see the whole throng, not only the baptized converts whose heads are uncovered, but those also who still profess to be Hindus, join with intense enjoyment in singing hymn after hymn in praise of Jesus ; he would see many who until lately were sunk in the lowest degradation of idolatry, ignorance, and superstition, listen- ing intently, not unfrequently with an eager, hungry look, while the Bible is being read and explained." Reverting to events at home, the year 1878 may be regarded as the first landmark in the history of the Mis- sion, as in this year its first committee was elected and its officers formally appointed. We have seen that not a little valuable work had already been accomplished ; and at least eighty lepers were being supported at Chamba and Sabathu. The sympathy shown at home and the results attained abroad had already exceeded the modest 22 LEPERS, 1879— 1883 aims of the originators of the movement. The experi- mental stage was passed, and it was felt that the time had come to place the work on a permanent basis and to give it an organized form. Principally with this object in view, Mr. Bailey returned to Ireland for a month in the spring of 1878. Meetings were held, and, after due con- sideration, a Society was formed with the title of " The Mission to Lepers in India." A committee was elected, consisting of Rev. Thomas Good, Rev. David Holden, Robert Maddock, Esq., Wellesley C. Bailey, Esq., Miss Brooke, Miss M. A. Smith, and Miss E. Alexander. Miss C. E. Pim was appointed Honorary Secretary, and Graves S. Eves, Esq., Honorary Treasurer. With the exception of Mr. Bailey, these friends were all resident in Dublin, and all of them have rendered faithful service to the Society. CHAPTER IV 1879-1883 THE close of its first five years finds the Society organized and launched on a career of ever-growing usefulness. An Asylum had been built at Chamba, additional houses had been erected at Sabathu, and thirty lepers were being supported there, while a first grant had been made for the maintenance of the work at Ambala. In the opening year of the period now to be reviewed a fourth station was added to the Society's list by the bestowal of a grant in aid of the Asylum at Almora. The history of this Institution has been summarised and its location described in a previous chapter. It is remarkable as showing how little the temperature or the physical features of the country have to do with the distribution of leprosy in India, that of the first four stations of the Mission three should be in the hills, viz., Sabathu, Chamba, and Almora, one only — Ambala — being in the plains. The prevalence of the disease in the valleys of the Himalayas suggests that the advantage of mountain air is neutralised by other influences, among them being prob- ably the tendency to inter- marriage among the small and self-contained communities of the mountain villages. The timeliness of the Mission's first grant to Almora in 1879 is thus referred to in the report for that year : "The Asylum at Almora, established in 1835, and one of the oldest in India, has been saved from the painful necessity of restricting its operations by a timely grant from the Society. 23 24 LEPERS, 1879-1883 The Almora Asylum contains no fewer than 78 baptized lepers, out of a total of no, towards the support of whom we have promised to contribute during the present year the sum of £2ip." This annual subsidy of 5^240 (for the support of forty lepers) was continued, and naturally added greatly to the usefulness of the Asylum. In 1881, Mr. Bailey visited Almora, and reported as follows : — " The Leper Asylum is the first place we come to on entering Almora. A pretty little gate and a walk winding amongst fir trees leads up to the Institution, which is as perfectly private as a gentleman's house ; in fact, it is a home, in which the inmates may truly take an interest and in time learn to love. Passing through the gate and along the walk, we come to the church, where every morning the lepers meet for prayers.'' This description closes with a very suggestive reference to the untainted children of the lepers, and seems to show that the first serious attempt to separate them from their parents, and thus protect them from the disease, was made at Almora : — " There is a peculiarly interesting feature in the Almora work which deserves special mention. When the lepers first come they are persuaded to give up the children, if they have not as yet been touched by the disease ; these are placed in a Home which is kindly superintended by the Misses Budden. This Home has been in existence for some years, and as yet, I believe there has not been a case of the disease breaking out. The parents willingly consent to be separated from their children in order to save them from the frightful ravages of this most awful of diseases." As the rescue and education of the untainted children of the lepers has become a large and valuable part of the Society's work, it may be well to note here that leprosy is not an hereditary disease. This statement is at once so important, and to the ordinary reader so startling, that it is worth while to cite some facts and opinions in support of it. Commenced thirty years SAVING THE CHILDREN 25 ago at Almora, this system of separating the children from their leprous parents has proved so successful that only once has it been necessary to transfer a child from the orphanage to the leper asylum at that station. Similar testimony comes from Tarn Taran, where for twenty-five years children of lepers have been brought up apart from their parents, and their lives, instead of being blighted by disease and suffering, are now healthy, useful, and happy. Generally speaking, the same satisfactory result has been secured in all the twenty-five places where healthy children of lepers are now supported by the Society. But that these helpless boys and girls, unless so rescued, are in imminent danger oj contagion is abundantly clear. It was found on investigation that of all the children born and reared during thirty years in the neglected leper colony of Tarn Taran, only two had apparently escaped the taint, and even these were doubtful. How significant, again, are these two facts in connection with the Mission's largest Asylum at Purulia, in Bengal. There are among the 669 leper inmates no fewer than sixty-one tainted children, who have fallen victims to this loathsome malady while leading a wandering life with their diseased parents. On the other hand, there are seventy untainted boys and girls in the children's home being protected from contamination and prepared for useful lives. Further, a particularly cheering result of this rescue work is that among the native helpers in the Institution, are five young married couples, all of them healthy men and women, though of leper parentage. It is a further interesting fact that some of these couples now have children who show no trace of the disease. Of all the world's waifs and strays it may be doubted if any are in more imminent peril, both physical and moral, than children of the outcast lepers. To see — as I have 26 LEPERS, 1879— 1883 seen — two homeless leper mothers with five untainted children turned away from an already overcrowded asylum, and condemned to a life of utter destitution, is a pitiful spectacle indeed. With reference to the vital question of heredity, the facts already cited may be supplemented by a brief quotation from the Report of the Commissioners of the National Leprosy Fund in i88g. Two sentences from this volume will suffice : — " No authentic congenital case has ever been put on record, nor was one seen in this country (India). " The facts obtained from the Orphanage at the Almora Asylum disprove the existence of a specific hereditary predisposition.'' It need only be further added that the Berlin Congress of Leprologists (1897), of which the late Professor Virchow was Chairman, pronounced leprosy to be "contagious, but not hereditary," a decision confirmed by a similar conference at Bergen in 1909. The next new place to appear in the Society's record as a centre of work for lepers is Dehra, from whence an appeal reached the Committee in 1880. This was from one who proved himself a true friend to the lepers for many years — the Rev. David Herron, of the American Presbyterian Mission. Again it is from the healthy hill country that the cry comes, Dehra being beautifully situated on the foot-hills of the Himalayas, in full sight of, and some twelve miles below, Mussoorie. In his plea for help in the work he had already been some years engaged in, Mr. Herron says : — "We have nov/ seventy inmates, of whom I have spiritual charge. The services that I conduct with them have to be held outside in the yard, or under the shed where the places for cooking are. A prayer room would be a great comfort to us. Another thing much needed is a hospital-room. The room in which the sick have been 5 Xi H b6 13 "d DEATH OF DR. NEWTON 27 kept has openings only on one side, and no conveniences or com- forts. You can imagine what that place is in the hot weather. . . . " I write to ask if you think the Society would help us to get the two rooms of which I have spoken.'' The Committee were delighted to accede to Mr. Herron's request, and in addition to the amount needed to build both the hospital and a prayer-room, they gave a further sum sufficient for the support of twelve lepers. Not only was the amount for the maintenance of these twelve inmates continued in subsequent years, but further building grants were made, and in 1883 the Mission became responsible for the salary of a Native Christian teacher. This Catechist was himself a leper, converted and instructed at Almora, named Padiya, to whom further reference will be made. During this, its second quinquennial period, the Mission to Lepers continued to be associated with the Sabathu Asylum. From thirty the number supported by the Mission was increased to forty, and the relations between Dr. Newton and the Mission grew ever more cordial, until, to the unfeigned sorrow of all who knew him, they were terminated by his death on July agth, 1880. The character of this devoted friend of the lepers is thus described by one who was closely associated with him: — " Dr. Newton was simply overflowing with love and tenderness for these poor creatures ; he lived among them and for them ; he died among them. He had a gentle, courteous manner that won the love of every native and European he came in contact with. . . . He could not speak of the lepers without emotion in his voice, and he tended them as no one else could have done, unless filled with the same rare spirit." In his ministry among the lepers Dr. Newton had more in view than the primary object of relieving their suffer- ing. He desired his work to be an object-lesson of true 28 LEPERS, 1879— 1883 Christianity and a means of disarming prejudice. In a letter written by his widow she declares that his purpose was : — " To give a practical exposition of Gospel truth ; to show that even as Christ calls no one common or unclean, so His people, following in His footsteps ; thinking His thoughts ; living His life are content to minister to the humblest of His creatures. That at least was one design. To feed and cloth and comfort the poor, the sick, the sorrowful was another, and to lead them to Him who can abundantly comfort them for all the sorrows of this life was his great aim." CHAPTER V 1879- 1 883 — (concluded) ALL through the Society's history we note the natural expansion which is the mark of all healthy move- ments. One opening has led to another, and new Asylums have been established or aid given to existing ones only in response to definite appeals for help. Thus the Mission has invariably begun and carried on its work, not only where it was needed, but where it was wanted ! The Society from the first has been genuinely unsectarian in its principles, and has welcomed the co-operation of evangelical missionaries irrespective of denomination or nationality. It is, in some measure, a testimony to the essential unity of Evangelical Christendom that under the auspices of the Mission to Lepers, the agents of as many as thirty Missionary Societies are now rendering faithful and, so far as the Mission is concerned, honorary service among the lepers. This method of inter-denomi- national co-operation possesses, amongst several advan- tages, two notable ones. It enables the Mission to carry on its special work wherever the need arises within the wide limits of its extensive field, which embraces India, with Burma and Ceylon, China, Japan, Siam, Korea, Sumatra, and the Philippines. Moreover, in its home relations this system of mutual co-operation gives the Society a valid claim on the sympathies of all the churches, since it enables their missionaries to carry on a specially Christlike, and thoroughly successful, form of work which in the majority of instances would otherwise remain undone. 23 30 LEPERS, 1879— 1883 That the work of the Mission to Lepers is warmly appreciated by other Societies and their representatives is proved from time to time by cordial public acknowledg- ment. Space can only be found for specimens of such testimonies. The Committee of the Church Missionary Society, after hearing an address on the work of the Mission from Mr. Wellesley Bailey (the Superintendent), "expressed their warm sympathy with the Mission and their thank- fulness for its grants of money towards the work of their Missionaries among the Leper population." Rev. Preb. H. E. Fox, M.A. (Hon. Sec. for many years of the C.M.S. and a Vice-President of the Mission to Lepers), writes : — " I gladly and gratefully endorse the words of my honoured predecessor, the late Rev. F. E. Wigram. Each year adds to our appreciation of the work of the Mission to Lepers, and we rejoice in the fellowship of service between it and the C.M.S." The high estimate placed on the work of the Mission by missionaries on the field is clearly indicated by the unanimous vote of the Indian Decennial Missionary Conference held in Madras in 1902. The value of this testimony is enhanced by the fact that this large confer- ence consisted of delegates from practically all the Protestant Missions working in India. The essence of a lengthy resolution is contained in the following clause : — " This Conference desires to place on record its high appreciation of the work which is being carried on in India by the ' Mission to Lepers in India and the East,' and cordially approves of the inter-denominational character of the Society, co-operating as it does with all the evangelical churches in Europe and America, and with their representatives in the foreign field, and heartily endorses the policy of the Mission in not sending out missionaries of its own, but working through the INTERNATIONAL 31 representatives of the various Missions in the field, allowing the Superintendents full liberty in the manage- ment of the institutions, provided that the general aims of the 'Mission to Lepers' are secured." This may be supplemented by a similar message from China. At the 1904 Conference of the C.M.S. mission- aries for the Province of Fuh Kien it was resolved : " That this Conference of the Church Missionary. Society desires to put on record its gratitude to the Mission to Lepers in India and the East for the generous and constant help which has been readily given to the work amongst lepers under the supervision of our C.M.S. missionaries. "The efforts put forth to reach these outcasts have been wonderfully fruitful in results, and, realising that but for the help of the Mission to Lepers this work would not be possible, we tender our heartiest thanks, and pray that the Society's efforts to help the lepers of China may be increasingly blessed." From its inception the Society has been international as well as inter-denominational. Its work was originated by a British subject while serving as the missionary of an American Society. Its first grant was given to work done by American misssionaries, while the first of its own asylums was built in connection with the missionary work of the Church of Scotland. Its early supporters were principally members of the Protestant Church of Ireland, and its Executive Committee still has its centre in Dublin. In its tenth year the Mission was brought into connection for the first time with a German society. In that year two appeals for assistance reached the Com- mittee from workers of Gossner's Evangelical Mission in Chota Nagpore, both of them from men whose names were to be long and honourably associated with the work of the Mission at Lohardaga and Purulia, viz : Rev. F. 32 LEPERS, 1879-1883 Hahn and Rev. H. Uifmann. Throughout this part of Bengal, lepers are very numerous, and, when an appeal on their behalf was made to the Committee in 1883 by Rev. Ferdinand Hahn, it was regarded as an opportunity for extending the work. The actual establishment of the Asylum at Lohardaga belongs to the next section of this history, and will be found recorded there. This is also the case with regard to Purulia, from whence came a preliminary request for help in 1883, a request which was to be complied with a year or two later. Kashmir was the next place to receive help towards the healing of its open sore. Dr. Neve, who was then in charge of what has since become one of the best known of the medical missions of India, applied for financial assist- ance in 1883. Accordingly a grant was made (of ^50) in that year, and was repeated in subsequent years until the Government was at length prevailed upon to do its duty, alike to the lepers and to the healthy community, by providing for the segregation and maintenance of, at least, the worst cases in the State. From Ambala in 1883 we note a pathetic account of the sufferings of some of the lepers, and, along with it, striking testimony to the sustaining power of Divine grace. Of the Christian lepers it is recorded that their "cheerfulness, submission, and patience" are wonderful. Especially were these fruits of the Spirit manifest in the case of Ilahi Bakhsh, an old man whose sight had been destroyed by the disease, and who, for many years, bore his heavy burden with marvellous patience. He was one of the first to embrace Christianity, and he became a leader and teacher among the lepers of the Ambala Asylum. It appeared as if his outer blindness intensified his inner consciousness of the Unseen. His faith was always bright and strong, and his realisation of the Saviour's presence lifted him from the plane of suffering ILAHI BAKHSH 33 and sadness to an experience of hope and peace that many blessed with health and eyesight might envy. To a visitor who condoled with him on his condition he replied, " Since I trusted Christ, nineteen years ago, I have known neither pain of body nor of mind." For some years Ilahi Bakhsh was the leader of the singing among the lepers at Ambala, and was in addition the composer of many of the most popular of the hymns sung by them. Though none of these lyrics were written, they were quickly learnt, and are still sung both at Ambala and elsewhere. Nor was it only by his songs that the good old man helped his fellow-sufferers. Although they received instruction daily from the missionary or the appointed teacher, the report for 1883 states : " Whatever they seem to know and understand best they say they have learnt from Ilahi Bakhsh, who goes over and over with them the many Bible truths he has stored away in his memory." In reviewing the second period of five years we have to note quiet but steady progress. The number of lepers definitely supported had largely increased ; the mainten- ance of untainted children had been commenced (at Almora) ; grants had been made for buildings at Kashmir and elsewhere; a native teacher had been appointed to the Dehra Asylum ; and the first home Auxiliary had been established at Brighton. The sapling is already yielding its first-fruits and is sending out boughs full of future promise. CHAPTER VI 1884. 1888 WE now come to a period of accelerated growth. The Executive of the Mission began to reahse how vast a field lay open before them. It had, more- over, become fully apparent that they were working on wise and successful lines. The principal of co-operation with other missionary bodies afforded continual fresh opportunities, as well as left the largest possible amount of income free for direct work among the lepers. In view of the responsibilities of the Society, both present and prospective, the services of a permanent secretary had become imperative, and in January, 1886, the Committee formally invited Mr. Wellesley C. Bailey to become General Secretary to the Mission, and he entered on the duties of that position on March ist, 1886. It was felt that the interests of the work demanded Mr. Bailey's presence in India, and he therefore left on November 5th for a tour of about six months, in the course of which he accomplished 9,400 miles of Indian travel. He visited the Bombay, Madras, and Bengal Presidencies ; the Central and North- West Provinces, Oudh, the Punjab, and Rajputana, as well as several of the Native States. Not only did this tour yield important results in the con- solidation of the work at the existing stations, but also in the opening up of new centres. Mr. Bailey's account of his visit was published in a volume with the title " A Glimpse at the Indian Mission Field and Leper Asylums." Further steps were taken in the direction of Home Organisation in the year following. It was decided that GROWTH AT HOME AND ABROAD 35 the Report and Financial Statement should be submitted to an annual meeting of subscribers, by whom also the Officers and Committee should be elected. The Mar- chioness (now the Dowager) of Dufferin and Ava kindly consented to become Patroness of the Society, which position she still holds. This recognition of the Mission at a time when Lord Dufferin was Viceroy of India gave it a public endorsement which was of great benefit to its work. Lady Dufferin has shown a deep and practical sympathy with the Society and has frequently pleaded for it in public and rendered personal service to it in other ways. At the same time, the then Archbishop of Dublin, the Right Rev. Lord Plunket, was elected President, a position which on his decease was accepted by His Grace the Lord Primate of Ireland. The following were also appointed Vice-Presidents : Rev. F. E. Wigram, M.A. ; Rev. W. Park, M.A.; Right Hon. Lord Polwarth ; Hon. Sir Henry Ramsay, C.B., K.C.S.I. ; Sir Monier Monier Williams, K.C.I.E. These developments in the Society's organization gave it the form it has since retained, the only subsequent changes being the addition of new officers, as old ones passed away, or as the progress of the work demanded. The rapid and continuous growth in the number of stations will henceforth often necessitate brief reference to facts and places full of pathetic interest and deserving detailed treatment. In the preceding chapters the work at the earlier centres has been dealt with at considerable length, so as to illustrate the Society's principles and methods, as well as the character of its work. In order to limit this volume to a reasonable size future years will, necessarily, be treated in a more condensed form. It will tend to clearness to note in order the new centres at which work was begun by the Society during the third quinquennium of its history. :i6 LEPERS, 1884-1888 The founding of the new Asylum at Lohardaga was the first extension to be recorded in the period now under review. The idea of a haven of refuge for the lepers of that district had been in the mind of the Rev. F. Hahn (of Gossner's Mission) for at least three years. His first overtures to Mr. Bailey were responded to by an offer of assistance towards building an Asylum. Regarding this as an intimation to go forward, and encouraged by the prospect of special help from the Brighton Auxiliary, building was begun in February, 1884 — the site being given by the young Maharajah of Chota Nagpore. The following year tells of added buildings and more inmates, among them a rich landed proprietor driven from home by his wife and his relatives. Another, a girl of sixteen in a loathsome state, unloved and uncared for all her life, but finally yielding to the touch of human kindness and the message of Divine love. Soon two-thirds of the inmates had applied for baptism, an early instance of the marked spiritual results that have almost always accompanied the work in the Society's asylums. The Society's interest in the lepers of Tarn Taran in the Punjab was first called forth in 1885. It has been continuous from that time, and has culminated in the erection of a commodious new asylum which, opened in 1904, has replaced the collection of mud huts in which a number of lepers, varying from 200 to 300, for many years found a miserable shelter. Tarn Taran has long been a place of resort for these poor sufferers, who congregated there originally owing to a tradition that a leper had been cleansed in the waters of the large pool which is still one of the features of the town. The Committee felt that an effort must be made to provide this sad and neglected community with Christian teaching, and accordingly a prayer-room was built, and a native catechist appointed, as the result of a grant from the BEGINNING AT CHANDAG 37 Mission to Lepers in 1885. From the first there have been many who have responded to the message that alone can bring hope and comfort to their sad hearts. The work supported by the Society at Tarn Taran has from the beginning been under the supervision of Rev. E. Guilford, of the Church Missionary Society, who, alike in his work in India and in his advocacy of their cause at home, has proved himself one of the best friends of the lepers. The year 1884 saw the commencement of work for the lepers at Alleppey in Travancore, South India. Although ostensibly sheltered in an asylum (maintained by the State), the lepers were in a pitiable condition. Rev. W. J. Richards, of the C.M.S., found children at the breasts of diseased mothers, together with maimed victims of the foul disease minus hands, feet, and even features. In response to Mr. Richards' appeal an immediate grant was made, to provide a teacher and to give suitable clothing to the lepers. This was followed two years later by a remittance towards the cost of a new asylum, to replace the miserable thatched shelter in which the lepers had hitherto been housed. In pursuance of our chronological plan mention must now be made of the Society's initial effort at what has since proved a centre of exceptional interest, viz., Chandag Heights, near Pithoragarh in the Almora district. In consequence of representations from Rev. J. H. Budden and others as to the prevalence of leprosy among the valleys some fifty miles to the North-East of Almora, a grant was made in 1884 towards an asylum at Chandag. Buildings were purchased and adapted for the reception of twenty lepers, and the supervision was undertaken by Dr. Dease of the American Methodist Mission. Progress was slow at first, but in 1887 we read of regular services and of a school on week-days. At 38 LEPERS, 1884-1888 the opening service in the new chapel twelve lepers were baptised. The erection of this plaqe of refuge for the many homeless lepers of the district made a deep impression on the surrounding population, and they expressed their gratitude for it again and again. The news spread to the remote mountain villages and over the frontiers into Nepal, from which many sufferers came, some of them to escape being buried alive, or otherwise done to death. It was a happy thought that prompted the placing of an inscription, in Hindi, on the public road at the entrance of the asylum : — " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Inside the gate was a practical exposition of these beautiful words in the shape of comfortable houses, with chapel and prayer-room, for the most despised of earth's outcasts. Chandag was destined to become well known as the scene of Miss Mary Reed's devoted labours among the lepers, labours which will be recorded in later chapters. The Society became directly connected, in 1884, with the Calcutta Government Asylum, by a grant towards the erection of a prayer-room, and by the appointment of a native teacher. A new church was erected in 1886, the cost of which was mainly borne by the Mission to Lepers. As showing the need for extension of the work of the Society, we note about this date that on the occasion of a distribution of alms by a rich native, as many as 200 lepers in advanced stages of the disease were found among the applicants, many of them being maimed wrecks of humanity who had to be borne on beds, boxes fitted with wheels, or on men's backs. Rurki (U. P. India) is the next new station to appear in the records of the Mission. Mr. Bailey found a small E. 3- RURKI 39 company of outcasts occupying some wretched huts out- side the town. It was arranged that the Society should undertake not only to provide them with Christian teaching, but, in accordance with its general practice, to care for their bodily wants as well. The MunicipaHty granted a suitable site for an Asylum, together with the sum of 500 rupees towards its cost — the balance being provided by the Mission. As our narrative progresses a many-sided work reveals itself. First, it is essentially Christian, inasmuch as its ultimate aim is to lead the lepers to a vital faith in Jesus Christ. It is eminently philanthropic as it first sees that they are sheltered, clothed and fed, and only then does it seek to evangelise them. It is preventive, both by segregation of the worst and most dangerous cases of the disease, and by its work of rescuing the children. It is also to a large extent medical, as not only are several of its Asylums under the super- vision of qualified medical officers — both European and Indian — but, in almost all its stations, remedial treatment is regularly given. Hence it has frequently happened that the work of the Society has been closely associated with that of Medical Missions. One of the earliest instances of this co-operation occurred at Neyoor,Travancore, from whence an appeal reached the Committee in 1887 from Dr. Sargood Fry, then in charge of the London Missionary Society's Hospital at that place. In his letter Dr. Fry states that in the course of a medical tour eight lepers came at the same time for treatment, and that another followed for six miles in order to get a little relief. In response to this request a ward, specially for lepers, was opened in the following year to the great joy of its first occupants. This, though useful as far as it went, proved only a preliminary step to a permanent Asylum, the erection of which will be noted in its proper place. 40 LEPERS, 1884— 1888 In this quinquennium was begun what has since become the Society's largest Asylum at Purulia, in the Manbhum district of Chota Nagpore. The story of this institution would, if related in detail, fill several chapters with facts and incidents of the deepest interest — both as regards the workers and the homeless sufferers benefited in body and soul by their self-sacrificing ministry. For some time prior to the Secretary's visit to Purulia in the closing days of 1886, Rev. Henry Uffmann, of Gossner's Evangelical Lutheran Mission, had been burdened with the needs of the many lepers of this sorely infected district. The necessity for a place of shelter for them was accentuated, about this time, by the arbitrary action of a district officer, who evicted a number of helpless sufferers from huts which his predecessor had built for them. He burnt their poor hovels and drove the lepers away — despatching those disabled by disease on carts to their former homes. Some were refused shelter by their relatives, others had none to whom to apply, so, homeless and helpless, not a few of them crawled back and died under the trees where their old huts had been. But dark — indescribably dark — as was this hour for the lepers of Purulia, it ushered in the dawn of a brighter day. Man's extremity was once again God's opportunity, and, thanks to those who have laboured in India, and who have given in England, the visitor to Purulia may see there to-day one of the most striking object lessons of Christianity that the world-wide mission field can present. Instead of a few dilapidated mud huts from which the harsh hand of non-Christian officialism drove their wretched inmates, is to be found a community, including untainted children and assistants, of nearly 700 souls. They inhabit a village of fifty substantial houses, spreading over a well-wooded site of fifty acres, and PURULIA 41 forming, according to high official authority, a model of all thai such an institution should he. Instrumentally, the credit for this miracle of mercy belongs mainly to one whose name deserves to stand high on the list of the lepers' friends. The late Mr. Uffmann, in response to whose appeal (endorsed as it was by Mr. Bailey) the first grant towards an Asylum was made in 1887, laboured among the lepers with rare devotion from that time till 1901, when he returned to Europe for what proved to be his final furlough. From the first Mr. Uffmann's love for the lepers rendered his ministry among them singularly successful. The precepts he inculcated were emphasised by the life he lived, as well as by the home with all its privileges that he had been the instrument of providing for them. When such a man is the bearer oisuch a message to such hearers can we wonder at the response ? May I remind the reader of the unique fitness of the Christian Gospel to meet the needs of such sufferers as these ? Accounted accursed by their creed ; cast out by their kindred ; powerless to acquire imaginary merit by alms or pilgrimages ; to these beyond all others the tidings that Eternal life is " the free gift of God " must be unspeakably welcome. Christianity to them is infinitely more than a new creed, or a superior system of ethics, — it means all that they can ever hope to know of peace and comfort in this life, and contains the promise of " the Life that is Life indeed " in the world to come. It need cause nO' surprise, therefore, that during Mr. Uffmann's ministry among the lepers he baptised more than 1,200 of them, and that, in the Institution he did so much to develop, there were at the end of 1904 six hundred and eleven converts. Madras was another place at which the Society began to provide Christian teaching as a result of Mr. Bailey's- 42 LEPERS, 1884— 1888 visit in 1886. He found 149 inmates in the Government Leper Asylum, of whom thirty-six were registered as European, though all but a few of this number were Eurasians. Some remarkable effects of the insensibility caused by the disease were noticed here. One poor fellow showed large blisters on his hands where he had burnt himself without knowing it. A European soldier — a leper — had set fire to his sleeve, and did not discover it till his arm had been dreadfully burned. Cases have been met with, in which the victims declared that from the top of the head to the soles of the feet, they had literally no feeling on the surface of the body. At Rawal Pindi, about thirty lepers were found in a neglected and insanitary condition, though nominally under municipal care. Rev. David Herron visited these lepers frequently, and at his request, the Mission under- took to provide a Native doctor, as well as to build a dispensary. In 1888 — the last year of the period now under review —the Society's operations were extended to Burmah. Rev. F. W. Armstrong, of the American Baptist Missionary Union, represented the urgent need of the thousands of destitute lepers in Burmah, who were trying to provoke charity by the exposure of their ghastly sores on the steps of the pagodas. The Committee gladly accepted Mr. Armstrong's offer to commence work on their behalf on his return to Maulmain. A second plea for the lepers of Burmah reached the Committee, in the same year, from Miss Haswell, also an American worker. Writing from Amherst, she tells of a large and increasing number of victims in her district. Ten lepers, in a shocking state of disease and neglect, within almost a stone's throw of her own compound, was one of the facts cited in support of her request for help. Colombo was another of the many new places assisted MORE NEW CENTRES 43 at this time. There is a large Asylum supported by Government, and it is reported that the Baptist missionaries have been visiting there since about 1850. The Mission to Lepers began to co-operate with them in 1888, by a grant for the support of a native teacher, to devote his entire services to the 200 inmates then in the Asylum. Allahabad also began to receive help in 1887, and in the following year we iind Rev. J. J. Lucas, of the American Presbyterian Mission, reporting the admission of a Christian leper into the Asylum, who sought to help his fellow-sufferers by conducting a service in front of his own house every evening. The Asylum at Allahabad was at that time maintained by the District Charitable Association, and the Leper Mission gladly co-operated with that body by a grant for the purchase of medicines, etc. At Dharmsala, in the Punjab, is an Asylum for the lepers of the Kangra district. To this Institution the Society began a series of annual grants, which has been continued ever since. One of the many Christian civilians who have shown warm sympathy with the work of the Mission was Colonel E. H. Paske, for some time Deputy Commissioner of Kangra, and author of a booklet on leprosy in India. This was published by the Mission in 1888, and the prevalence of the disease at that time, may be inferred from the fact that Colonel Paske felt justified in assuming the leper population of India to number 500,000. A Christian catechist, working in con- nection with the C.M.S. at Dharmsala, was appointed by the Mission to Lepers in 1888, and this provision is still maintained. At the stations opened during the Society's first decade, work was continued through its third quinquennium with a steady tendency to increase, and with constant tokens 44 LEPERS, 1884— 1888 of success. Not only were an increasing number of homeless men and women sheltered, and rendered as happy as their heavy affliction permitted, but large accessions to the Church among the lepers proved that new hope and comfort were being imparted to the most hopeless of human kind. CHAPTER VII 1889-1893 IN the year 1889, to which our narrative now brings us, the death of Father Damien from leprosy directed world-wide attention to the disease and its victims. It is not too much to say that the facts then brought to light were a startling revelation to people well-informed on general topics. The knowledge that this foul disease, regarded by so many as a hideous nightmare of the dark ages, should still be prevalent in practically all countries save those of Western Europe (and many, even of these, have their infected areas), gave a rude shock to the public sensibility. The interest created by Damien's death led to the formation of the Damien Memorial Fund, with King Edward VII. (then Prince of Wales) as President. The principal result of this movement was the appointment of the National Leprosy Commission, which deputed some of its members to investigate leprosy in India. An elaborate report, containing statistics and information of great value, was issued by the Commission. On the two vital points of contagion and heredity, the verdict of the Commissioners was, that, while leprosy is contagious, it is happily not hereditary. It was added in the Report, that the influence of contagion in the spread of the disease was comparatively limited. On these two essential points of contagion and heredity, it will be seen that the report of the Commission practically endorsed the methods of the Mission to Lepers. 46 LEPERS, 1889— 1893 Not intentionally, or officially, but none the less really so, since the Society had been for ten years working on the lines so strongly approved by the Commission. Leprosy being contagious, it must be a very practical step towards its extermination to isolate thousands of the worst cases as the Mission is doing. Being, at the same time, not hereditary, it must check the spread of it to separate the children, while still untainted, from their diseased parents. It is thus clear that by the provision of Leper Asylums and Children's Homes, the Mission had, quietly and without much public recognition, anticipated alike the recommendations of the Leprosy Commission and the legislation of which it was the forerunner. A Lepers' Act, applicable only to Bengal, was passed in 1895, and this was followed by a measure for the whole of India, which received the assent of the Governor-General on the 4th January, i8g8. Its objects, as well as its limitations, are indicated by its title, viz : — "An Act to provide for the segregation and medical treatment of pauper lepers, and the control of lepers following certain callings." This Act, which represents the present position of legisla- tion on the subject, is strictly permissive, and only comes into force v^'hen the Local Government of any given dis- trict has declared it applicable thereto. It is, however, a step in the right direction, and, thanks to increasing co- operation between the various governing bodies of India and the Mission to Lepers, there is good ground for hope that the day is not far distant when some really adequate measures will be taken for the healing of India's open sore. In tracing the story of this Society, the appearance from time to time of the European leper moves our especial compassion, and brings home to us the terrible fate of our fellow countrymen stricken with this foul disease. Not a few English-speaking men and women MISS MARY REED 47 suffering from leprosy have been ministered to, in one form or another, by the Mission during the last twenty years. It has more than once seemed as if the time were at hand for the establishment of an Institution in which they could be suitably accommodated, as a separate com- munity. But hitherto some obstacle has always prevented the realisation of this plan, and the many European victims of this dreadful malady are still without a special Home. The most widely known of these sufferers was brought to the Society's notice in the period covered by the present and immediately succeeding chapters. The first reference in the records of the Mission to Miss Mary Reed is in the Annual Report for 1891, in which it is said : — " Most deeply pathetic is the story of how our staff of workers among the lepers has been so strangely reinforced, by the addition of a lady missionary of one of the American Societies, who has contracted the disease in the course of her work in India. The Committee have appointed her as agent in one of our Asylums, as it is her earnest wish to spend her remaining strength in this special work to which she has been so mysteriously consecrated." The Asylum to which Miss Reed was appointed was at Chandag Heights, and here she has ministered with devotion and success to her fellow-sufferers for the inter- vening years. During that period the number of inmates has more than trebled, substantial houses and a neat little church have been erected, and, best of all, many sad hearts have been comforted, and many souls re-born. Further references will follow in their proper order to Miss Reed's faithful and sympathetic service, but some allusion must be made here to the diagnosis and to the arrested development of her disease. The story of her life and work has been told by the author elsewhere,* and need not, therefore, * Mary Reed, Missionary to the Lepers, with portrait and introduction by Rev. F. B. Meyer, B. A. Price, 2s. 6d. Marshall Bros., Ltd., Paternoster Row, E.G., or The Mission to Lepers. 48 LEPERS, 1889-1893 be repeated here. But, in view of the fact that twenty years after the discovery by which she became dedicated to work among lepers, she is still able to work, and is neither disabled nor disfigured by the disease, it is well to re-state on what authority Miss Reed was declared to have con- tracted leprosy : — "Dr.P. A.Morrow.of New YorkCity,is regarded by the medical profession in America as a high authority on leprosy and kindred diseases ; while in England the names of Sir Joseph Fayrer, M.D., and Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.C.S., of London, will be recog- nised as those of eminent specialists, both of whom were members of the Committee of the National Leprosy Fund. Dr. Chowsky, of Bombay, was one of the medical commissioners appointed to investigate the disease in India. These all, independently of each other, and after long and careful examination, diagnosed Miss Reeds case to be one of undoubted leprosy. Sir J. Fayrer and Mr. Hutchinson both urged the necessity of good diet and healthy climate in order to prolong life ; but none of these specially qualified judges doubted for u moment the nature of the disease. One of these physicians encouraged her to expect a considerable period of working life, if under healthy conditions. Aided by these, he anticipated that her naturally strong constitution would for years withstand the inroads of the disease, unless it proved to be of an especially malignant type." * It was my privilege to meet Dr. Morrow in New York in 1904, when he assured me he quite clearly recollected Miss Reed's visit to him. The symptoms were, at the time, so pronounced as to leave absolutely no doubt in his mind as to the nature of the complaint. Medical testimony such as I have cited should be conclusive, but it may be added that it has been confirmed not only by Miss Reed's own conviction, but by the observation of experienced judges, such as Mr. Wellesley C. Bailey (who visited her in 1895), Miss Budden, of Pithoragarh, who was intimately asso- ciated with her in the earlier years of her work among the lepers, as well as by my own observation. * From "In Leper Land," by John Jackson, F.R.G.S. Marshall Bros., Ltd., Paternoster Row, E.C., and the Mission to Lepers. TWO GENEROUS LADIES 49 Of the five years now under notice, 1890 was con- spicuous for substantial progress. In the early part of that year the Mission ventured to hold its first public meeting in London — at Exeter Hall. The Chairman was T. A. Denny, Esq., who made the very practical proposal that the meeting should pledge itself to raise a thousand pounds for the extension of the Society's work, and he himself contributed handsomely towards the sum sug- gested, which, it is satisfactory to note, was realised in a few months. Included in this special fund was a generous gift of ;^25o by a member of the Committee, for the erec- tion of an asylum, and a home for untainted children, at Neyoor, in Travancore. The same valued friend has since given, annually, the amount necessary for the maintenance of the institution which owed its existence to her liberality. In addition to this, she has provided a small asylum for women. The Committee was greatly encouraged in this same year by a munificent gift from Georgina, Countess Seafield, for the erection, at a cost of ;f500, of a much- needed asylum at Asansol, to which further reference will be made. The continued development of the work called for the presence, in India, of its principal executive officer, and accordingly Mr. Bailey spent the winter of 1890-91 in an extended tour through that country. As more accurately describing his relation to the work of the Society, Mr. Bailey's official designation was at this time amended to that of Secretary and Superintendent. Other events scarcely less fruitful in consequences, though of a different kind, were the two visits paid by Mr. Bailey to Canada and the United States in 1892 and 1893. In the Dominion especially he met with much encouragement. The sympathies of the loyal Canadians went out to their stricken fellow-subjects in India, and many new auxiliaries were formed. Apart from the larger 50 LEPERS, 1889— 1893 centres, the result in Guelph, Ontario, was particularly notable. To this place he was introduced by a minister widely known and widely loved in Canada — Rev. Dr. Wardrope, who is still a valued officer of the auxiliary he did so much to form. But the special gift of Guelph to the cause of the lepers was the hearty sympathy of one of its most respected families, and especially of two of the members of that family — Mrs. Watt and Miss Lila Watt, B.A. From the first Mrs. Watt gave a whole-souled response to the needs and sorrows of the lepers. Not only has she, by pen and voice, eloquently pleaded their cause throughout Ontario, but has encouraged her gifted daughter in the same service. Miss Lila Watt, though at first, like her mother, an honorary worker, was later to be called out into the full service of the Mission as Deputation Secretary for North America. Further impetus was given to the work of the Mission by a paper prepared by Mr. Bailey, and read at the Decennial Conference of Indian Missionaries, at Bombay, in December, 1892. This was followed by an address delivered by him as a delegate to the World's Congress of Missions at Chicago in 1893. Such opportunities were valuable in making manifest, not only the clamant need for the Society's work, but also its efficient and economical methods and its gratifying results. A most useful addition to the literature of the Society was made by the publication in 1891 of "The Story of the Mission to Lepers." This was written by Miss Harriet S. Carson, of Dublin, who had been a valued helper from the formation of the Mission in 1874. Totally blind from the age of twelve. Miss Carson resolved that this heavy affliction should not prevent her being both useful and cheerful. Her little book has passed through many editions, and rendered more service to the cause of the lepers thaa we can ever know. .'.l^- ■ il J3 , =: B EXTENDED TITLE 51 It should be noted that, in order to make the title of the Society correspond to its enlarged field, it was amended to " The Mission to Lepers in India and the East." The reason for the addition will be apparent in the following chapters. CHAPTER VIII 1889-1893 — (continued) THE time has now come to chronicle the exten- sion of the work to the lepers of China. As this was the outstanding feature of the foreign develop- ments during the quinquennium now under notice, we will accord it the first place, and afterwards note the many new stations in India. Up to the close of 1888, we find asylums have been built, or aided by grants, at nine- teen stations in India, including Burma and Ceylon, the amount expended directly on these stations in that year being £1,295. So rapid was the expansion during the ensuing five years that, by the end of 1893, fourteen new stations had been added in India, six in China, and two in Japan, making a total of forty-one stations, and an expenditure for their maintenance of ;f5,562. Figures, I am well aware, are notoriously dry and uninteresting. They are not poetry nor, in the case of this book at least, are they fiction. But I ask the reader just here, and once for all, to reflect that the figures which must needs appear from time to time, are really eloquent when properly understood. So many leper asylums built or children's homes opened ! So many inmates — so many baptisms. What do these commonplace numerals repre- sent? If you and I, my reader, were homeless and friendless, stricken with a foul and fatal disease, what, then, would the provision of an ever open door mean to us ? A door, moreover, within which were food, shelter, and security, — balm for our wounds, and sympathy for our sorrows. And all this, and more, the opening of every 52 WHAT FIGURES MEAN 53 new asylum of the Mission means to many a suffering man and woman. Commonplace, did we call these figures? Oh, but they are full of profound meaning when rightly interpreted. Every unit of them stands for a tragedy — for tragic in truth is the lot of the leper. Superficially regarded, how unemotional they seem, yet how deeply charged with pathos they are in reality. May I beg my reader to remember, then, that every addition to the total of these homes of hope means a new point of light in the black darkness ; and that every additional inmate represents a fellow creature comforted, and a human heart made glad. Think, for instance, of the dire need of the lepers of China, concerning whom Dr. Horder, of Pakhoi, wrote in 1892: — " Little or no provision is made for the leper in China. He is forced from his house and friends, divorced from his wife, separated from his children, and left entirely without means to obtain a living. Only a few days' journey from here, a mandarin, during his residence of two years, put to death 300 lepers." Some of the causes which contribute to the spread of leprosy in China are suggested by Dr. P. B. Cousland, a medical missionary of the English Presbyterian Church, whose valuable testimony has been already quoted. "As to the causes of its prevalence, the poverty of the great bulk of the people, poor food, overcrowding, general dirtiness, absence of segregation, and the hot, moist climate, provide a chain of conditions very suitable to the propagation of leprosy. . . . Lepers, if poor and friendless, are sometimes ejected from the village, and drag out a miserable existence, covered with filthy rags, sleeping in the courtyards of little-frequented temples, and stretching out their poor, fingerless hands for charity by the roadsides." It was from the pen of Dr. Duncan Main, that the first appeal on behalf of the lepers of Hangchow reached the Committee. In presenting the plea of these helpless people, he wrote : 54 LEPERS, 1889-1893 " Leprosy is very common. We have lepers coming to us seeking relief almost every day. ... At certain seasons they may be seen by the score lining the roadsides, exposing their awful condition, and asking for charity. A grant of ^200 would build and fit up a very nice little hospital, and £^0 for the first year would enable us to do a great deal." The response to this appeal was a remittance for the erection of an Asylum, and a promise of an annual grant for its maintenance. Accordingly, on St. Andrew's Day in 1892, in the presence of a large gathering of mission- aries, nurses, converts, and other visitors, this new home of hope was opened for the lepers of Hangchow. This provision, however, was only for the men. In the same year a further grant was made to secure a small hospital for women, to the great joy of Dr. and Mrs. Main, the latter of whom had pleaded the cause of her afflicted sisters. A Home for the untainted children was recog- nised as an imperative necessity, and its addition made a complete equipment for the Society's work at Hangchow, though not on an extensive scale. The first inmates of the men's Asylum included boys of sixteen and men of fifty-four — some of them beggars, and some well-to-do farmers. Lo Ngwong, in the Fuh Kien province, is the next Chinese station to be noted, though the effort at first was limited to the appointment of a catechist to work in the neighbouring leper villages. In appealing on their behalf, the Rev. J. S. Collins, C.M.S., writes in reference to a service he had himself conducted there : " It is such a pleasure to bring hope to the hopeless in this life, and they fully appreciate it. . . . Their physical misery and their soul's need could not well be exaggerated." In connection with the large Medical Mission Hospital at Pakhoi, a ward for lepers was found to be urgently needed, and in 1891 we find the Mission to Lepers making EXTENSION To CHINA ^5 a grant in response to an application from Dr. Horder. To this was added, in the following year, a sum sufficient for the support of a native teacher, whose labours resulted in the baptism of seven lepers in 1893. From Kucheng, near Foochow, a very pathetic appeal reached the Committee, again from a missionary of the C.M.S., the Rev. W. Banister. He wrote: " I have heard with very great thankfulness that your Society has determined to extend its operations to China. . . . Just outside the west gate of this city there is a colony of lepers, who live in two groups of small and dilapidated Chinese houses, and who receive a wretched pittance from the Government. I believe it is fifteen cash, which is about six cash less than a penny per day." To this colony of distressed and miserable souls, a sad addition had just been made. One of the most valued catechists of the C.M.S. had become a leper, and, perforce, a member of this doomed community. The old man carried his Christianity with him, however, and in Mr. Banister's words, became "a veritable apostle" among his fellow-sufferers, eighteen of whom shortly afterwards received Christian baptism. During this same quinquennium, the Society considered the need of Central China, and, in co-operation with the London Missionary Society, an Asylum at Siao Kan, about forty miles from Hankow was established. Lepers were found to be numerous in the district, and entirely neglected, so far as native help was concerned. That the grant of £200 for the erection of an Asylum was both needed and appreciated, will be evident from Dr. Griffith John's letter of acknowledgment : " I feel that I must send you a line of thanks for the generous way the Mission to Lepers has responded to our appeal for help. . . . The matter has been on my mind for some time, but I could not see my way to move in this particular direction till Dr. Walton made his appearance among us. To my great 56 LEPERS, 1889-1893 joy, I found he was quite prepared to go in, heart and soul, for the scheme. ... I am sure that all this is of God, and that you will have good reason to rejoice on account of the extension of your work into the very centre of this great empire.'' At Kien Ning Fu, also, work was begun in 1892 by the appointment of a native evangelist, who was supervised by Dr. Rigg, of the C.M.S. Medical Mission. An out- break of violent opposition against even medical work, culminated in riots and in the temporary abandonment of the general work of the station. But the leper catechist worked away unnoticed, and therefore unhindered. He was himself a leper, and had been educated in the Mission School at Foochow. He was an efficient and faithful worker, and was the only Christian agent permitted to continue his work during those troublous times. "My life is a torture, afflicted as I am with this filthy disease, and I want enough money to buy a dose of morphine to put an end to it." This terrible sentence is charged with the despair engendered by this hideous malady in a country where its victims are regarded as being actually beyond the pale of humanity. To the people of Japan, with their devotion to the useful and the beautiful, the leper is a standing offence against two of their most cherished ideals. Hence it is, that — their civilisation and energy being untempered by Christian compassion — they have hitherto neglected their lepers, who number many thousands. Now and then, however, individuals from this host of stricken beings refuse to be ignored, and in sheer desperation Lazarus displays his ghastly sores, and compels the easy-going and the well-to-do to give heed to his cry. The words I have quoted were spoken by a Japanese leper to a citizen who was aroused from sleep to behold a burglar, covered with leprosy, and entirely naked, kneeling by his bedside ! HELP FOR JAPANESE LEPERS 57 It was from Miss Riddell that an urgent appeal on behalf of the lepers of Kumamoto in the South Island reached the Committee about 1893. It was with genuine satisfaction that the Mission to Lepers found themselves able to respond to the appeal, and, encouraged by a grant of ;f200, Miss Riddell and her helpers determined to " arise and build." In her original letter appealing for help, Miss Riddell states: — "The few Japanese who know of our desire are full of approbation. One of our Christians said to me, ' It will do more for Christianity than anything that has been done. My people can argue as cleverly as your people about religion, but they know nothing of such love as this.' " Another plea for help came from Japan in the same year, this time from Miss Youngman, of the American Presbyterian Mission at Tokio. She was especially con- cerned for a number of Christians whose lives were rendered miserable by the ostracism consequent on their malady. Among other pitiable cases. Miss Youngman wrote of three Christian lepers, closely shut up by their relatives to conceal the disease and avoid the disgrace involved. In the appeal for aid to build a small refuge for these sufferers and others, it was stated that already a Japanese convert and his wife had offered to devote their lives to superintending the Home, and a Bible-woman had volunteered to teach the inmates. The progress already recorded, in the establishment of six new centres of work in China and two in Japan, would in itself indicate healthy growth in the Society's work during the five years under review. But the development in India was still more marked, as no fewer than fifteen new names appear in the list of stations for 1893 which were absent in iSSg. In some of these places, the help needed was limited ; in others it was large. But all S8 LEMRS, 1889-1893 meant physical or moral benefit to outcast men and women in one form or another. One of the first, and, as it has proved, one of the most successful of these new openings, was Mandalay. In Burma, as in Japan, Buddhism discharges its duty to its lepers by casual charity, thrown as it would be thrown to dogs, and reaching but one here and there of these wrecks of humanity. But happily there was one~eye that pitied and one heart that planned, and in the Rev. W. R. Winston, of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, the lepers of Mandalay found a friend. Moved by the pitiful condition of the many sufferers whom he found begging, rotting, and dying, on the steps of the pagodas, and forming a ghastly contrast to their florid architecture and garish ornaments, Mr. Winston succeeded in securing a suitable house, with accommodation for fifteen inmates. It was, however, reserved for his successor, the Rev. Arthur H. Bestall, to welcome the first of Mandalay's lepers into this place of refuge. It would naturally be supposed that the mere knowledge that such a haven for these human derelicts existed would at once ensure its being filled. By no means. How could a conception so utterly transcending their wildest dreams reach the dull intellects of these poor creatures ? A Home, not merely a house, but a home for them, and all without money and without price ! Impossible ! It could only be a plot to kidnap and kill them — all the more as the invitations came from the mistrusted foreigner. But on this point it is right that Mr. Bestall should himself tell how he secured the first inmates of the Home in which his ministry, and that of his co-workers, has brought comfort and hope to hundreds of sufferers since. Mr. Bestall thus describes his experiences : — " It is eight months to-day since I set out, in the early morning, to persuade a few lepers who lay dying beneath the shadow of THE OUTCASTS OF BURMA 59 Mandalay's pagodas to enter the refuge we had prepared for them. "Persuasion was my only means of gathering them in. To many I was an executioner. What could I want with them, except to put them to death ? ' We pray thee, let us remain here,' some said. ' For mercy's sake, do not take me,' others pleaded. All were in great terror. I could not but be touched by the timid, fearful attitude of many, and I was very thankful when I saw the first leper on his way, in a bullock cart to our Leper Home. It was sad to see how they hugged their wretched dwellings and clung to their filthy haunts. Christian philan- thropy they could not understand. I promised them permission to return if they did not like the Home. " The first day's work of rescue was a long one, and the break- fast ran into the tea-hour before I returned with seven inmates for the ' Home for Lepers.' " One of the first converts in the Mandalay Home was Maung Sin, who had once been a member of the King's Guard with fifty rupees a month, and the command of fifty men. Fatally stricken, he is able to say : " My body is leprous, but my spirit is not smitten by disease." At Bhagalpur, in the northern part of Bengal, the need for an asylum for the many lepers of the district was felt for some years before the way became clear for its erection. Though many obstacles had to be overcome, there were also encouragements. A considerable sum was given by a native gentleman of the locality for the benefit of lepers. This was made over by the Govern- ment to the Mission to Lepers and formed the nucleus of a fund for an asylum. Finally, the missionary to carry the scheme through was found in the person of the Rev. J. A. Cullen, of the C.M.S. Mr. Cullen's compassion for the lepers was first awakened through his visit to a European leper, an ex-official of the Government. Stricken, isolated, and blinded, this poor fellow lived for years in loneliness, and greatly appreciated the visits of 6o LEPERS, 1889-1893 the missionary. He afterwards showed his gratitude by gifts of medicine to the asylum. Ultimately all difficulties were surmounted, and in 1890 a property well-adapted and with a good house on it was secured, and in the following year nineteen sufferers were being tended and taught. One year later extension was necessary, and not only were the additional houses filled as soon as completed, but the first-fruits of the spiritual harvest were apparent in changed lives and in the development of a moral sense among those who, through years of wandering and neglect, had sunk to a terrible depth of degradation. The labours of an efficient catechist resulted in several conversions, and doubtless there would have been more but for fear of the consequences, not to themselves, but to their relations. " If I confess Christ my wife and family will be put out of caste," was a remark often made by lepers, convinced of the truth but deterred from expressing it by dread of the results to others, — an incidental but striking proof of the iron bondage of caste. " The Christaram Asylum for Homeless Lepers" is the inscription that arrests the eye of the traveller, as the Bengal and Nagpur train runs into Asansol, a busy railway centre about 130 miles north-west of Calcutta. " Christaram ! " How many have wondered in passing what it meant ? The word has a beautiful meaning, and the institution embodies a beautiful thought. " Rest in Christ " the name signifies ; and the asylum perpetuates the memory of two men whose lives were in all respects an absolute contrast, namely, a Scotch noble and an Indian leper. Christaram was the name taken by the first inmate of the Purulia Leper Asylum when, some two years after his admission, he publicly confessed his faith in the Saviour whose servants had sheltered and tended him. CHRISTARAM 6i He was by this time sixty years old, a maimed and help- less leper, and, as it proved, had less than a year of life left to him. Surely there was nothing for him to do, a poor, afflicted man, and only come so late to the know- ledge of the divine love. But poor Shidam Banwar, the Hindu, had thought much and waited till no lingering doubt was left, and when at last he stepped into the light as Christaram the Christian, he came completely. During the year that remained to him for witness-bearing, his life was both burning with love and shining with lustre. By his devoted and consistent character he wielded a fine influence in the asylum, and when he realised that his spirit was soon to leave the " poor rib- grated dungeon of the holy human ghost " he called his fellow-sufferers to his bedside, and sought their pardon if ever he had grieved them by an unkind word, afterwards pleading to them to live together in peace and concord. A moment's reflection will convince us that to such as Christaram the story of Jesus has a peculiar charm. Instead of a curse, here is blessing indeed. For the out- cast a home ; for the unclean and dying, cleansing and immortality ; for the heart-broken and despairing, comfort and hope. That the power of the Gospel dominated the very soul of this spiritually-regenerate leper there was no room for doubt. There was not only the evidence of his life, but he had poured out his love and faith in a hymn of his own composition, discovered among his few poor belongings after his burial. Here are some couplets of it in a free and unpoetical translation : — " O, my soul, do not disregard the love of Jesus. If you despise this love, your soul will have to suffer eternal pain, O, my soul, do not despise the love of Jesus. Behold by His grace you have become rich ; but, O my soul, Understand the value of it. 62 LEPERS, 1889— 1893 Victory ! Victory ! The Lord has overcome 1 Victory over death, And is ascended to Heaven. The Lord has given His life for sinners ; what a bottomless grace is that ! O, my soul, do not despise the love of Jesus." About the time of Christaram's death, the Countess of Seafield was contemplating a memorial to her late husband, and being deeply moved by the story of this poor leper's devotion, she resolved that the memorial should take the form of an Asylum for homeless lepers, and that it should bear the name of Christaram. We have here, surely, a striking instance of a mutual love for the Redeemer of all men, overleaping human barriers of class and race, and linking the names and memories of men widely sundered by place and position, yet united in the bonds of a common faith in Christ. With Christaram's dying testimony as the seed, and the Scottish lady as the sower, we find the ground being specially prepared — and this by missionaries of still another nationality. At Asansol, the Rev. W. P. and Mrs. Byers, of the American Methodist Episcopal Mission (themselves Canadians), had been longing for an Asylum into which could be gathered the outcasts to whom they had been speaking words of comfort as opportunity offered. Lady Seafield's generosity enabled the Committee of the Mission to Lepers to respond to Mr. Byers' appeal, and thus it came to pass that the Christaram Asylum was erected for the lepers of Asansol. As showing the urgent need for this Asylum, we find the number of inmates rapidly increasing, a whole band of thirteen arriving together from a distant village. There was a Christian atmosphere in the Asylum from the first, as though Christaram's spirit hovered over it. Native Doctor, Purulia Asylum, and class of untainted boys in training for Medical Assistants. Untainted Boys, Purulia. Winners of prizes at the Coronation Sports, open to all comers. HAPPY AND COMFORTABLE 63 In 1893 we learn that all the lepers were converts, and sent a grateful message to their kind benefactress. " Tell her (they said) that we are very happy and very comfort- able, that we have been baptised, and that we sing and pray, and are learning about God." The erection of a Home for untainted children at Asansol about the same time deserves mention, if only on account of the method by which the funds for it were provided. To Mrs. Marshall, of Stratford, Ontario, was granted the privilege of contributing the cost of it. For years she had utilised her spare hours in the design- ing and stitching of a beautiful " missionary quilt," which was so artistic that it ultimately realised £80, with which sum a comfortable Home for the healthy children of the Asansol lepers was built, and now forms an appropriate adjunct to the Asylum. CHAPTER IX 1889-1893 — (concluded) THE southern and central part of Bengal would appear to be the most leprous section of India, judging from the fact that the Mission has been called upon to provide three Asylums within a distance of one hundred miles, and this notwithstanding that the Society's largest institution at Purulia is not more than that distance away. Immediately following on the opening of the Christaram Asylum at Asansol urgent petitions arrived from the English Wesleyan missionaries at Raniganj, a coal-mining town only eleven miles away. The provision of an Asylum here was made possible by the gift of a site by the Bengal Coal Company, after considerable difficulty had been experienced in procuring land for the purpose. At first the lepers were timid and reluctant to enter, but when it became clear that the first-comers were not only not ill-used, nor compelled to become Christians, but were on the contrary treated only with kindness, others came in such numbers that in the first year it was found necessary to build an additional house for men. As illustrating the danger from which the healthy community is protected by the segregation of lepers, we may note that in Raniganj Mr. Bailey found a sweetmeat shop in the Bazar managed by three lepers, while close by was an oil shop kept by another, and still another was found selling ^a;« (a digestive relish largely eaten in India). These were all bad cases in an ulcerating con- dition. And yet, local councils and municipal authorities OUTCASTS INDEED 65 still tolerate in many Indian cities a state of things so perilous to the public as this. Another centre, opened in the closing years of this period and destined to rapid development, was in the Kolaba district of the Bombay Presidency, and about 100 miles south of that city. From the Rev. I. B. Bawa, an Indian worker of the American Marathi Mission, came a pathetic plea on behalf of the numerous outcasts of that district. " Put out 0/ home and village .... at the mercy of serpents, scorpions, wolves, leopards, and tigers , . . . the leper is an outcast worse than a dog or a pig." Such are a few of the words in which he depicts the lot of these unfortunate beings, as many as thirty of whom he reports as living outside of one village. In response to this very urgent need, grants were made in 1893 for the erection of small Asylums at Poladpur and Pui, of which more will be heard in subsequent years. Moradabad, in the United Provinces, was one of the existing Asylums for which Christian teaching was permanently provided by the Mission as a result of Mr. Bailey's visit in 1890. He found an Asylum had lately been erected by the authorities which was giving the barest form of food and shelter to seventeen men and women. As showing how far it was from meeting the needs of the neighbourhood, he reports seeing three aggravated cases of leprosy by the roadside during his first ten minutes in the city. By an annual grant from the Society, a Christian catechist was provided, as well as additional inmates supported, and the condition of the whole place improved. At Saharanpur, U.P., the conditions of Moradabad were repeated, viz : A mere shelter provided by the authorities, and accommodating a few of the most help- less lepers of the town and neighbourhood. No kindly supervision, no helpful sympathy, — ^just a roof and a dole F 66 LEPERS, 1889-1893 of food. The place lacked, in short, the touch of Christian kindness which the Mission has brought into not a few municipal Asylums, and which it was to bring into Saharanpur. We transcribe Mr. Bailey's account of his visit to the small Asylum for women : — " Medicine or medical attendance they have none (at least, so they told us). No one ever visits them except officially; no one ever comes near them to tell them of the love of Jesus, or to bring a ray of sympathy or comfort into their poor, desolate lives. They are outcast of the outcast. " How do you cook your food?" said I. "In this way," said one poor creature, bringing out from beneath her chaddar two fingerless (literally so) stumps, and showing us how she worked her simple flour and water cakes. " Let me see your feet," said 1 to another. " Where are there any feet ? " she replied, producing two stumps destitute of toes. " What do you do when you get very ill ?" I said. " We go into our house and die, and then the bhangis (sweepers, lowest caste) carry us away and bury us." We gave them two rupees to buy themselves some native sweetmeats as a little treat, for which they were profuse in their thanks. And so we left them, to talk for days and weeks, I suppose, of the visit of the two sahibs who were kind to them." Thanks to the efforts of the Rev. D. Herron (one of the Society's Honorary Secretaries in India), two ladies of the American Presbyterian Mission were induced to visit this Asylum. This was supplemented in 1892 by the appointment, as agents of the Leper Mission, of two native Christian teachers for the men's and women's Asylums respectively. In 1893, further help was given to Saharanpur in the form of a grant for much-needed enlargements and improvements in the Asylums, the funds for which were provided by the Pittsburg and Allegheny Auxiliary of the Mission. During the five years now under notice, several other new stations were opened in India, some of them of considerable importance, and all of them proving centres of help and hope to the lepers in greater or less degree. 6,000 IN CENTRAL PROVINCES 67 Baba Lakhan (Punjab) comes first in order. Here the Mission was enabled in 1891 to commence work in the Asylum which was under the management of the district authorities. Among the forty or fifty inmates much patient instruction was given, and practical help rendered, during that and following years. Mangalore (Madras Presidency) is well known as a station of the Basel Mission, and in 1891 an urgent appeal reached the Committee from that Society, for help to improve and enlarge a small Asylum containing only five inmates. A favourable reply was returned, and the result was an immediate increase in the number of lepers sheltered and evangelised. At Calicut (also, like Mangalore, on the west coast of India) and in connection with the same Swiss Society, the Mission commenced grants for the maintenance of Christian work in the Asylum, which Mr. Bailey found, in 1891, to be small and insanitary. The inmates were depressed and hopeless, and the place afforded one more proof that the kindly atmosphere, ensured by missionary management, is needed to render a community of lepers cheerful and contented. This was secured at Calicut shortly afterwards by the transfer of the Asylum to the control of the Mission. From Hurda, in the Central Provinces, came a pressing appeal in 1893, from Dr. Durand, of the American Foreign Christian Missionary Society, for aid in founding an Asylum for the lepers of that locality. In support of his plea, he wrote : " There is only one other Leper Asylum in the Central Provinces, and that is 300 miles from Hurda ; and there are upwards of 6,000 lepers in the Central Provinces." The erection of this sorely- needed refuge was secured by a grant of ^Taoo. Muzaffarnagar (U.P.) was another place to which light and hope were brought to the lepers in 1893. Mr. Scott, 68 LEPERS, 1889— 1893 of the American Reformed Presbyterian Mission, appealed in the interests of a small community whom he had relieved from time to time. The Kev. D. Herron visited them on behalf of the Leper Mission, and found them occupying small houses on a piece of land to which they maintained an hereditary claim. Their numbers had been reduced by the inclemency of the cold season, and they were profoundly grateful for the substantial help afforded by the Mission. Sehore, in the native State of Bhopal, was also opened in the closing year of this quinquennium. An Asylum, originally built through the influence of Col. Wylie, while Political Agent, was being supported by the Begum's Government, but its inmates were without the hope which only Christianity can give them, until Mr. C. D. Terrell, of the Friends' Foreign Mission, began to visit them and to send his native helpers. The work was slow and dis- couraging at first, but not all the seed sown was lost, and in 1893 Mr. Terrell is able to report some decided con- versions. The case of Dola made a sensation. He was held to be a great authority on the Hindu Shastras, and the marked change in him created a deep impression. Mr. Terrell wrote of him that : — " His bright and happy face ought to be a convincing testimony to the others of the fact that faith in Christ brings rest and peace to the weary." Coincident with the establishment of these many new stations, the work of the old ones had been developing steadily, and in many cases rapidly. To present all the striking facts and touching incidents with which the story abounds, would swell this volume to an inordinate size. From an abundance of material, much of it of pathetic interest, a small selection can only be given. Here, for example, we find a case in point. In acknow- ledging a liberal grant, to provide medicines and special HAPPY AMONG HIS LEPERS 69 comforts for the lepers of Allahabad, a missionary tells of one of them named Laloo, a Brahmin by caste : — " He is one of the happiest Christians I have ever met His toes and fingers are slowly wasting away, and as the struggle between life and death goes on he suffers intensely. And yet, I have never heard a murmur from him. His life is one of the best evidences of a living Saviour that I know. His bright face tells of the light within." From Almora, where the number of inmates had risen to 129, we hear of Marcus, a boy who developed the disease when an inmate of the children's home, and who was heart-broken at having to live with the other lepers at the asylum. But divine grace brought consolation to poor Marcus, and he now says : — " Christ comforts me in my sorrows, and I love Him. I am learning to read and write, that I may be able to work for Him." This aspiration was realised in due time, and for many years Marcus rendered efficient service as a Christian teacher among his fellow sufferers at Ambala. From far-away Chandag — described as " one of the fairest spots on earth " — we have tidings of much en- couragement generally. The baptism of fifteen lepers was signalised by a dinner given to the new converts by the native Christians of Pithora, and cooked by them for their afflicted guests. Purulia continued to give shelter to an ever-increasing number of outcasts, and Mr. Uffmann declared that his happiest hours were spent among his lepers. He pleaded for permission to admit one hundred, and closed the year with ninety-eight, a number which was to be trebled in less than three years. So successful were the labours of this devoted friend of the lepers, that all but four were Christians, as many as fifty-two having been baptised in one day. A sidelight is thrown on the transformed life of the Christian lepers at Purulia, by an enquiry made by the 70 LEPERS, 1889— 1893 local schoolmaster of the asylum caretaker, as to what the singing was that he heard so late at night. Great was his astonishment on learning that it was the songs of the lepers. In 1890, we get more than one glimpse of the " Lepers at School." In many of the Society's asylums not only the children, but the adults attend school regularly. In addition to the knowledge acquired, the schools are valu- able as affording occupation, and giving them an interest in life. We hear of twenty-four of the Almora lepers attending school for two hours after the daily service. Again, at Ambala, we find a school in operation, among the pupils being old Ghasi, who was distressed because his failing sight hindered his progress. His delight was touching when a pair of spectacles removed the difficulty, and he proved so apt a pupil that in six months he could read the Gospel and other books. It is said that " labour we delight in physics pain," and the labour the lepers engage in certainly helps them to forget their affliction, and gives them the satisfaction of feeling that they are not entirely useless. Almost all the asylums of the Mission have more or less ground for cultivation attached to them, and such lepers as are able may be seen preparing the ground or carefully tending their flowers. At Almora, for example, we read (in 1890) of as many as fifty-two lepers finding useful occupation in the cultivation of rice and vegetables, which were to be divided amongst all the inmates. Others were engaged, part of each day, in keeping the whole place tidy and clean. Elsewhere we hear of the lepers washing their own clothes, and thus saving the pay of the dhobi (or washerman). They are found to be improved, both physically and mentally, by such work as they are able to do, though this necessarily has to be limited to the easier forms of labour. RESCUING THE CHILDREN 71 Medical treatment is not neglected in the Asylums of the Mission, though it can only be of a comparatively simple character, and is applied with a view to relief and improvement, rather than, at present, with a hope of actual cure. When medical research can place in the hands of the Mission an effective remedy for this mysterious disease, it will be gratefully welcomed and freely used. With the extension of the work came increased solici- tude for the children of the lepers. Living, in many instances, among their diseased and disfigured parents, the peril of these little ones is great indeed, and it is gratifying to find the example set at Almora being followed at Tarn Taran. Here nearly thirty children were found in close and constant association with adult lepers — crowded into huts ten feet square, and containing in some instances father and mother, both lepers, with three or four children. On this need being made known, it was promptly supplied, and in the first year we find the Home sheltering nineteen untainted children of leprous parents. Two years later, we learn that they are progressing in every way, and that the change in them is a strong incentive to save still more. From another Home (Lohardaga,) we have, in the same year, boys who have been similarly rescued, going out to live useful lives — one as a teacher, one as a carpenter, and a third as a groom ; while one of the girls was doing good service as a Bible- woman. These early results of the work of rescuing the children, will be found repeated on a much larger scale in subsequent years ; these are merely the first-fruits. Life in a Leper Asylum, though in many of its aspects necessarily sad, is often brightened by acts of kindness among the inmates themselves. The fellow-feeling which makes us "wondrous kind" often moves them to help one another. Note this picture from Purulia ; — J 2 LEPERS, 1889-1893 " Then, poor Nicodemus hobbles to us. Fingers and toes he has no longer, but he has a heart full of love for his Saviour and for his fellow-sufferers. It is affecting to see him, setting down here and there the sick and dying, that they may breathe the fresh air." Mention must be made of poor old Mussuwa, who for twenty-seven years lived a consistent life, and exercised a constant influence over his companions in the Almora Asylum. Of him it is said : — " Most of those who have become Christians have done so, principally through his exertions. He has been blind for the last twenty-four years, yet this did not seem to detract from his power to influence others. He might well be called a leper missionary to the lepers. It was a real pleasure to talk to him, so intelligent, shrewd, and full of common sense were his remarks. Never once did I hear him complain ; on the contrary, he seemed to be con- tinually praising God for His goodness and love, and thanking the friends of the lepers for all they did to alleviate the miseries of those afflicted like himself" And yet he was blind, lame — and a leper ! The zeal of the Christian lepers is not always confined to their Asylums. We hear from Lohardaga of one who, having embraced Christianity there, returned to his village, where the change in his life, together with his prayers and his testimony, resulted in the conversion of all his family — father, mother, brothers, and their wives and children. The willing service of many others deserves mention, but space forbids. Bahadur, at Tarn Taran, surprised by the missionary while earnestly pleading with a group of his fellow-sufferers ; Rattia, at Ambala, cheerfully leading the singing at the services, though to get there he has " to walk sitting!" ; Nicodemus (already named), whose great gift was effectual and fervent prayer — these are but examples, from among many, of these humble, sincere Christian lepers, who emerge from the records before us, in the course of five years, from 1889 to 1893. CHAPTER X 1894-1898 THE period to which our narrative now brings us finds the Mission attaining its majority, and exhibiting the healthy vigour associated with that age. In the growth of such an organisation, there is an inter-relation between the two departments of the work. The demand for extension in the field of operations necessitates, and stimulates, development at the source of supplies ; while it is also true, that progress at home means advance abroad. Reviewing the history of the Mission as a whole, it has been found that the need and the provision have met each other, in a manner which calls for thanksgiving. Between prayer and effort, also, an intimate relation appears. The five years on which we now enter, show an increase in the Society's ordinary income from ;£'3,595 in 1894 to £8,527 in 1898. While it cannot be doubted that these figures denote the answers to many prayers, it is no less true that the advance they indicate was co-incident with increased effort to make the needs, and the possi- bilities, of the work more widely known. There was not to be less asking of God, but there was to be more telling of His people. Of the steps taken to promote the home interests of the work — and, as a result, its foreign development — probably the most far-reaching in its effects was the opening of an office in London, and the appointment of an Honorary Secretary, who is identical with the writer of this history. I have already found it a task of some delicacy to make appropriate acknowledgment of the services of esteemed 73 74 ■ LEPERS, 1894-1898 friends and colleagues still surviving. The reader vi^ill, I trust, understand that I find the present stage of my subject still more embarrassing. If this were a record of a merely temporary character, and of passing interest, entire self-effacement vs^ould, of course, be the correct note here. But, if the progress of the Society is to be traced with a due regard to the sequence of events, and their relation to each other, the personality of the author must henceforth appear in the narrative more prominently than it has hitherto done. I proceed, therefore, to narrate briefly the circumstances connected with my own intro- duction to the work with which I have felt it a privilege to be associated for sixteen years. It must, I think, have been in 1891 or 1892 that my interest was first awakened in the lepers by an address delivered by Mr. Wellesley C- Bailey at the daily noon prayer-meeting at the City of London Y.M.C.A., 186 Aldersgate Street. I had, for some fifteen years, been engaged in various forms of Christian work in London, being a member of the Committee of the Association just named, as well as that of the Strangers' Rest for Seamen, and of the Missionary Bureau. Though my active service was in the interests of home evangelisation, I was warmly interested in the spread of Christianity abroad. I was, however, entirely ignorant of the numbers and needs of the lepers, as well as unacquainted with the Society and its work. But my ignorance was dispelled as I listened to Mr. Bailey's pathetic description of their sorrows and sufferings, and of the methods and results of the work among them. That address struck a chord that has never since ceased to vibrate. Though the full and final " call " to the work was not then heard, yet I was awakened from indifference — the indifference of ignorance — to an enthusiastic sympathy with efforts so Christ-like and so humane. The knowledge that there were still, LED BY THE RIGHT WAY 75 within the confines of our own Empire, hundreds of thousands of these stricken outcasts — and more still in other lands — and that vast numbers of them were bereft, not only of health, but of home and comfort, and every ray of hope : these were to me new facts, and they sank into my consciousness with the force of a fresh revelation. Further knowledge meant fuller sympathy, and, on being invited by the Committee to act for them as Honorary Secretary for London and district, I felt that I could not withhold such help as it was in my power to render. Occupying a position of considerable responsibility (the management of the London business of a large Scotch firm), and being already engaged in various forms of religious work, it was only a limited leisure that I could devote to this new and absorbing claim. After two winters of lecturing, writing, and organising generally, the inevit- able breakdown in health was imminent, and the doctor's orders to slacken speed were imperative. Meantime, valuable experience had been gained, as well as substantial results secured, and the possibilities of future development demonstrated. Four years of this honorary service (with an office measuring eight feet by four, partitioned off in the corner of an ante-room) resulted in upwards of ^^3,000 being contributed to the Society's funds. During this time it had been my constant appeal to the Committee that they would, in the interests of the work, seek the services of a qualified secretary who could devote himself entirely to it. Overtures to suitable men were made, including two experienced missionaries, but without result. During this time of delays, and of difficulties that appeared unaccountable, the impression was slowly gaining strength that, perhaps, the guiding hand was pointing the way for me, to enter this open door, and to give myself wholly to a work which had already become endeared to me, and of whose value I was more 76 LEPERS, 1894-1898 than ever convinced. The idea that I should turn my back upon a business career of twenty-five years, and should deliberately incur an immediate, and substantial reduction of income, together with the forfeiture of future prospects, was not readily welcomed. It was, on the contrary, resisted for a time, but recurred a year later with an insistence that could not be disregarded. Two points in this Divine leading I especially recall. During our summer holiday of 1897, I had, in the course of a solitary walk, been thinking much about the future of the work, and wondering at the delay in supplying a need that had been so often presented in prayer. I was nearing our seaside lodgings, when there came to my mind, with irresistible power, the conviction that / was myself to be the answer to these prayers, and that the providence of God had kept open the door till I had been made ready to enter it. Immediately after this I returned home for a few days, during which I was entirely alone. Each day deepened the impression. My morning readings of the Scriptures confirmed it. One day the message was " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." On the next I read that the guiding motive, in such a crisis, should be " Not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre." Finally the will was yielded, and the resolve taken to refer the question to the Committee and to abide by their decision. If they thought me worthy of the work, and qualified for it, I would place myself at their disposal. Their reply left no room for doubt that I was being led aright, and in due course I resigned my business position, and on October ist, i8g8, entered upon the duties of Organising and Deputation Secretary to the Mission, with an office at Exeter Hall, Strand. Without the Camp, the organ of the Society, for JOHN JACKSON, F.R.G.S. ORGANISING SECRETARY APPOINTED 77 October, 1898, contained the following intimation of the appointment : — " Many of our friends are aware that we have, for several years, been praying and searching for a man quahfied for the position of Organising and Deputation Secretary, but that hitherto we have been unsuccessful. " The Committee, as far back as the beginning of 1894, came to the conclusion that such a man was an absolute necessity for the further development of the work. A short time since, Mr. John Jackson, who has for some years done us splendid service as Hon. Secretary for London and district, felt so clearly the call of God in this matter that he was constrained to offer his services to the Society for the larger and more important sphere of Organising Secretary, and the Committee, recognising his fitness for the position, were unanimous in his appoint- ment. Mr. Jackson has, accordingly, relinquished the business engagement he has held for so many years, and enters on his new duties on ist October. We give him a very hearty welcome, and feel quite sure that all our co- workers, and, indeed, all interested in the work amongst the lepers, will rejoice with us at what we feel to be an answer to many prayers." As I pen this history twelve years later, I cannot dismiss this personal reference without placing on record the pleasure and privilege I have found it to be to labour in such a cause, and with a Committee and colleagues so considerate and congenial. Above all would I gratefully acknowledge " the good hand of my God upon me," in granting no small measure of success to the efforts, both of myself and my fellow-workers, during those years. The Report of 1898 gratefully records the gift of a worker, who has rendered valuable service to the Mission, in the person of Mr. Thomas A. Bailey, brother to the Secretary and Superintendent. Mr. Bailey had not only 78 LEPERS, 1 894-1898 spent some years in India in early life, but had gained valuable experience of organising work as secretary of the Y.M.C.A. at Cork. In 1894, he consented to serve the Society as Honorary Secretary for the South of Ireland, and in that capacity, assisted by Mrs. Bailey, was the means of greatly deepening the interest in the lepers, in Ireland and elsewhere. In the following year, they left for India, where, for two or three years, they still availed themselves of every opportunity of promoting the Society's work, while at the same time engaging, with success, in other forms of missionary effort, notably among soldiers and students, and in the work of the Y.M.C.A. The rapid development of the Mission to Lepers, however, made increasing demands on Mr. Bailey's services, and in 1898 he was invited by the Committee to accept the position of Honorary Organising Secretary for India. The sympathies, both of Mr. and Mrs. Bailey, having been increasingly drawn out to the work as they had seen more of it, this proposal was agreed to greatly to the advantage of the Mission. The growing co-operation between the Society and the Government of India rendered the presence there of an official representative of the Mission indispensable, and in this connection Mr. Thomas A. Bailey's services were of the greatest value to the Society and its work. In the establishment of Auxiliaries — notably in Bombay and Calcutta — in the supervision of buildings, in the adjust- ment of financial and legal matters, as well as in other ways, both Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have done much to pro- mote the cause of the lepers. An outstanding event of this period was the third Indian tour of the Secretary and Superintendent. During an absence of about six months Mr. Bailey visited thirty- one centres of the Mission, in which he saw upwards of 2,000 lepers. Animated by the same sympathy which SURPRISING CONTENTMENT 79 first led him to minister to them, he went freely in and out among these sufferers and cheered them by words of love and hope. Not alone were workers counselled and cheered by Mr. Bailey's visit, and the work itself further consolidated, but he was himself greatly encouraged by the develop- ment of the Mission, which had now (in 1896) extended to forty-four stations in India, Burma, and Ceylon, while in addition to these, eight were occupied in China and Japan, making fifty-two in all. Not only had the Mission thus grown and prospered, and brought comfort and hope to thousands of afflicted men and women, but it was beginning to attract the favourable notice of the rulers of India. As an indication of this the following appreciation of the Society's work may be quoted. After a visit to the Asylum at Purulia, Sir John Woodburn, then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, expressed his opinion of the Institution by this entry in the visitors' book : — " I have been greatly impressed by my visit to this Asylum. It has now upwards of 500 inmates, and the sight of so great a company of stricken people would have been most distressing had it not been for the surprising contentment of their bearing. No leper is sent by the authorities, and no wall prevents an inmate from leaving, and yet the numbers rapidly grow ; evidence of the constant kindness and sympathy with which the poor creatures are treated. I have seen no more truly benevolent work in India than this." The interests of the work now demanded a more regular means of communication, between its headquarters and its helpers, than was afforded by Occasional Papers and Annual Reports. Accordingly, in January, 1897, appeared No. 1 of the Society's quarterly magazine, under the appro- priate title of Without the Camp. This has proved of immense service by deepening the interest of old friends and creating that of new ones. By accounts of the work, 8o LEPERS, 1894-1898 contributed by the missionaries in charge of the asylums, the magazine keeps the subscribers in the closest possible touch with the actual work of the Mission. It was also decided to publish a North American edition, for the benefit of the many friends of the lepers in Canada and the United States. The extended interest in Canada and U.S.A. which justified this step was largely due to the devoted efforts of the Rev. David Herron, at that time one of the Society's Honorary Secretaries for India. At an advanced age, instead of enjoying the rest he had so well earned, Mr. Herron was indefatigable — and highly successful — in his labours on behalf of the lepers, in North America. Many new auxiliaries were formed as the result of his addresses, and the firm footing that the Mission has among our Transatlantic friends may be attributed in no small degree to the faithful work done by him. Not only were local branches established in many places, but a Central Advisory Committee was formed in Toronto, consisting of representative friends of missions, with the Protestant Bishop of the Diocese as Chairman. This Committee was subsequently enlarged to include the United States, when many leaders of religious life and work representing the various denomina- tions were added to it. Much of real interest, and well worthy of record, might be included as to the sources of the Society's income. Not being sustained by any one Church in particular, the Society has to look to the generosity of kind-hearted donors irrespective of denomination. Hence much of its support is extra to the ordinary benefactions of its helpers, and not a few of the gifts received are the results of true self-denial. Brief mention may be made of the success of the Clapham Auxiliary, which has demonstrated the value of organised and systematic help. The branch was "MONY LITTLES" 8i originally started as the result of an address, given by the Rev. F. E. Middleton, at the Lillieshall Mission Room in Clapham. At the close it was proposed that those present, who were nearly all poor people, should endeavour to raise £4 a year for the support of an untainted child. It was pointed out that forty subscrip- tions of a half-penny a week, or two shillings a year, would suffice. Not only did the working people of the mission hall succeed in their laudable effort, but the method was extended to the neighbouring churches (of several denomi- nations), a collector being appointed for each. A com- mittee, consisting mainly of the ministers of the partici- pating churches, was appointed, and thus an auxiliary, which may be regarded as a model of organisation was permanently established. The result has been gratifying beyond the hopes of the founders. During the fifteen years of its existence (1895- 1909) the auxiliary has contributed the gratifying total of 3^2,740 IIS. 7d. And almost the whole sum has been raised by subscriptions of two shillings or half-a-crown a year, a fact which not only denotes a widespread sympathy with the needs of the lepers, but which also means that many of the poor are helping the still poorer. CHAPTER XI 1894-1898 — (continued) " Gangai Bai was the best of our lepers here . . . She was a great help in doing somewhat of a Bible-woman's work among the lepers, though she was not appointed as one. . . . Her death was due to a wound caused by a stone which was thrown at her by a boy at Poladpur, who thought the lepers ought to be mercilessly treated." Letter Jrom Poladpur, FOOR Gangai Bai ! "What a tragedy is compressed into this short record. She was a leper ! — and that explains it all. That was why she was cast out by her own kindred and refused the shelter that even the animals shared. That was why, homeless and helpless, she turned for refuge to the Mission Asylum, and that was why the boys thought her a fair mark for their stones. Caste and creed combined to teach them that the lepers " ought to be mercilessly treated," hence they became the instruments to release poor Gangai Bai's broken and contrite spirit that it might take its flight to the painless land. This poor soul was one of the first lepers to find a home at the new asylum built by the Society at Poladpur, in the Kolaba district of the Bombay Presidency, to the beginning of which a preliminary reference was made in the last chapter. It was found desirable to provide two asylums for this district, at Poladpur and at Pui, some forty miles apart. As they were erected at the same time and have been under the same supervision, they may be treated here together. It was soon evident that these simple shelters were meeting a very urgent need. In less than three years from their foundation upwards of a UNCONSCIOUS HEROISM S3 hundred lepers were finding in them food, shelter, and protection from persecution. A station, destined to attain a magnitude and import- ance second only to Purulia, received its preliminary grant in 1897. This was Chandkuri, in the Central Provinces, a district far distant from any city, and in which outcast lepers were driven during the famine, in large numbers to the mission station for relief. In acknowledging the first remittance, the Rev. K. W. Nottrott tells of almost daily arrivals of destitute lepers pleading piteously for help, sometimes alone, but not infrequently accompanied by helpless little children. Here is a poor woman, without fingers or toes, and large wounds alive with worms and deep to the bone. Such a description is painful either to write or to read. But, as we shiver with repugnance, let us think of the next sentence, which I quote from Mr. Nottrott's letter: — " I clean her wounds carefully every day, and she is able to walk again, and is glad to be cured so far." Described, just as it was done, simply and unaffectedly. No posing as a hero, and no consciousness of martyrdom. Another comes with hideous wounds in her hands, and with fingers rotted away. Still another woman, with two children, both of them already lepers and reduced by famine and disease to sheer skin and bone. The Famine Commissioner is startled — he has never seen so many lepers before. At first the missionary gave six pice (three-halfpence) per day to these starving and homeless people. Then, in order to feed a larger number, he employed a man to cook their rice in bulk, so that out of the small grant still more might be relieved. Then he adds in his unaffected way : — " Nearly every day I give to the lepers Bible teaching, and they listen very attentively to the stories about the Lamb " of God which taketh away the sin of the world." 84 LEPERS, 1894— 1898 So began the work among the outcasts of Chandkuri, a work which was to be consohdated by the erection, in the following year, of a permanent Institution which bears the name of "The Claire Asylum " — given to it by the titled English lady whose generosity made it possible for the Mission to provide it. Before the new houses could be built at least 100 lepers were sheltered in temporary huts, while forty-three untainted children were being cared for in a separate home. Eagerly the congregation of lepers crowded into the low-roofed shed which did duty as a chapel, and greedily they drank in the good tidings of life and immortality. During the second year, twenty- six were baptised on an intelligent confession of their faith. And so the devoted workers found here, as else- where, a present reward in seeing these afflicted outcasts cheered, comforted, and, we may hope, spiritually cleansed. At Mungeli (also in the Central Provinces) an initial effort was made in 1897-8 by a grant to the Rev. E. M. Gordon and Mrs. Gordon, to rescue a few of the children, and to provide temporary relief for some destitute lepers — an effort which, during the succeeding quinquennial period, was to develop into a permanent Asylum, as will be recorded in due course. At Nasik and at Raipur also, the very extremity of the lepers in this time of famine proved to be the opportunity for Christian charity to come to their help. In response to urgent appeals, the Mission made small preliminary grants to both these places in 1898. As, however, the erection of the permanent Asylums in which the lepers at these two centres are now sheltered belongs to our next period, the circumstances under which they came into existence will be recorded then. In the five years with which we are now dealing, stations, of various degrees of importance, were opened MORE NEW STATIONS 85 in many other places in India. It will be impossible to treat these in any detail owing to their number. Hence a very condensed account of most of them must suffice, though this means the exclusion of many incidents of deep interest. In addition, then, to those already named, the Society commenced work, either by the erection of Asylums or by grants in aid, in the following places in India in the years 1894 to 1898 : At Trevandrum (Travancore) a pastor and two Bible women were appointed by the Mission for work in the Asylums, supported by the Native State under the super- vision of the missionaries of the L.M.S. A Home for untainted children was also provided, and in 1898 we find twenty-two children safely sheltered in it — a number which was soon to be doubled. Wardha (C.P.). Here Dr. Dugald Revie (of the United Free Presbyterian Church) for many years carried on an extensive medical mission. Among his patients were many lepers, and encouraged by a grant from the Mission, he made successful application to the local authorities for the use of an old serai (or rest-house), in which to shelter and care for them. Soon, within its walls, a company of otherwise homeless sufferers were receiving shelter and sympathy. Ellichpur (C. P.). During Mr. Bailey's tour in 1895-6, it became clear that an Asylum should be provided, if possible, for the destitute lepers of this part of Berar. Through the united efforts of the Mission to Lepers and the Kurku and Central India Hill Mission, a series of comfortable little dwellings, forming a small village in themselves, were erected, and speedily filled with grateful inmates. A large well forms the centre, and fronting it is the chapel, while short streets with double rows of houses radiate from it. Baidyanath (Bengal). To this place of many shrines, 86 LEPERS, 1894— 1898 and of more disappointed hopes, come large numbers of lepers in search of cleansing. Though unsuccessful in this quest, they derive no small benefit from the alms of the many pilgrims to the sacred spot. A few of them having been gathered into a small shelter by Miss Adam — an unattached lady missionary — it was a pleasure to the Committee to encourage her brave efforts by an annual grant, which, begun in 1897, has been continued since. While homes of hope and comfort for the lepers of India were thus being multiplied, the cry of the lazars of China was not being disregarded, though the develop- ment there was less rapid. At Siao Kan, near Hankow, was opened, on April 7th, 1895, the first Asylum for Lepers in Central China, to which a brief reference has already been made. The opening ceremony was performed by the Rev. Griffith John, D.D., who has taken the deepest interest in it, and has rejoiced over its progress. The key-note of his address was, that Christianity exalts and honours the human body as a possible temple of the Holy Ghost, and that this was none the less true though the body might be a leprous body. This account of the establishment of the Siao Kan Asylum may fitly close with the grateful acknowledg- ment, by the District Committee of the L.M.S., of the help rendered by the Mission to Lepers : — " Whilst we all trust that the Leper Hospital may be a physical and spiritual blessing to many lepers, we believe that the mere existence of such an institution in the Siao Kan district will be a constant testimony to the natives of the love of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the leper and the outcast. In no formal manner, we beg to tender our heartiest thanks for the grant so kindly and so opportunely made.'' It may be added that, apart from funds raised locally, this Asylum was built and is supported by the Mission to Lepers. CHINA AND JAPAN 87 Foochow was also aided during the same period. In 1895, the Rev. W. Banister, of the Church Missionary Society, applied for a grant to support Christian work among the many lepers in the settlement outside the city. His aim was to employ a catechist, Ting Ming King by name, to evangelise the lepers, and also to open schools for adults and children, and to secure one or two leper converts from Kucheng to help in carrying out these plans. At Yen Ping Fu (Fuh-kien) also, a forward step was taken by a grant in response to a plea from Dr. Rigg, of the C.M.S., to enable him to provide some small comforts for the lepers in the village two miles from the city. The Mission had for some time supported a catechist (of the name of U.), and, in response to this appeal, an additional food supply was secured for the seventy or eighty inmates of this leper village. It has been recorded that, during the immediately pre- ceding period, the Society had, by grants towards the erection of Asylums at Kumamoto and Tokio, helped to demonstrate to the Japanese that Christianity includes the destitute leper in its Divine compassion. At Kumamoto, Miss Riddell and her colleagues met with unexpected delays in the completion of their beneficent plan, and before they had even secured a site, applicants were waiting for admission. The very first to seek their help was a gentleman, well-educated, but reduced to poverty through fees paid to native doctors for worthless remedies. He was a Christian, but his faith was failing under so heavy a trial, until he found help and sympathy at Kumamoto. Another tragic story may be summarised. A young girl marries, only to find that her husband is a leper. In time she is stricken, and returns to her parents' house to await the inevitable end. A gentleman calls at their wayside cottage for tea. He observes the old 88 LEPERS, 1 894-1898 woman carrying food to the garden. His curiosity being aroused, he follows, and finds her sitting on the ground and apparently talking to the bank upon which she sits. But it is her leprous daughter, who, fearful of infecting her parents, has dug a hole in the ground the length of her body, has spread a piece of matting to lie on, and is waiting there in her misery till death relieves her of her sufferings, and her parents of the burden of her existence. These are merely individual instances out of the mass — units from the hideous total. Two and a half miles from Kumamoto is a temple specially frequented by lepers, who gather from all parts of the island of Kiushiu, which is as large as Ireland. Here crowds of these stricken wretches may be heard crying with vain repetitions to the spirit of a man who, three centuries ago was buried in a neighbouring enclosure. Their words are not even a prayer, but a mere incessant repetition, for years and years, of a meaningless formula, " Na-mu-myo-ho-ren-ge-kyo." How striking the contrast when we turn to the Christian Asylum opened November 12th, 1894, after an appro- priate service conducted by the President, Bishop Evington. On a site of four acres were erected houses for men, and for women and children, together with a dispensary, waiting room, kitchen and offices, as well as a house for the medical officer, a bath-house and a store. Surely so convincing an exposition of Christian charity will produce its impression upon observers so shrewd as the Japanese. The erection of an Asylum at the Capital of Japan was briefly alluded to in a previous chapter. Though the first grant towards it was made in the preceding quin- quennium, its opening and its steady progress have to be recorded here. This Tokio Asylum was the first Pro- testant refuge opened for the lepers of Japan, and many are the pathetic cases that have been welcomed within A GRUESOME BARG'AIN 89 its hospitable walls. The I-ha-en (which means " Home to Comfort Incurables "), while vested in the Mission to Lepers, receives considerable help from a local council, or Kozensha, two of whose members, Mr. and Mrs. Otsuka, reside on the premises, and devote themselves to caring for the welfare of the inmates. One of the first to be admitted was Hisa, a bright young Christian girl who developed the disease as she was about to graduate. She was heart-broken at this cruel blow to her hopes, but soon became reconciled and found solace for her own sorrows in ministering to the needs of her fellow-sufferers. We learn, a year or two later, that Hisa is very busy teaching Bible lessons and singing to the other lepers, as well as making and mending their clothes. Another of the early inmates was a poor woman named Tsushima, who, homeless and despairing, had bargained with a certain hospital to leave her body for dissection, in return for a place to die in. Life lingered so long in the poor diseased frame that they grew tired of waiting, and finally turned her out, as increasing helplessness made her more burdensome. She, also, was admitted to the Christian home, and specially cared for by one of the younger women, who had been a nurse before becoming a leper. The limited room was soon overtaxed, and additional houses were added in 1897. The mere announcement of the extension brought applications from all quarters. " All the cases are so sad and so worthy, that we cannot find it in our hearts to say ' No,' " writes Miss Youngman of the American Presbyterian Mission, to whose untiring zeal the existence and prosperity of the Asylum is mainly due. She had the reward she most desired, in seeing numbers of these forlorn men and women, not only sheltered and relieved, but giving evidence in their lives that they had found in vital Christianity a peace and a power unknown before. CHAPTER XII 1894-1898 — {continued) " 1 SHALL never send away a leper who comes to me I for help," wrote the late Henry Uffmann, Super- 1 intendent of the Purulia Asylum. He was the architect of that noble institution, not only in regard to the actual supervision of the buildings, but in the deeper sense that it was the outcome of his Christian compassion and of his unflagging industry. So many were the homeless wanderers who found their way to Purulia, that enlargement was in almost constant progress, for the first ten years at least. The missionary, with his large and loving heart, would not, indeed could not, turn them away to a life of misery and want. He could do everything but refuse them. He could, and did, crowd five or six into rooms meant for four. He could, and did, shelter scores of new arrivals in temporary sheds. He could, and did, borrow money in the bazar — after he had spent every rupee of his personal funds. But withhold food and shelter from these stricken out- casts was the one thing he could not do. The continued influx, with its consequent increase in expenditure, might be, as indeed it was, a problem to an overtaxed com- mittee. But, to the devoted missionary, the situation was not complicated by any consideration of that kind. He regarded himself, and with good reason, as the repre- sentative of Him who cleansed the leper and fed the hungry of old — and his duty was clear. With the faith of the enthusiast and the mystic — for a mystic he was , though of the most practical kind — he was fully persuaded 80 3^ SUPPLY AND DEMAND 91 that God would provide, and with the clear vision of an absolutely single-eyed man, he recognised that the gifts, which meant life itself to these outcasts, were in the purses of affluent Christians at home. Happily, these constantly recurring needs were in time supplied. An admirable site was secured, with ample land adjoining for extension and cultivation ; new houses were erected, well built and well placed among the trees; a large airy church as well as a dispensary and school were added, and when in July, 1897, Mr. and Mrs. Uffmann went to Darjeeling on a short furlough, they left behind an institution affording shelter and alleviation to 463 inmates. While Purulia was thus growing by leaps and bounds, during the period under review, similar, if smaller, extensions were in progress at many other existing centres, of which details must be omitted. As one example only, from China we find Dr. Main pleading for further help for Hangchow : — " We are anxious to have a small place for some of the lepers by the lake outside of the city, as the Refuge is too small for our applicants. By the lake they could move about more, keep their own hens and pigs, and grow their own vegetables, and their lives would be much brighter and happier. . . There is only accommodation in the Refuge for twelve, and to-day there are twenty in it, so we must enlarge somewhere." Not only was the need for extension urgent, owing to the many helpless sufferers seeking refuge, but scarcely less so on account of the danger to the community arising from the presence in public places of lepers in pronounced stages of the disease. Unhappily, the conditions described by Mr. Wellesley Bailey as existing in Asansol (Bengal) in i8g6, still prevail in many Eastern cities : — "Before leaving Asansol, Mr. Byers and I went out together one evening to look up some special cases of lepers of whom we had heard, and within an hour, and a radius of a mile from the 92 LEPERS, 1894-1898 Byers' house, we found, first, a leper woman with a cow. She is said to have been selling milk for some time. Next, in a small village, the village of Budha, a banya, selling grain, spices, &c. He stated that he had had the disease for twenty years. His name is Ramu Shadu. His wife and a nice wee boy, of five years, were with him in the shop. We then went into the shop of Lachman Marwari, cloth seller, who goes round from house to house selling cloth, and found him a very decided leper. He acknowledged it to us himself. Lastly, we went to the stall of a vegetable seller. The owner of this stall was also a leper, and a bad case, too. He was not there to-day, but his wife was, and she told me that he was too bad just now to attend to the shop, as he had holes in his feet." When we descend from the general to the particular, from the mass to the individual, how pathetic are the cases which confront us ! At Chandag, among the women lepers, three little girls, " with winsome faces," but all far gone in leprosy. Two lads, brothers, of seventeen and fourteen, found by the missionary waiting for admis- sion to the Almora Asylum. Nearly naked, with mutilated hands and feet and deformed faces, they pleaded for help, and not in vain. They were literally full of sores, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. As in India, so in China. Two visitors to the leper settlement at Lo Ngwong were attracted by the bright face of a youth, cast out by his parents to beg or die. The lepers pitied him, received him into their village, and gave him a portion of their food. He was much diseased — one eye quite gone, and hands and feet sadly deformed. And to what extent was the Committee able to respond to these leech-like cries of the lepers for more, and still more, help ? The answer may be best given in the figures which show the large increase in the number of those benefited, or supported, by the Mission during four years only of this period. At the close of 1894 (about) : ... 1,500 At the close of 1898 : 3»542 QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE LEPERS 93 "Their lives would be much brighter and happier," wrote Dr. Main, in his appeal for the lepers of Hang- chow. Is it possible, the reader may well ask, for such lives as we have described to be so transformed, that such terms as bright and happy, can be applied to them at all? The answer is an emphatic affirmative, and the evidence in support of it is abundant and convincing. The sense of security, the supply of their daily needs, the sympathy which shows them that human kindness is not dead — all these are doubly sweet in contrast to the life of wandering, misery, and cruelty they have replaced. Under these kindly influences, hope revives, and from lives that seemed for ever blighted, there spring fair fruits of peace, con- tentment, and happiness. Their very affliction, while it separates them from their fellows, unites them to each other, while their daily intercourse and mutual interests develop a communal life which finds its manifestation in many ways. For example, on the occasion of Queen Victoria's jubilee, the lepers of the Almora Asylum, quite spontaneously, decided to send an address expressive of their gratitude to their Queen Empress. It was, through the kindness of the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, conveyed to Her Majesty, and, to the great delight of the 120 lepers who sent it, not only acknowledged in a gracious note, but was accorded a place among the jubilee gifts. Probably the social betterment of the lives of the lepers is at no period so apparent as at Christmas. There is a special fitness in this, as beyond all doubt the sympathy and kindness which do so much to alleviate their suffer- ings and to brighten their lives emanate from Bethlehem. It is, therefore, peculiarly appropriate that the season of peace on earth and good-will to men should be an occa- sion of rejoicing to these outcasts, who owe everything that makes life endurable, to the coming of the Christ. 94 LEPERS, 1894— 1898 Let us glance at the Christmas festivities of the lepers. At Chandag, in the Himalayas, in the angle between Thibet and Nepal, the lepers under Miss Reed's kindly care have enjoyed many a bright Christmas. We see them gathered, on one occasion, for the opening of the new chapel of the men's Asylum. Sweet-voiced singers, from the schools of the neighbouring mission station, are there to lead the praise. Fifty men and boys, in all stages of the disease, join earnestly and reverently in song and prayer. Then gifts are distributed. New garments, fruits, and materials for a special Christmas dinner, are handed round, and they disperse to talk, and think, of the contrast between the Christianity that welcomes and blesses them and the creed that casts them out and curses them. Afterwards the women and girls are made glad by the distribution of warm woollen garments, wrought by willing workers in Ireland — some of them received by stumps of hands which can hardly hold them. At Almora, on Christmas Day, we find the boys and girls from the Home for untainted children visiting the lepers in the Asylum and singing to them — a pleasure which must have had a pang in it for some of them as they listened to the voices of their own children, from whom their disease had severed them. Then the lepers respond with the joyful noise which is their substi- tute for singing. Deeper and more sacred is the gladness associated with the baptism, on the same day, of the recent converts from among them. Amongst the others admitted to the sacred rite on this Christmas Day is Pratap, a Rajput and a farmer. Sent by his priest to the famous shrine at Hardwar, he had, perforce, to resume his weary pilgrimage in search of healing. After visiting many temples, with ever-growing weakness as the fell disease crept on, he heard of the Asylum at Almora. He came in fear and trembling, and CHRISTMAS REJOICINGS 95 only under the pressure of absolute want, as he had heard that, though the lepers were well cared for there, they usually became Christians; and poor Pratap was still true to his gods, powerless as they were to help him. On this Christmas Day, however, he is found gladly confess- ing his faith in the " Holy Child Jesus," and says : " I wish everyone knew what a happy thing it is to be a Christian." From Tokio we have a pathetic picture of Christmas among the inmates of the I-ha-en. We cannot do better than transcribe Miss Youngman's graphic account of it : " How I wish you could have been at their Christmas festival ; I think it was the best I ever attended. We allowed them twelve dollars in gold towards it, and they had quite a good tree, and each person had a quarter of a dollar in money. We give them no money now through the year, and so it seemed best to give them a little spending money at Christmas. There was a great deal of talent shown. One man, formerly an editor, gave an excellent address. Two school teachers read essays. Several sang exceedingly well. One man, who cannot sit nor stand, had his bedstead brought into a corner of the room, and had another man, who was only in the early stages of leprosy, read an essay which he had dictated for him to write. Everything was so pure and appropriate, you would have thought these men and women had been Christians from their childhood. I had promised them Bibles, and let them choose the size and kind. They chose the largest that are printed, the best for them, of course. I think the tears would have come into your eyes if you could have seen these poor, afflicted men and women try to take those Bibles from my hands, for I insisted on giving them to each one myself. How- ever, fingerless hands^ and stiffened arms in some way or other took them, except those of the man in the bed ; his I had to place beside him." CHAPTER XIII 1894-1898 — (concluded) " The more I see and know of this terrible scourge, the more I pity the leper and loathe leprosy. The very word has a meaning it never had before." A Medical Missionary. THESE words from the pen of one who, as an experienced medical missionary, was necessarily familiar with disease and disfigurement serve to remind us of the repulsive nature of this work. It is due to the devoted missionaries, of both sexes and of many Societies, to remember that their ministry among these diseased and dying people is truly a labour of love. It is often undertaken as an added duty in a life already full of work. Most of them, beyond doubt, are drawn to it by pure pity. Some seem led to it by what can only be called the attraction of repulsion, paradoxical though the phrase may sound. One missionary, who has done a noble work among the lepers for many years, received his call to it through the sight of a forsaken outcast dying alone in the bazaar. He fled from the spectacle, but it haunted him, and the recollection of it, with the know- ledge that the body would presently be slung on a pole, as if it were that of an animal, and denied the usual rites of burial, moved him to inaugurate an Asylum which has saved scores from a similar fate. Here is a missionary's account of the impression made upon him by his first sight of a company of lepers at Rurki : " I distinctly remember my first visit to the lepers. On the outskirts of the city, on a little mound by the roadside were eight or ten wretched human beings, in HUMAN WRECKS 97 such a pitiable condition, that it had the two-fold effect of first making me sick, and when this had worn oif, of causing such a deep pity for them, that it has never left me and never will. I see them now with matted hair and unwashed bodies, crusted with dirt, clothes that had not been washed since they were first put on (perhaps a year previous), here a toeless foot sloughing, there a fingerless hand, literally a festering, running sore. Here a bloated face and swollen ears, there two holes that once had eyes in them, there a nose eaten away ! The stench was too much for me, and nature shrank saying, ' Room for the leper, room,' yet with a cry to God I controlled my feelings, and preached to them, then hastily supplying their bodily wants, sped away, and for days after could not forget the sights and smells. They lived by begging and wandering through the city and the streets. Their huts were broken-down hovels, being four mud walls about two and a half feet high, with a thatched roof so low in the eaves, that the poor things had literally to crawl in. There was no ventilation, except through the one low doorway, cut out of the mud wall, no windows, no light, no pure air, no clean water, no adequate shelter from the burning sun, no protection from the bitter cold ! " These wretched hovels were shortly replaced by a com- fortable Asylum, which, when I visited it some years later, was filled with one of the happiest companies of lepers to be found in India, all of them rejoicing in the hope of life and immortality brought to them by the Gospel of Christ. Surely workers labouring in tropical climates and amid such surroundings, may appropriate to themselves Tennyson's words : How could I bear with the sights and the loathsome smells of disease, But that He said, " Ye do it to Me, when ye do it to these." H 98 LEPERS, 1894-1898 Before passing from this point, a tribute should be paid to many faithful helpers among Indian and Chinese Christians. These, in their capacities of doctors, cate- chists, or caretakers, render quiet and efficient service to their diseased fellow-countrymen. It is, in not a few instances, a testimony to their Christian character that though they might readily find pleasanter and more remunerative employment elsewhere, they continue to serve among those whom their former creed taught them to consider unclean outcasts. Among other events of interest during this quinquen- nium must be noted the Conference of Leprologists, presided over by Professor Virchow, at Berlin, in 1897. As the conclusions arrived at by this body of experts still represent the opinion of the great majority of medical authorities, they may be briefly stated here : (i) The disease is communicated by the bacillus, but its conditions of life, and methods of penetrating the human organism are unknown. Probably it obtains entrance through the mouth or the mucous membrane. (2) It is certain that mankind alone is liable to the bacillus. (3) Leprosy is contagious, but not hereditary. (4) The disease has hitherto resisted all efforts to cure it. A similar Conference at Bergen, in August, igog, confirmed the above decisions in all respects. A brief reference to China must conclude the record of this fruitful period. But in that reference has to be included the Kucheng massacre, when, amongst others who earned the martyr's crown were the Rev. Robert Warren Stewart and his wife, both devoted workers of the Church Missionary Society. For the last two years of his life, Mr. Stewart was the Superintendent of the Asylum of the Mission to Lepers at Kucheng, and some PAKHOI 99 of his latest letters told of his interest and encouragement in the work. During its earlier years, the well-known work among lepers at Pakhoi, South China, was closely associated with the Mission, and was assisted by grants from its funds. A Committee, of which Mr. W. E. Hurcomb was Secretary, and which was formed to promote leper work in Pakhoi, became, for a short time, affiliated to the Mission to Lepers as its North London Auxiliary. Con- siderable funds were raised by these friends, and their contributions of ;ri,25o, in 1893 and 1894, enabled the Society to develop its work in connection with the C.M.S. in several centres. Later it was decided that this Committee should revert to its former position, and it again became a separate organisation, having for its object the financing of the Pakhoi leper work — an object in which it has been entirely successful. It should be added that the happiest relations have existed, and still exist, between the Pakhoi workers and the Mission to Lepers. At Lo Ngwong, the work was further developed by the erection of a Home and School- for untainted children, the gift of Mrs. Brunot, of Pittsburg, U.S.A. This generous lady subsequently contributed £1,600 as a perpetual provision for the Home. She was a member of the American Episcopal Church, and the endowment of this Home, belonging to the Mission to Lepers and carried on by C.M.S. workers, is an instance of catholicity of spirit which well deserves a record. CHAPTER XIV 1899-1903 LIKE a river, ever widening and deepening as it flows, spreading verdure and vitality on either side, the work which is the subject of this narrative is found to be progressing with accelerated force as we come to the closing period of its story. Of the twenty-six stations, many of them of great importance, established by the Mission during the five years now to be reviewed, we first notice Nasik, to which a brief allusion has already been made. We have noted how the famine and the plague, which together might well have exterminated a community so neglected and helpless as these poor outcasts, proved the occasion for their lot to be ameliorated to an extent never dreamed of by them. The plague of 1898, following the famine of 1897, made it necessary for the lepers to be evicted from the old temple to which they had by long usage acquired a certain prescriptive right. Evicted they accordingly were — a roofless and disused plague hospital being the only shelter they could find. Here, on a happy day for them, they came under the notice of Miss Harvey, a devoted worker of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. Soon she had secured regular rations for these new objects of her care, and speedily had a temporary roof put up to protect them from the expected rains. The next step was to enlist the help of the Mission to Lepers, and ere long, thanks to some aid from Government, eighty to one hundred lepers were happily sheltered in a 100 A STARTLING DISCOVERY loi well-built Asylum, which has proved a veritable Home of Hope to many a diseased and helpless sufferer. While the lepers were thus being cared for, their untainted children were not neglected, and in igoi a Home for them was erected, the funds for this " life- saving station " being generously provided by Lady Polwarth, aided by friends whose sympathy she enlisted. We have just told how help and hope came to the lepers of Nasik, near the head-waters of the Godavari. We have now to relate how the stream of comfort flowed on until it reached the outcasts of the delta of that river. Very fair and fertile is this district, and the enjoyment of a twelve hours' journey through the canals that intersect it is often recalled with pleasure. The house-boat gliding gently along, drawn by coolies ; the rays of the evening sun lighting up the palm-fringed banks ; the quickly falling darkness, illumined by myriads of fireflies ; and, later, the stillness of the starlit night falling on wearied spirits like the touch of a gentle and unseen hand — all these constituted a memorable contrast to the hot and dusty railway journey which had preceded them. It was early in 1899 that Miss S. I. Hatch (of the Canadian Baptist Mission), stationed at Ramachandra- puram, some twenty-five miles from the port of Cocanada, was first awakened to realise the number and needs of the lepers of her district. Having made the startling discovery that the servant who carried her water and other supplies, and washed the dishes, had been suffering from leprosy for two years, she instituted inquiries which revealed the existence of lepers in almost every village, as many as twelve being found in one. She ascertained that the mother and sister of the man just mentioned had, as lepers, ended their unhappy lives by suicide. She further found that she had unwittingly been receiving milk from 102 LEMRS, 1899— 1903 a man already in the mutilating stage of leprosy. Two bright, promising girls had to leave the Mission boarding- school through developing the disease. Further instances, showing the need of segregation and illustrating the value of leper asylums, may be noted. One man who subsequently applied for admission to the asylum had been dish-washer and errand-boy in a public restaurant. In Cocanada it was discovered that the man who kneaded the bread for the mission house was a leper. In a neighbouring village one of the butchers was a leper. A native medical assistant, having charge of a hospital, and performing operations, was found to be suffering from leprosy, while another case was that of a clerk who had the handling of public documents. When in Cocanada, I visited a Christian woman, widow of a native pastor, dying of leprosy, whose brother-in-law is known, and whose husband is suspected, to have been a leper. Still more terrible is the sequel to this case. The two sons of this woman after her death developed the disease, and together with their servant-boy, became inmates of the asylum. In the face of such facts — and they could be supplemented by many more — who can doubt that leprosy is transmitted by contact, or wonder at its prevalence in districts where such conditions prevail ? Soon the missionaries knew of at least one hundred lepers in their taluq of 250,000 people, and they also found that, with the exception of Madras, 350 miles distant, there was not a centre of relief or a place of refuge for them through all the Telugu country, with its population of thirty millions. Clearly something must be done — but what, and how ? The Canadian Baptist Church, neither large nor rich, and overtaxed to provide men and money for its extensive and successful work in the district, could not bear this added burden. Miss Hatch conferred with her colleague, "HEAVEN FOR THE LEPERS" 103 the Rev. J. E. Davis, and he suggested an appeal to the Mission to Lepers. This was favourably received by the Committee, and a letter was inserted in the Society's magazine. It was specially appropriate that the generous benefactor to come to the help of the lepers of Rama- chandrapuram should be a Canadian. Mrs. J. D. Kellock, of Perth, Ontario, had been already hoping to do some- thing definite for the relief of lepers as a memorial to her late husband. Dr. Kellock (M.D.). She gladly embraced this opportunity, and responded to the appeal by a gift of 5^400 for the erection of an asylum, supplementing this shortly afterwards by another £100 for a chapel. Soon the tidings spread among these sufferers that a home was — wonderful to relate, and difficult to realise — being prepared for them ! Like the four leprous men of old, they might have said one to another, " This day is a day of good tidings . . . now therefore come." And immediately they came, and in such numbers that before the first houses could be completed more than a score were squatting, with only the shelter of a few palm leaves, waiting for admission, while twice that number were turned away till the wards were ready. While the hopes of these miserable outcasts ran high, the interest of the community generally in this (to them) novel undertaking was also keen. " What is this, and why ? " were their questions, as they saw a well-built Institution springing up by the roadside, surrounded by palms and mango trees. They went on their way amazed and perplexed, and with a new conception of Christianity in their minds, some of them exclaiming, " All this for the lepers ! Why, it will be heaven for them ! " An unusual opportunity was given me of witnessing the impression made on the Hindu mind by this practical exemplification of the Christian creed. At the neighbouring town of Cocanada, the Rev. F. H. Laflamme invited a number of 104 LEPERS, 1899-1903 the leading non-Christian residents to listen to an account of the principles and methods of the Mission to Lepers. In addressing this company of educated Indians I was careful to lay special stress on the fact that the whole work, including this new effort for the lepers of their own locality, was permeated throughout with the Christian spirit, that, alike in its inception and execution, it was meant to manifest the spirit and the teachings of Jesus. At the close of the address one of the leaders of the com- munity expressed their surprise and shame at what they had heard — surprise that Christian missions were doing so much for the lepers of India, and shame that it should have been left to them to do it. He evidenced the sincerity of his words by a generous donation to the funds of the new asylum. The story of the lepers of Ramachandrapuram is full of pathetic interest, and many things meriting detailed recital must be dismissed with a mere mention. The service under the mango tree, when, with Miss Hatch as interpreter, I was privileged to see eight lepers come for- ward for baptism at the close of the service ; the singing of Rudriah (the first inmate) and his trained choir, when he would fain have entertained me with a lyric of forty verses, himself the soloist and chorus by the choir ; the feast, at which, to the manifest delight of the grateful guests, I handed the sweetmeats round the circle of fifty, and brought away their touching messages of thanks to their far-off friends in Canada and Great Britain — these are some of the memories of my most interesting visit. " He had travelled 200 miles on his way to Juggernath, the great Hindu shrine." This sentence tells of one incident in a tragic life story. Ram Lai, to whom it refers, had a wife, two sons, and a good business in the city of Allahabad. One day, whilst far from home, he burnt his hands without feeling any pain. He had THE STORY OF RAM LAL 105 become a leper, and now he knew it. He knew, more- over, that in all probability his own door would be closed against him, and that his caste privileges would be forfeited. Crushed and heart-broken, he turned his back on home and kindred, and after long wandering s^t out, as a last resource, on a weary pilgrimage to the celebrated temple at Puri. Turning aside for a rest at Mungeli, in the Central Provinces, he was welcomed into the leper asylum there, and in due time — not at once, for he was a thoughtful, earnest man — he found Him who is Lord of Heaven as well as earth (Juggernath means " Lord of all the earth "). It was Ram Lai who, on the occasion of my visit, voiced the gratitude of the lepers of the Mungeli Asylum to the friends who had provided a place of refuge for them. The friends in this case were the members of the All Nations Missionary Union and Pence Association, who contributed the funds by which the asylum was built, and has since been supported. This is one of several places in the Central Provinces in which leper asylums were established as a result of the famine of 1897 and following years. More than once enlargement has been necessary, and recently a small asylum three miles distant has been built for women, who, here as elsewhere, number about one-third of the total. Ram Lai, whose story I have summarised, is only one of the many stricken sufferers whose darkness has been illumined by the Light of Life at the Mungeli Asylum. I retain a vivid recollection of a Sunday spent there, when it was my privilege to participate in a baptismal service, at which six of the twenty-eight converts were lepers. The scene was a striking one. On a cliff overlooking the river stood the lepers from the asylum, and on the opposite bank, a by no means friendly, crowd of Hindus. At the water's edge were gathered the corigregation and the children of the lepers from the home, all of whom had io6 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 marched in procession from the church. The river, flowing freely between its beautiful banks ; the congrega- tion of brightly-dressed native converts, joining heartily in the singing with which the ceremony was accompanied, with the sun shining brightly over it all — these formed a picture full of life and beauty, the central feature of which was the company of spiritually cleansed men and women, thus openly testifying their abandonment of heathenism and their acceptance of a " living hope by the resurrec- tion of Jesus Christ from the dead." Also in the Central Provinces, and also like Mungeli, an outcome of the famine is the smaller Asylum at Patpara, in the Mandla district. The Society's first interest in the lepers at Patpara dates from 1895, when the Rev. E. P. Herbert, of the Church Missionary Society, was enabled to give temporary relief to a few of them, the first being an ex-schoolmaster, and the next a well-to-do caste man. Shortly, other cases came to light, until it became clear that a permanent asylum was a necessity. The funds for this, as for that at Mungeli, were provided by the All Nations Missionary Union and Pence Associa- tion. Again the famine was found to be a cloud with a silver lining so far as the lepers were concerned, as the asylum was built as a measure of relief alike for those who laboured to build it, and for the lepers who found a home in it. From Patpara, a sad sidelight is thrown on the sufferings of the lepers. Owing to the anaesthesia, or loss of feeling, which so often accompanies the disease — " The rats (they say) come and gnaw us at night, and we don't know anything about it till we see the blood in the morning ; or we move too near the fire in our sleep, and are badly burnt." But just as the wilderness had its Elim, with its wells and palms — lives so sad as these are cheered by sympathy, and brightened by the hope of the Gospel. Poor Zindi, ZINDI THE DRUMMER 107 for example, was the most disfigured and helpless of all the lepers at Patpara, but a very bright and joyful Christian. He was a drummer by caste, and his friends sent him a pair of his old drums. It was thought impossible that he could play them, but Zindi had sticks bound on his fingerless stumps and drummed away vigorously to his own entire satisfaction. Almost all the inmates of the Patpara Asylum have received baptism. From Sholapur (South Mahratta Country, Bombay Presidency) came an urgent request from Dr. P. B. Keskar, who is associated with the American Marathi Mission. He found on investigation as many as 200 lepers in the city and the immediate neighbourhood. Sholapur was the centre of an area of severe famine, and the lepers were compelled to leave their haunts in search of relief. The Society's efforts to provide for them had the sympathy and support both of Lady Northcote, whose husband was Governor of Bombay, and of the local authorites. Soon, on a healthy site, well beyond the municipal boundary, a permanent Asylum was erected, and, in a short time, filled with appreciative inmates, who number, according to the latest returns, about 100. About the same time, the homeless lepers of Miraj, also in the South Mahratta country, found a friend in Dr. Wanless, of the American Presbyterian Mission, who, in presenting their plea to the Committee in 1896, supported it on the ground that, though they were numerous in the district, literally nothing had been done for them. Nothing ? Yes ; the Government of the small native State of which Miraj is the capital had, several years before, gone so far as to lay the foundation stone of an Asylum for them. But the building never got itself erected, and even the corner-stone was subsequently stolen, while the lepers were left to perish, until practical Christianity applied its remedy to their sad case. At the io8 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 end of igoo, upwards of 100 famine workers were finding employment in quarrying the stone and preparing the site for the new Asylum, which I found filled with grateful inmates in the spring of the following year. The Leper Asylum has proved a useful adjunct to the splendid Hospital provided by the Medical Mission, which has done so much to commend the Christian faith to the Mahrattas of Miraj and the district. Reference was made in an early chapter to the need of some adequate provision for the lepers of Bombay city, and to the difficulties and delays in securing it. At length, on January 8th, 1890, the Government proclaimed " black leprosy " to be an infectious disease dangerous to life, and named the Asylums at Trombay and Ratnagiri to be sanitaria under a somewhat forgotten Act of 1867. As these two Asylums would not together accommodate more than about 100 lepers, while it was estimated that there were 800 in Bombay, this proposal was, to put it mildly, inadequate. But here a wealthy and benevolent Parsee, Sir Dinshaw Petit, came forward with an offer of a lakh of rupees (about ^^6,666) in the hope that the Government would equip and maintain the Asylum which it was prepared to erect at Trombay. Plans and estimates for an asylum for 1,000 lepers were prepared, and the foundation was laid by a royal prince. But the scheme never progressed beyond this point, mainly because it was found that so large an undertaking would require at least four times the sum donated by Sir Dinshaw Petit. In the meantime, Mr. H. A. Acworth, CLE., was appointed to the office of Municipal Commissioner of Bombay, and inaugurated a plan which, if less ambitious, was at least practicable. He appealed to public charity, with the result that ultimately a sum in excess of Sir Dinshaw Petit's offer was contributed — among the most generous donors being Lord Harris, then Governor of THE BOMBAY ASYLtlM 109 Bombay. The municipality gave a suitable site at Matunga, sufficiently isolated yet readily accessible. As showing how vigorously the new movement went forward, it need only be said that, though building was only begun on August 19th, on the 6th of November of the same year, the first forty or fifty lepers were conveyed by the police to the new Asylum. The additional wards were filled as soon as completed, and by 1895, upwards of 300 lepers were being cared for, to their own comfort and to the safety of the public. CHAPTER XV 1899-1903 — (continued) THE work of Christian missions in Central India suffered a severe loss by the death, in July, 1902, at an early age, of the Rev. Norman Russell, a devoted worker of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. Premature as appeared his removal from a sphere in which his services were at once so successful and so sorely needed, it did not occur until he had initiated a movement for the relief of the many destitute lepers of the Gwalior State and the neighbouring districts. Gifted as he was, with an eye to see, and a pen to depict, the sufferings of these stricken outcasts, I will quote his graphic description of the condition of the lepers of Central India : — " Bent, decrepit, and diseased, with haggard, pain-worn faces, and clothed in miserable rags, some crawling on hands and knees, some staggering along on crutches which they are hardly able to hold, they are to be seen on every crowded thoroughfare, at the gates of the temples or on the market-place of all our larger cities in Central India. " With their fatalistic ideas, and the doctrine of trans- migration, the Hindus regard the leper as suffering the just result of his sin, either in this life or in some previous existence, and so no hand is outstretched to help him. There, as elsewhere, he is an outcast, a wandering beggar without food or shelter. At times they are employed as watchmen over the fruit in the fields, but for the most part their disease forbids all manual labour, and they are thrown on the cold charity of unfeeling India. UQ "THE CHRIST TREATMENT" iii " In the city of Ujjain (Central India) where they con- gregate in such large numbers on account of its being a holy city, their haunts are the shallow alcoves down by the river-side, through whose unprotected openings the damp mist pours in during the rainy season, and on whose inhospitable floors, with nothing to cover them but their thin cotton rags, they have to spend the long nights in the cold season. " Like the peoples of the East, science and medical skill have abandoned the problem of leprosy to the incurable and impossible, and no hand is stretched out to save them but that of Christ. He, though a Jew, with all the Jew's horror of the ceremonially unclean, did not hesitate to put forth His hand to touch them and heal. And so it is to-day ; the only heart that beats in sympathy with the leper is that of the follower of Christ. We may not be able to cure them, but we can lighten their sufferings, make life brighter, and bring them hope and joy for the life to come. We can gather them into com- fortable homes, and surround them with the Christ-life ; we can segregate and save their children ; we can do with them as Christ did, and thus only shall the leper problem be solved. " And what the lepers want is Jesus Christ and the Christ treatment — something of love and kindness, some- one to care for them and bring them relief. There seems a peculiar hunger on the part of these poor souls for the Christian Gospel and a readiness to receive it that is almost phenomenal. In two of our stations something has been done for them. Especially at Ujjain, they have been helped at the Mission hospital with food and clothing, and taught daily in the Word of God. " There are in Central India probably 5,000 lepers without a single place of refuge ; they are still using the alcoves or sleeping out on the stones. The plan of the 112 LETERS, 1899—1903 Mission to Lepers is too well known to require me to advocate the advantages of segregating these people and their children. Nothing could be more ideal for the purpose than the neat and inexpensive leper hospitals erected in many parts of India by this Mission." In response to this touching plea steps were taken by the Committee of the Mission in conjunction with the local missionaries. The Government of the Gwalior State, under its enlightened ruler, the Maharajah Scindia, was in entire sympathy with the proposal to provide an asylum for the homeless lepers of the district, even to the extent of promising the land for a site and funds for the erection of the buildings. Dhar, in Central India, may be regarded as a sister Station to Ujjain. Work was commenced in 1903 as a memorial to Mrs. Henderson, late of Toronto, whose hus- band, Mr. William Henderson, rendered valuable service to the Mission to Lepers as Honorary Treasurer for North America. Not alone by speech, but still more by pen (in the pages of his magazine. The Faithful Witness) did Mr. Henderson for many years plead the cause of the lepers. In this service he was ably seconded by his wife, whose decease was sincerely regretted by a large circle of friends. To Raipur, the attention of the Mission was first directed in 1898 by the discovery, in one of the Govern- ment Famine Shelters, of no fewer than 167 lepers and about forty untainted children, all crowded together, to the imminent peril of the latter. As may readily be be- lieved, the Committee hesitated to become solely respon- sible for so serious an undertaking, urgent as they recog- nised the need to be. They were, all through the five years under notice, adding on the average five new stations annually to their already lengthy list. They decided to make an annual grant, on the understanding that this was TWENTY CHILD-LEPERS 113 largely supplemented by local funds, and that entire liberty was given for Christian teaching in the proposed Asylum. A Committee was accordingly formed at Raipur, suitable buildings secured, and this large company of homeless people, instead of being turned adrift, were given shelter, food, and kindly care. The Mission to Lepers has continued to afford substantial help towards the support of the lepers, in addition to providing for regular Christian teaching. That this Asylum supplies a pressing need is clear from the fact that the census of i8gi gave the number of lepers in the Raipur zila as S,ooo, a truly appalling total for one district. When I saw the inmates of the Asylum in igoo^ I was shocked at the large proportion of leper children among them, twenty at least, whose young lives were already blighted by leprosy. The dietary of the inmates I found to consist of two meals a day, usually of dhal and rice, with a vegetable and a little oil. Such as were not too disabled found useful occupation in cultivating the little gardens, in which both flowers and vegetables were flourishing. Also in the Central Provinces, and less than forty miles south of Raipur, another focus of leprosy was found at Dhamtari. In a few wretched huts, a colony of these outcasts had for years lived by levying an unwilling tax on passers-by. When famine desolated the district in igoo, a kitchen was opened for their relief. After the scarcity had passed, the kitchen became a temporary Asylum, under the care of the American Mennonite Mission. At this juncture, Mr. Ressler, of that Society, laid the case before the Mission to Lepers, who were once again enabled to respond with substantial help. The local authorities, represented by the Malgazar willingly co-operated. A suitable site was presented to the Mission, and subsequently enlarged to provide for 114 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 extension. The result of these united efforts was soon seen in a well-built permanent institution for the lepers of Dhamtari. The whole property is now vested in the Mission to Lepers, who are responsible for the mainten- ance of the work. Surely in such co-operation as this is to be found the solution of India's leper problem. The Dhamtari lepers are neither idle nor miserable. We hear of a beautiful banana grove tended entirely by them. Also of some being willingly and busily engaged in the fields attached to the Asylum. These are sown with rice and other crops, thus affording both food and occupation — we might almost say recreation — for them. Those too maimed or feeble for field work find employ- ment in attending to the gardens and keeping the houses and wards clean and tidy. They even manage to secure a few simple luxuries, with which to supplement their daily allowance, by the sale of eggs from the chickens they keep. From the point of view alike of the authorities and of the missionaries this work is full of encouragement. But what of those most concerned — the lepers themselves? How shall we adequately describe the contrast between the life of a sheltered, comforted, Christian inmate of such a home, and that of a destitute outcast, branded as unclean, cowering under the wrath of his gods, and with a foul malady relentlessly sapping away his life ? Much might be written of the physical, social, and moral results of this work, but the full story of all that it means to the leper can only be told by the leper himself. Even as the sorrow of his lot is immeasurable and un- equalled, so it is only in contrast to this that his joy can be fully realised. " I often wonder if it is the same life," said a Christian leper as she thought of the past days of wandering and persecution, and it is beyond question that these sufferers find in the security of these kindly SELF-HELP IIS conducted Asylums a life of happiness of which they had long abandoned all hope. The lepers of Dhamtari, nearly all of whom have em- braced Christianity, show a praiseworthy spirit of self- help. They had been feeling keenly the need of a simple place of worship. They are, like the missionaries who have laboured so devotedly among them, content with simple things, and their conception of a " church " is a building with open sides — not much more, indeed, than a roof to shelter them from sun or rain. It was suggested that, instead of appealing to the Mission, they should endeavour to provide their own church. They responded to the idea readily, and contributed first the price of the rice they had grown. This they supplemented by other small gifts as they were able, and when to their own offerings were added those of the native Christians and some of the shopkeepers, their hopes rose high, and they commenced to dig the foundations ! At Champa, in the same part of the Central Provinces, the Rev. P. A. Penner (Mennonite Mission, General Con- ference, N. America) had his sympathy awakened by the pitiful condition of several lepers who appealed to him for help. On his own responsibility, and with the assistance of friends in America and Russia, a small temporary refuge was opened. Subsequently a site was granted by the local Tahsildar and a permanent Asylum erected. The Mission to Lepers has undertaken the maintenance of the Institution, and the property is vested in them — the work being superintended on their behalf by Mr. Penner. CHAPTER XVI 1899-1903 — (continued) BANKURA, in Bengal, is a town of 30,000 inhabitants, and the centre of a district with a population of 1,300,000, among whom is a large percentage of lepers. The establishment of an Asylum affords an instance in which the Mission to Lepers not merely co- operated with the authorities, but anticipated them in supplying a need which they were admittedly unable to meet. About the time that the Rev. F. W. Ambery Smith (of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society) was add- ressing his first appeal to the Mission to Lepers on behalf of the outcasts of Bankura, the writer of this history was conferring with the then Lieut. -Governor of Bengal (Sir J. Woodburn) as to the work of the Society in the Presidency. Sir John had visited the Asylum of the Mission at PuruHa, and had borne grateful testimony to the value of the work done there. He was gratified to learn that Purulia, though the largest, was only one of five such institutions owned and supported by the Mission to Lepers in Bengal and, up to that time, entirely without Government aid. On being informed that we were con- sidering the case of Bankura, His Honour frankly admitted that on his recent visit to that town the need of an Asylum had been pressed on him by the Municipality. To his regret, however, the proposal could not be entertained, owing to the depletion of the exchequer through famine and other causes. And therefore, so far as concerned the Government, the lepers of that large district must remain 116 A GOOD INVESTMENT 117 homeless. But to the missionary who looked with pitying eye on their needs, as well as to the committee at home and to their willing helpers, the lepers of Bankura were not merely a public nuisance or a perplexing problem, — they were members of the great human family, with souls to be redeemed, and bodies to be fed and clothed. So Mr. Smith pressed his plea, the Society printed it, a generous lady at Brighton (Mrs. Bryan) responded by a gift of £500, and the Bankura Leper Asylum was built. In his letter of appeal Mr. Smith had said : " If people at home could but see the terrible sights that we are looking upon every day in this place, there would be no difficulty in raising the money. I have never seen worse cases than some of those we have here." On July 26th, 1902, the new buildings were formally opened, the ceremony being attended by the principal officials and most of the influential natives. Shortly before her decease the donor of the asylum added to her previous benefactions a gift of £300 for the erection of a church for the Christian lepers, who, through her benevolence, had obtained both bodily shelter and spiritual blessing. " I have had ample interest on my money," said this generous friend, when shown the photograph of the first lepers who had received baptism in her asylum. At Bankura, as elsewhere, the pitiable sight was often to be seen of little children in the arms of leprous mothers, as they sought refuge in the asylum, or wandered with their diseased parents from place to place in search of food. The peril of these helpless little ones led to an appeal for a Home in which they could be shielded from the disease and prepared for useful lives. To this plea it was the privilege of the writer and his wife to respond, and a home for the untainted children was erected as a memorial to their only and dearly -loved little daughter, who was taken ii8 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 from them at the age of six and a-half years. So there stands by the side of the Bryan Asylum for Lepers a home for their heaUhy children, bearing the inscrip- tion : — The Edith Home. A Memorial AND A Thank-offering. From Salur, in the Vizagapatam district of the Madras Presidency, an urgent petition on behalf of the lepers came from the Rev. P. Schulze, of the Schleswig-Holstein Evangelical Lutheran Mission. The lepers were found to be so numerous in Salur and the surrounding villages that their needs could no longer be ignored. As many as 400 were, it was estimated, to be found in the town itself, while within a radius of forty miles the missionary ventured to state the total at some thousands. Tem- porary shelter and relief were afforded and Christian work commenced. Progress was slow owing to the enforced absence of Mr. Schulze, but soon after his return, a number of these despised and rejected people were happily sheltered in a home of their own. In common with almost all workers among the lepers, Mr. Schulze finds his sympathy for them, and for his work among them, increase. " They are," he says, " just like little children, and so much more grateful than other Hindus." The Salur asylum is the only one for a very large area, and has already become an important centre of leper work. Muzaffarpur is a town of some 70,000 people in Tirhoot, Bengal, and that it is a distinctly leprous centre is clear from the census figures, which give 1,294 S-S the number of cases for that and the adjoining district of Dharbanga. ASAPH OF URIKEL 119 Long before the plea of the Muzaffarpur lepers was pre- sented to the committee by the Rev. F. Hahn, of Purulia, their sad condition had moved the pity of the missionaries of Gossner's Evangelical Lutheran Mission, and, inci- dentally, a striking example of self-sacrificing effort is afforded by the ministry of Dr. Ribbentrop, who carried on a quiet work among them for several years. This good man dressed the sores of the lepers with his own hands (though his doctor's degree was not that of medicine but of philosophy), mended their clothes, and even carried them to their graves. No wonder they regarded him as a saint, and scarcely stopped short of worshipping him, and it is practically certain that, had he only died among them, his grave would have become a shrine, so deep was their gratitude and affection for him. Subsequently the work, suspended for some years, was resumed by the Rev. H. Roterberg. By means of a grant from the Mission some temporary houses were put up, pending the erection of a permanent asylum. From Govindpur, Bengal, came a modest, but quite irresistible, appeal for funds, with which to supply food and other comforts to a few lepers in their own houses — cases which through inability to travel, or for other causes, could not be sent to the asylums at Lohardaga or Purulia. The missionary writes of one of them, who rejoices in the patriarchal name of Asaph of Urikel, that, though his physical state is terrible in the extreme, he is always rejoicing in Christ and full of praise. Of his arms and feet only stumps are left, yet the missionary testifies that every visit he pays to Asaph is to himself a spiritual uplift and a stimulus to his faith. Of Johan, another of these sufferers hidden away in their Bengali village, we learn that he had been the means of winning two families to Christ, and has, in consequence, incurred the wrath of the village owner, and is in danger of being evicted, 120 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 together with his fellow-Christians. Of yet another we read that his whole body was one large wound, and that he was totally deserted save by the missionary and his helpers. And to afford solace and help to suffering such as this, the plea is for a grant of £3 12s. ! How cheap is the luxury of doing good ! Burma was also to benefit by the remarkable expansion of the Society's work during this period. The story of how many of Mandalay's outcasts were gathered in has already been told. Now, at last, after long waiting, the time had come for the lepers of Lower Burma, or for that part of it for which Maulmain is central, to be cared for. In i8g8 a public appeal was issued, the first name appended to it being that of the Deputy-Commissioner of the District, who was also President of the Municipal Committee. The five remaining signatures were those of American and English missionaries. Local contributions were supplemented by a grant of ;^200 from the Mission to Lepers, half of which was for the erection of a chapel, and so a comfortable and permanent home was provided for the lepers of Maulmain. The site selected provided for gardens, in which the inmates grow their own rice and vegetables, as well as for future extension of the Asylum. " I can't shtep out, Sahib, I have no feet." Such was the pathetic reply of a fine old soldier, a Sikh of the Punjab, when the Rev. E. Guilford, who was my guide through the Tarn Taran Leper Village, gave him the word of command. He still wore the rags of his old uniform, and the promptness with which he straightened himself at the challenge betrayed the soldier. " Attention ! Present arms ! " and the necessary movements were gone through with surprising briskness. But when, after the manner of the Native Sergeant, the command to " Shtep out " was given, a cloud came over the still handsome face, and sadly came the response, " I can't shtep out, A NEW ASYLUM FOR TARN TARAN 121 Sahib, I have no feet." It was true. The once stalwart soldier of the Empire was now a poor maimed leper, and the feet that had marched so many miles were now stumps upon which he could scarcely limp from one end of the leper village to the other. A contrast in every respect to the Sikh warrior, save that both were stricken with the same ghastly disease, was a short, sturdy Gurkha, who also retained some traces of his military training. As he sat, with his little son by his side, during the short address that Mr. Guilford interpreted for me, he listened with an eagerness that prepared me to learn that he was a member of the church of seventy Christians, which is the present result of the teaching given for twenty years under Mr. Guilford's supervision, and to which reference has already been made. Side by side with this effort to shed the light of the Gospel into this abode of suffering, an attempt was made to remove some of the children of the lepers from an environment fatal alike to their moral and physical wel- fare. This attempt has happily been crowned with success, and to-day there are many healthy young men and women filling creditable positions in life who are trophies of this rescue work. But the great event to be recorded here in connection with the lepers of Tarn Taran is the transformation effected in their condition by the provision of a new and comfortable Asylum. This has re- placed the collection of hovels in which they had dragged out a wretched existence for so many years. I found them, in 1901, herded together in low, dark, unventilated mud-huts, parents and children sometimes crowded into one cramped room. These lepers formed a painful con- trast to the well-housed inmates of Institutions like those at Purulia or Bombay. Feeling strongly that determined efforts should be made to better their condition, I urged Mr. Guilford, on behalf of the Mission to Lepers, to open 122 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 negotiations with the Government. Approaches had been made to them some years before, at Mr. Wellesley Bailey's suggestion, but without result. This time, how- ever, the authorities proved highly sympathetic, and showed their appreciation of the Society's efforts by a contribution of ^2,000 towards the cost of a new Asylum, the Mission to Lepers agreeing on their part to provide £1,000 and to undertake the entire management of the Institution. The Government has further manifested its care for the lepers, and at the same time its coniidence in the Mission by a yearly subsidy for the maintenance of the occu- pants of what may be described as a beautiful Institution. The various stages in the evolution of their new Home were watched with eager hopes by the lepers. The first sod was turned by Mr. Guilford, the rain which was falling at the time being interpreted as a favourable omen. The lepers were made happy by a distribution of sweet- meats — a rare and much appreciated treat. But, when the foundation stone was actually laid, their delight was unbounded. The occasion was celebrated by a pro- cession through the village. Music and singing had a prominent place, and the day's festivities concluded with a grand feast, in which the lepers participated, and which they owed to the generosity of Sirdar Mela Singh, a Sikh gentleman of the locality. But these happy events were eclipsed by the culminating joy of the actual opening, which took place on April gth, 1904. This was quite a brilliant affair, regarded merely as a function, and was a most joyful event to the poor stricken people, who were now to exchange dark, damp huts for bright and airy houses. The opening ceremony was presided over by the Lieut. - Governor of the Punjab, Sir Charles Rivaz, K.C.S.I., who recalled a former visit to the lepers of Tarn Taran, when he found them in mean and dilapidated huts, over- crowded, and suffering from want of proper supervision. "FROM HELL TO HEAVEN" 123 He expressed the pleasure it was to him to carry out the transfer of the whole village to the Mission to Lepers as represented by Mr. Guilford, of whom His Honour spoke in the highest terms as " an old friend to the lepers, who might be safely trusted to do all that zeal and sympathy could effect to brighten their lives." The improvement already effected in their condition can best be indicated by their own words. Often since the opening they have said: " You have transported us from hell to heaven." The conversion of the old, squalid, leper colony into a cheerful and healthy Institution may be said to have been com- pleted by the opening of the new church by the Bishop of Lahore. He was himself profoundly impressed with the transformation wrought in the entire place, and spoke in terms of special praise of the airy and well-planned church which he dedicated to the worship of Him Who cleansed the lepers of old, and whose servants are, so far as in them lies, following in His steps in comforting and caring for the out- casts of the twentieth century as He did for those of the first. Once again we must note the deep impression made on the minds of the non-Christian natives of the district by this practical presentation of Christianity. Though the Mohammedans, Sikhs, and Hindus had for generations allowed their afflicted fellow-countrymen to live in want, to die in misery, and to be buried by the scavengers, the energetic measures taken by Christian Missions to care for them compelled their admiration and their spmpathy. In not a few instances their approval assumed a very practical shape. A Mohammedan gentleman contributed close upon ^^200, and promised £6 los. annually for clothing for the lepers. A local land-owner gave a valuable horse for sale on behalf of the funds. Of still more interest was the gift of the Sikhs of the Golden Temple at Amritsar, whose principal officer appeared on the morning of the opening with their gift of £33 6s. 8d. CHAPTER XVII 1899-1903 — {continued) " TTHIS is the fourth leper who has been burnt alive I during this last year in Laguboti alone." This ' terrible sentence is not quoted from a history of the dark ages. The year referred to is the year 1899 of the Christian era, and Laguboti is a district in the Island of Sumatra, under the rule of the amiable young Queen of Holland. It was the knowledge that such hideous bar- barity was being perpetrated within five minutes of her own house, that induced a missionary of the Rhenish Missionary Society to appeal to the Leper Mission for aid. We have already referred to a leper woman whom she visited regularly, until one day she found only the burnt trees that marked the place where her hut had been. Two days prior to this, a man whose only crime was that of leprosy, had been brutally done to death in the same fashion, being, in fact, thrust back into the flames as he made frantic efforts to escape. " Indeed," writes a missionary, " anyone burning them in their huts boasts of it, as if he had killed a tiger, for they are no longer considered human beings." Ghastly as all this is, it was still worse in days not long past when the chiefs of the village would gather all the lepers together and dis- pose of them by this barbarous method. The murderers were even proud of their deed, and the authorities declared that they were powerless to punish them, as the burning of lepers was a time-honoured custom of the people. A BRIGHT SPOT IN SUMATRA 125 Happily, brighter days were dawning for these per- secuted outcasts, and by co-operation between the Mission to Lepers and the Rhenish Missionary Society a comfort- able Asylum bearing the appropriate name of Huta Salem (" the village of peace ") was opened about a year after the terrible sufferings of the lepers were first brought to light. It should be stated that not only has the Rhenish Society taken up the work most warmly, but the Dutch Government has shown a very sympathetic spirit in the matter. The actual opening of the new Asylum was a day of great rejoicing to the lepers, of whom twenty-eight gladly entered into occupation of the new quarters that afforded so vivid a contrast to the wretched huts from which they had come. Even during the opening ceremony, a loud wailing was heard outside the walls. It proceeded from the relatives of a chief who had become a leper, and who was being mourned for as if already dead. The cultivation of the grounds of the institution, as well as of their own little gardens, is a source of perpetual interest, and of healthful occupation. We hear of a hundred trees being planted, and of roses and other flowers being grown. The lepers dug for themselves a fish-pond, so that they might have both fish and ducks. They are favoured with fertile soil ; and bananas, pine- apples, and various kinds of vegetables grow freely. Not a few of them, however, are too helpless for even the simplest kind of labour. The village is rapidly becoming one of the bright spots of Sumatra. With its well-built, white-washed houses; roads made by leper labour, a water-way running through the large and well-cultivated grounds, and providing a bathing-place for the lepers, the whole is crowned by the Church. This stands in a central position on a hill, and fitly symbolises the faith and love which have created this 126 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 abode of peace for those to whom peace and hope were alike unknown. Evidence of the genuine change wrought in the Hves of the inmates is afforded by the peaceful spirit that prevails among them, and by their kindness to one another. The more intelligent of the younger lepers are instructed in the dressing of wounds, in which they spend from one to two hours daily. They undertake this labour of love with praiseworthy eagerness, and show a touching readi- ness to bind up sores of the most repulsive character. Mention must be made of Johane, who is looked upon as a very gift of God to the village. She came there a forlorn, heathen leper, without God and without hope. She proved to be unusually intelligent, and received the Good News as the thirsty ground drinks in the rain. She is now, in a sense, the chief of the community. She conducts prayers morning and evening, looks after the sick, and is esteemed by all. "It is (writes the mis- sionary) a joy to look into her bright, earnest face and to hear her encourage the girls to persevere in learning to read. ' Be at it, girls ; you will soon master it. The Word of God comforts the soul. ' " The last return gives the number of lepers resident in the village as 151. During the period now under review, some form of work was begun for the benefit of Chinese lepers in three centres, of which the most important was Canton. Early in igoi, the needs of the leper community of Canton were brought before the Society by the Rev. Andrew Beattie, of the American Presbyterian Mission. From his letter wt learn that just outside the east gate of that great city is a leper village with a population of nearly 1,000, which number includes untainted children and not a few non-leprous relatives. To each leper the Government gives a daily allowance of three cents, but as this is not nearly OUT OF WEAKNESS MADE STRONG 127 sufficient for the bare necessities of life, even if it all reached those for whom it is intended, it has to be augmented by begging. These wretched and forsaken people were outside all moral or ameliorative influences till 1898, when a know- ledge of Christianity was introduced among them in a manner which forcibly illustrates the possibilities of an apparently useless life. Un Ho, a poor Chinese girl, was a blind singer, virtually the slave of a woman who traded on her gift and her infirmity until illness compelled her to enter the Medical Mission Hospital. Here it was found necessary to amputate one of her legs, and before she left the Hospital it was discovered that she was a leper. Blind, one-legged — and a leper ! Surely nothing was left to such a maimed creature but to creep into a hole and die. And so she probably would have done had not a new hope and a new power come into her life, during those months in the Mission Hospital. Blind without, she had received sight within. Poor Un Ho had dis- covered her soul, and realised that the true life is the life of the spirit. Though the " outward man " was perishing, yet the "inward man " was so renewed that when she had, of necessity, to take up her abode with her fellow-sufferers in the leper village she at once began to share with them the new joy that had come into her life. Earnestly and faithfully she both lived and preached theGospel among this community of doomed beings. Nor was her labour in vain. Soon the missionaries found nearly thirty lepers with an intelligent knowledge of Christian truth, and they were baptised as the first-fruits of Un Ho's efforts and as the nucleus of a Church among the Canton lepers. Before long Un Ho and her companions felt their need of a chapel where they could worship, in place of the cramped little room in which they assembled at first. They proved their sincerity by themselves raising, with no 128 LEPERS, 1899—1903 little self-denial, £6 towards the purchase of a site. When this had been secured by the aid of missionaries and some Chinese Christians, they appealed to the Mission to Lepers for funds wherewith to build. To this appeal a favourable response was made, and soon a congregation of grateful Christian lepers were worshipping in their own airy and comfortable building. The opening services were most impressive, the chapel being crowded with 300 lepers and visitors, the latter being accommodated in a separate section provided for the purpose. Following the erection of the chapel, a catechist was appointed, and in 1904 we read of a large class of enquirers under instruction for baptism. It was imperative that an attempt should be made to rescue some of the untainted children from surroundings so fatal to their moral and material welfare. In his plea for help to build Homes and Schools for the children, Mr. Beattie says : " It is a painful sight to see a healthy child with a clean skin held in the arms of a mother full of leprous sores. Yet this is no uncommon sight in the village." The missionaries longed to rescue these help- less children, the lepers themselves were pleading for a separate Home for them, and a local charity had already contributed towards a fund for this purpose. The Mission to Lepers was glad to help in so hopeful an enterprise, and Home and School were duly opened. Accommodation is provided for fifty, who will be given industrial training in addition to ordinary instruction. A few weeks after the opening, Mr. Beattie reports the school in full work and the establishment of a class for the study of English, conducted, con amore, by a young Chinese Christian whose father is one of the city officials. Hokchiang, to the south of Foochow, was another of the Chinese stations opened during this period. Some seventy lepers were found in an isolated colony two miles n 4) EVER-OPEN DOORS 129 beyond the city walls. They were utterly neglected and in a state of semi-starvation, a considerable part of their scanty allowance being intercepted on its way by the officials. Rev. J. B. Carpenter, of the C.M.S., not only visited them frequently himself, but the Mission made him a grant for a catechist to work regularly among them. They proved appreciative listeners. In contrast with the average man, whom he found decidedly unresponsive, Mr. Carpenter speaks of these poor outcasts as listening with eagerness, and receiving the truth with manifest joy. In 1903, we read of seven of the men receiving baptism, and of several women fully prepared but holding back through timidity. The list of new stations opened during this, the Society's sixth quinquennial period, lengthy though it is, does not fully indicate the growth of the work. At many of the old Asylums there was a constant increase in the number of sufferers seeking relief, and seeking it not in vain. The Mission has always to the full extent of its ability acted upon the policy of the " open door." The result for the five years under review can best be given in the following figures : At the end At the end Increase in of 1898. of 1903. 5 jeai'S. Lepers and Children in the Society's own Asylums and Homes 1)603 3,519 i)9i6 Lepers and Children in Aided Institu- tions 1,879 3,823 1,944 Total 3,482 7,342 3,860 The work was thus more than doubled in this truly progressive period, a result for which all who sympathise with the Society's efforts will be profoundly grateful. To have accomplished as much during the past five, as during the first twenty-five, years of work is conclusive evidence K 130 LEtERS, 1899—1903 that the cry of the leper is reaching the ear of Christian England. For it must be remembered — though to name it is to state the obvious — that the open door abroad is the result of the open purse at home. Much of this grati- fying increase was due to the growth of the work at the Asylums established prior to 1898. To review all these stations in detail would be to repeat again a twice-told tale and to run the risk of wearying the reader. We shall therefore merely glean at random, a few facts and in- cidents illustrative of the steady development of the older stations during this period. An incident which denotes not only increased numbers receiving shelter and succour, but also abundant spiritual fruit, is the baptism, at Purulia, of 149 lepers on February I2th, 1899. This was not only an unparalleled event, but one full of significance. Without proselytising pressure, but spontaneously, these grateful souls gave expression to their faith in Christ. And let it not be thought this was a merely nominal acquiesence in the new teaching which was associated with the temporal boons they were enjoying. So large an addition to the Christians am.ong the lepers might well raise the question as to whether baptism meant more than a mere outward conformity to what they might regard as the wish of their benefactors. But, not only have the Christian lepers of Purulia given evidence in various ways of the sincerity of their faith, we have also the testimony of an experienced Missionary (of another Society) who confessed to previous misgivings, but gladly bore witness after he had visited them that he had never met a more satisfactory body of converts than the lepers of Purulia. And while the living stones were thus being built into the spiritual Church, the large leper congregation and their devoted pastor were rejoicing over the completion of their new building for worship. For years Mr. Uffmann had gathered his afflicted ONE WHO LOVED THE LEPERS 131 flock into a small, low-pitched building, which, when it was crowded to the doorways with lepers, was unhealthy to a dangerous degree. But early in 1900 he had the great joy of assembling them in a new, airy edifice with comfortable accommodation for 700 people, which, in view of the fact that a recent return gives the number of lepers and children as over 600, is certainly not too large. The opening of this new church was, in a sense, the crown and culmination of Mr. Uifmann's work among his beloved lepers. When at the close of the year 1900 I paid a visit to Purulia (a visit that will ever remain one of the memories of a life-time), it was evident that the devoted "Father" of the lepers was in sore need of rest. Accord- ingly, in the spring, he returned to Europe, in the hope that a period of furlough would enable him to resume his labour of love. But it was otherwise ordered. Worn out with thirty-five years of unsparing labour in the en- ervating climate of Bengal, he passed to his rest and his reward in the autumn of 1901, closing a life of rare devo- tion among the mountains of his German fatherland. He passed peacefully away on Sunday, the nth of August, at Bielfeld, and was buried there on the 14th. From 1886, for the remaining years of his life, the work for the lepers had the first place in Mr. Uifmann's affections. During that period, 1,487 lepers or their children had found home and sympathy in the institution he had been the means of founding. Of these, no fewer than 1,088 had been welcomed into the fellowship of the Christian Church by him. And this is in no mere formal or ceremo- nial sense. He taught them ; he tended them ; he laboured for them; above all, he prayed for them. One of the writer's most sacred memories is of overhearing this saintly man in the privacy of his own chamber wrestling with God in prayer for his lepers. Unappreciated, because unknown, save to the limited circle immediately interested 132 LET>ERS, 1899— 1903 in his work, this modern St. Francis lived, laboured, and died. But his work abides, and his most enduring monument is the noble institution at Purulia, which owes its existence to him. It should be added, as showing the essentially Christian character of the Asylum, that at the date of Mr. Uffmann's death, of the then inmates, 499 were Christians and eighty-four others were under instruction. The bereaved lepers of Purulia, and the Society at home, were alike fortunate in the appointment of the Rev. Ferdinand Hahn as successor to his old friend and colleague. Of a kindred spirit, and well qualified by long experience as Superintendent of an asylum at Lohardaga, Mr. Hahn's selection to fill so responsible a post was welcomed by the Committee of the Mission to Lepers as being in the best interests of the great undertaking for which they are res- ponsible. It is a pleasure to record here that Mr. Hahn proved in all respects worthy to follow his devoted predecessor. Under his capable and sympathetic control the work was maintained alike in spiritual power and practical efficiency. CHAPTER XVIII 1 899- 1 903 — {continued) THE principal reasons for so gratifying an increase in the beneficent work of the Mission are not far to seek. On the foreign side must be placed, first, the willingness of the missionaries to minister in their Master's name to these stricken and destitute outcasts. And that this Christ-like readiness to serve the most needy and helpless of mankind is common to the mis- sionaries of all evangelical bodies, is clear from the fact that the Mission enjoys the co-operation of workers repre- senting thirty denominations. It is fitting that a work so characteristic of Christianity should be international as well as interdenominational, and it is interesting to note that of the thirty societies participating in it under the auspices of the Mission, thirteen are British (including Canadian), twelve are American, and five are Continental. To the governing bodies of these societies, and to their workers, European, American, and native, the Committee of the Mission to Lepers would tender their grateful acknowledgment of the help that has made their large and growing work possible, and has enabled them to devote the greatest possible proportion of their funds to the immediate benefit of the lepers and their children. On the home side, the principal factor in the rapid development during the past ten years has been the increased generosity of the Christian public — inspired by fuller knowledge alike of the needs of the lepers and of the possibilities and results of work among them. But in 134 LEPERS, 1899—1903 both respects, how much yet remains to be done ? That the recital of successful work given in these pages may not encourage a complacent and mistaken optimism, it is needful to affirm that beyond all doubt for every single leper benefited by Christian or philanthropic agency in any form, there are at least fifty others unreached and unrelieved. And this applies to the most favoured lands — India, China, Japan, etc.— in which the seventy-eight stations of the Leper Mission are situated, and with which this history is primarily concerned. Surely the time has arrived when, alike on national and philanthropic grounds, some really adequate effort should be made to deal with the leper problem of our own India at least. Vast as is the number of these stricken and hopeless people, and dire as are their needs, it is happily no longer necessary to look helplessly on at their sufferings. The problem is solvable, and the facts related in this volume prove that it is. Evidence such as that afforded at Purulia, Chandkuri, Mandalay, and many other of the institutions created by private philanthropy, is unanswerable. It only remains for the governments of India to further extend the system of co-operation with the Mission in order to ensure to every destitute leper in that land a suitable home, with simple food and medical relief. Instances given in this book amply demonstrate the satisfactory results of such united effort, and those most competent to judge are fully con- vinced that it is only by this plan of mutual co-operation that the needs of the homeless lepers of India can be met. Experience has already shown — as witnessed by the testimony of high authorities already quoted — that mis- sionary management of leper asylums secures at once economy and efficiency. Moreover, it ensures sym- pathetic treatment of the lepers themselves, and the work recorded in these pages is valuable, not only in itself, but possibly still more, as a demonstration of what may THE L:G. AND THE LEPERS 135 be done by simple, practical, and kindly methods to heal " the open sore of India." Among many hopeful signs pointing to this most desirable consummation, a foremost place must be given to the recorded opinions of leading representatives of Government. The late Lieut.-Governor of Bengal (Sir A. H. L. Fraser, K.C.S.I., &c.), visited the Purulia Asylum soon after his accession to office. Accompanied by the Commissioner of the district and other officials, he made a most minute inspection of the whole institution. Before leaving he recorded his impressions in the visitors' book, " The work which is being done " (he wrote) " has my strongest commendation. This is the best leper asylum I have seen. Mr. Hahn and his coadjutors deserve my warmest thanks. They are doing work part of which is Government work ; and they are doing it more efficiently and more sympathetically than Govern- ment agency could hope to do. . . . My visit to the asylum and my detailed inspection of it have given me much pleasure." (The italics are ours). That Sir Andrew Eraser's sympathy with the lepers is deep and sincere, and is no mere formal recognition of a work which, as he has said, is partly Government work, was proved when a few years ago he spent a Sunday in Purulia. Mr, Hahn was gratified by an intimation that Sir Andrew, accompanied by Lady Fraser and his staff, would visit the Leper Asylum in the afternoon. On their arrival, they proceeded to the Church, which was crowded by the lepers and their children. As the visitors entered, the leper girls sang a verse of " God Save the King." The whole congregation then joined in singing their favourite hymn, beginning i — " What wonderful love, O Jesus, Hast Thou bestowed upon me ! " 136 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 His Honour then delivered an appropriate and sympathetic address to this strange but most attentive congregation, in which he said : — " We are glad to think that so much kindness is shown you, and that in this Asylum to which you have come there is so much that tends to diminish your sufferings and to ameliorate your condition. And we are even more glad to find, as we have seen this afternoon, that you have learned to sing with your lips and (as we believe of many of you) to sing also with gladness of heart the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ. ... I commend you to the love of Christ. I rejoice that in your suffering you have that love manifested to you in the teaching of His servants here among you, and in the deeds of kindness which they do to you in His name." " It is all very well when one is far away to write and say, ' Don't admit any more,' but when one looks into their faces and sees their terrible condition, it is another thing." In these words, written at Chandkuri in 1903, by Mrs. T. A. Bailey, we have the explanation of the rapid growth of that Institution. From the date of its foundation, a never-ceasing procession of weary sufferers sought refuge within its walls. At the beginning of igoo, Mr. Nottrott is pleading with the Committee for permission to welcome others beyond the 130 whose support had been sanctioned. That he did not plead in vain is clear from the fact that, in 1903, the Chandkuri Asylum was affording food and shelter to 429 lepers and ninety-two of their untainted children. Not only were many new houses for the lepers built during this period, but a sorely-needed church was erected, and opened with great rejoicings on September nth, 1903. That this was an absolute necessity I can personally testify. I retain a vivid recollection of services with the Chandkuri lepers in the old shed in which they formerly gathered for worship. The low, thatched roof, the earthen floor, the open sides which alone rendered the atmosphere PROGRESS IN CHINA 137 endurable, and, above all, the packed audience of lepers in all stages of the disease, combined to make the plea for a new church irresistible. It was a pleasure to lay one of its foundation stones, and to learn two years later of its completion. From Mandalay we hear of an overcrowded Asylum and an ever-flowing stream of admissions. Building is in progress, and the lepers — sheltered, meanwhile, in temporary huts — watch with delighted interest the progress of their new dwellings. At Siao Kan (Hankow, China) also additional houses were found necessary to accommodate the outcasts who sought shelter as soon as the news spread that a Home had been prepared for them. Not alone were the lepers finally convinced that only their welfare was sought by the missionary, but the community generally began to recognise the benefit to them of the segregation of these distressed people. Soon, therefore, opposition and mistrust gave place to sympathy and help — help, more- over, of the most valuable and practical kind. Dr. Fowler, who has spared no effort to benefit the lepers of the district, was much concerned at the difficulty of procuring additional land needed for the enlargement of the Asylum. On returning to Siao Kan after a few weeks' absence, however, he was gratified to learn that the leading citizens of the place had combined to purchase a site entirely suitable for the purpose. Accompanied by the mandarin, they attended at the Asylum in order to make a public presentation to the Mission of this valuable piece of land. In an address they expressed their appreciation of the work of Dr. Fowler, not only in the Leper Asylum, but in the Medical Mission Hospital. Some interesting glimpses of life in a Chinese leper settlement are afforded us by the Rev. W. C. White, who describes the Lo Ngwong leper colony as being in a 138 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 picturesque spot on the top of a hill a mile distant from the north gate of the city. It was founded 120 years ago by a literary man who became a leper, and took up his abode on the spot. His descendants, only one-fifth of whom are lepers, still occupy houses apart from the main settlement, being unable to escape from the stigma that attaches to their family. Help from the local mandarin is limited to an allowance equal to one shilling a month, which it is needless to say, has to be supplemented by begging. All food received in alms is shared in common, but this does not apply to money gifts. These brief notes of extension at some of the Society's older stations must suffice, but it should be understood that they are merely illustrative, and not exhaustive. It is indeed unnecessary at this stage to reaffirm that the normal state of this work is one of steady advance. It has ever been the aim of the Mission to Lepers to keep first things first. Both the Committee at home and the workers abroad have rejoiced to afford shelter, food, and every temporal good it was in their power to bestow to the destitute sufferers for whom they laboured. But to do this was only a part, and that not the highest part, of their purpose. They have ever regarded the lepers as possessing, not merely bodies to be relieved, but souls to be redeemed, and their work as having for its ultimate aim the spiritual regeneration of these outcast people. The reader will long ago have learned how much cause they have for thankfulness in this respect. And this not merely on account of the large number of lepers offering themselves for baptism, which indeed is, in itself, no proof of the possession of the new life. There are other, and more reliable, evidences of the vital power of the Gospel among the inmates of our Christian Asylums, and we will proceed to note a few of them. The spirit both of prayer and of self-denial was shown E o a OUT OF THEIR POVERTY 139 by the Christian lepers of PuruHa during the last famine in India. For some time prior to the famine, they had felt the need of two small prayer-rooms, one each for the men's and the women's quarters, into which a few of them could gather for prayer at any time in addition to the stated services in the church. Knowing the strain on the Society's funds, these lepers, with an allowance of two- pence per day for the purchase of food, etc., resolved to raise, by their own self-denial, the sum required for their prayer-rooms. They had slowly accumulated about £3 of the needed amount when the tidings of famine in distant districts reached them. Moved by pity for those perishing for want of food, the lepers waited on the missionary one day, bringing with them the little fund they had collected towards their prayer-rooms. "Sahib," they said, "we have heard of the poor people dying of famine, and we wish you to take this money and send it to buy food for them." Fasting and prayer were linked in a practical fashion by the Almora lepers, also in connection with the famine, which was devastating distant parts of India — though unknown in their own district. Moved by sym- pathy for the starving, the leper congregation, at the close of the service one Sunday informed the missionary that they wished to observe the following Tuesday as a day of fasting, — on behalf of the famine-stricken people far away. Accordingly on the morning appointed, instead of gather- ing at the food store for their daily supply, they assembled in the chapel of the Asylum. Fervent thanksgivings for their own blessings were offered, accompanied by earnest prayers that their act of self-denial might be .accepted, and their gifts used to relieve a few of those perishing with hunger. The Purulia lepers, whose gift to the Famine Fund we have recorded, were not backward with their thank-offer- ings for the Bible Society. On the day appointed as 14° LEPERS, 1899 — 1903 Bible Sunday their collection amounted to thirty-five rupees. Sometime afterwards Mr. C. Douglas Green, one of the Bible Society's secretaries in India, arranged to visit the asylum and speak in the leper church. To their great disappointment he was unable to keep the engage- ment, but the gifts the lepers had prepared for the collec- tion were reserved until a later date, when Mr. Green was able to be present. On this occasion the sum was con- siderably increased, with the gratifying result that the total offering of the lepers of Purulia to the Bible Society amounted to ^^4 7s. 6d. The willingness of the lepers to deny themselves in order to circulate the Bible is the expression of their own love for it. That they both value and study the Scrip- tures is proved by one surprising, and most encouraging, fact. In the report for 1903 of the Bible examinations in the Sunday Schools of India, of the nine candidates who took first places with full marks, in the Oral Division for Seniors, seven were lepers, and all seven inmates of the Sabathu Asylum. Very strikingly did the converted lepers of Purulia mani- fest their prayerfulness and their gratitude, on the occasion of the illness and recovery of their late missionary, Mr. Uffmann. For more than a fortnight he lingered between life and death. Daily, his afflicted flock offered up prayer for his restoration. Daily, some came limping down from the asylum for tidings of his progress. On the first morning that he was able to join his family at breakfast, they sent the caretaker with a letter of greeting and gratitude. Having handed Mr. Uffmann the letter, the messenger proceeded to extract three rolls of notes from his pockets. " This (he said) is from the lepers." It was their thank- offering, saved from the scanty allowance of twopence per day, and when counted amounted to no less than Rs. 150 — equal to ^fio sterling. They begged him to TAKING THE COLLECTION 141 accept it with their love, and to use it towards securing a rest and a change of air. It was a sweet reward for some of the labour of brain and body, as well as the travail of soul he had undergone on their behalf, and it was with moistened eyes and a thankful heart that this devoted friend of the lepers received the gift, towards which about 500 lepers had contributed. Sometimes the gifts of the lepers are in coin, and some- times in kind. I recall a service in the church of the Asansol Asylum, in which I was privileged to take part. My curiosity was aroused by a box which had been placed on the floor in the centre of the building. I further noticed that several of the congregation had small vessels by their sides. When the " collection " was announced, it was a pathetic sight to see one after another come up, not a few with halting steps, and pour their humble offerings of rice into the box. CHAPTER XIX 1899-1903 — (continued) MORE evidence than there is space for is available to show hov/ Christianity restores these outcasts to a healthy interest in life — like withered limbs made whole again. Even in so modern a movement as that of Christian Endeavour, the lepers are represented. At Sholapur it was felt that the formation of a C. E. Society might help the Christian lepers in their mutual relations, and especially in their efforts to benefit the others. Accord- ingly a branch was organised, with the usual officers, and in 1904 we find it reporting a membership of fifty-eight, with committees for various objects, including the visitation of the sick, attendance at services, and collections for missionary work. The suggestive name of " The Signpost Christian Endeavour Society " was selected after much anxious consideration. The reasons for this choice may be given in the words of the report as presented to the Hon. Secretary to the Indian C. E. Societies : " We were often very sad and down-hearted to think that be- cause of our diseased bodies we could not go about and work for Christ as^ others do. . . . We were told that the sign- post must stand quite still by the wayside ; yet, by the words written on it, it points the traveller to the right road and helps him on his way. So like the signpost, we are trying to stand patiently and with love in our appointed place, and by our attitude and prayers to help ourselves and others on towards the Saviour.'' At Canton, also, the Christian lepers have formed an Endeavour Society among themselves, with sixty-eight WELCOMING THEIR FRIENDS 143 members. Their meetings are described as being full of interest, and here, as elsewhere, the lepers try to live up to the title of the Society they are proud to be members of. Up to their ability, the leper Christians endeavour to serve God and to keep the " unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." The restored sense of human brotherhood which is im- parted to these erstwhile outcasts is manifested in many ways, and their gratitude expresses itself in varied forms. Frequently the return of the Missionary-Superintendent after an absence on furlough is an occasion of great re- joicing among the lepers. That Europeans, whom many of them almost regard as belonging to a higher order ot beings than themselves, should not merely give them food and shelter — they can conceive of a benevolent Parsee, or Hindu, doing that, perhaps — but should look on them with sympathy instead of repugnance, and should patiently tend and teach them, this is to them a continual marvel. Often, and, as we have seen, in ways that are quaint and pathetic, do they strive to show their appreciation. And the return to them, after long absences, of those whom they have learned to revere for their work's sake, is an opportunity of demonstrating their gratitude on no ac- count to be missed. Brief reference has already been made to the reception afforded to Mr. Hahn on his arrival at Purulia to assume control of that Asylum. The following is a short account of the " Welcome Home " given by the Mandalay lepers to their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bestall :— As the daylight of a November day was quickly fading into darkness, these friends of the lepers — together with the Rev. A. Woodward, who had been filling Mr. Bestall's place during his absence — drove out of the city to the " Home for Lepers," as the Mission's Asylum at Mandalay is appropriately named. As they approached 144 LEi'ERS, 1899—1903 the entrance they found the roadway lined with lepers, many with maimed limbs, and faces scarred but smiling, and all dressed in their best, to do honour to those who had done so much to transform their lives. Here they sat at the gates of their own Home, clothed, cared for, and happy, in joyful contrast to the days when they had cowered in hopeless misery on the steps of Mandalay's pagodas. "Salaam" was shouted as with one voice, and then the band struck up and added its noise, if not its music, to the jubilant din. As the party proceeded along the neatly laid out paths of the Asylum grounds, it became evident that preparations for a general illumination had been made. Paper lanterns of many hues were only waiting for darkness to brighten the scene by their brilliant colours. The decorations — all, be it remembered, the work of the lepers — reached their climax in the tem- porary reception room, or festal booth, fitted up for the accommodation of the missionaries and a few European friends. Then came the turn of old Sayah Ho, the leper preacher. With ill-concealed pride, he read the address of welcome, a superior copy of which lay near by, carefully wrapped in a bamboo tube with gilt ends. In their desire to make their address really expressive of their appre- ciation, not only of the work of the missionaries, but of the Government under which they enjoyed such privileges, they had enlisted the services of the " official translator " to compose it. This he had done in his best Oriental style, and had made liberal use of the celestial bodies, to illustrate the terrestrial benefits secured to the sufferers by Christian philanthropy. It was not without real emotion that the missionary rose to reply. As he looked on these well-clad lepers with smiling faces, his memory went back to the day when he gathered in the first few from the temple steps, where they lay rotting, and almost dying. And when, in response to his challenge, eighty hands LOYAL LEPERS 145 went up to indicate their faith in the Saviour, he felt that his work had been well repaid. Intense interest was felt by the Almora lepers in the illness and subsequent coronation of their Emperor. As their grief at the death of the Empress Victoria had been unutterable, so their anxiety concerning the illness of King Edward was very deep and real. It found its principal expression in prayer. United petitions were offered for His Majesty's recovery, and when the tidings that came of the successful operation were followed by further favourable reports, they arranged a day for praise and thanksgiving. Clad in clean white clothes, and with happy faces, these helpless subjects of the Emperor gathered in their little church for singing and prayer — prayer that God would grant the King a long life and a prosperous reign. At the close of a long service, of which singing was the main feature, the lepers cried with all the vigour they could command, " God save the King ! " and it may be doubted whether, in all his wide dominions, any more loyal hearts invoked the Divine blessing on King Edward than those of the lepers of Almora. The death of their devoted friend, Mr. Bulloch, which took place at Almora on December ist, 1905, plunged the lepers of that Asylum into deep grief. While suc- cessful in the general work of a missionary, he was specially so in his service among the inmates of the Asylum. His sympathetic spirit and his kindly manner called out the affection of these sufferers among whom he laboured for many years. Among the many agencies for the preservation and improvement of child-life in our time, it may be doubted whether any are more eminently satisfactory in their results than that of rescuing the untainted children of lepers. Though some allusion has already been made to this department of the Society's work, its L 146 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 importance justifies further reference. High authorities have been quoted in support of the view that leprosy is not hereditary, and it is this beHef, which experience has so amply confirmed, that gives to these efforts an excep- tional interest. In saving the children we are, in no small degree, drying up the foul stream of leprosy at its source. In removing these helpless little ones from the perilous environment of the leper colony, and from contact with their diseased parents, we are rescuing from the risk of contagion those most liable to it. Enlightened British rule has long since suppressed infanticide in India, and yet we still permit thousands of unprotected children to wander at large with their destitute and leprous parents. Even among the countless millions of Eastern lands, where human life, and especially child-life, is counted so cheap, no more pitiable spectacle can be seen than healthy and unsuspecting infants fondled in the arms of foul disease. Scarcely less pathetic is it to see as many as twenty, forty, even eighty children congre- gated together who have been already stricken with this ' loathsome and lifelong malady. Nor is it only imminent physical peril from which these helpless children demand rescue. Common morality is almost necessarily an un- known element in the life of homeless and outcast lepers. Moreover, to the child of the leper, notably in China and Japan, a social stigma attaches which passes from genera- tion to generation. Thus not only the sins, but also the misfortunes of the fathers, are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation. And yet it is in the power of Christian philanthropy to arrest the operation of this iron law, and this at a cost which, regarded in the light of the end achieved, is surely a trifling one. The boys and girls safely sheltered in the Homes of the Mission to Lepers in India are fed, clothed and educated REDEEMED LIVES 147 at an average cost of £/[ each per annum — the amount for the maintenance of an adult being £5. It has been claimed that the facts set forth in this book demonstrate the practicability of segregating, at least, all the worst cases among Indian lepers. It may be still more confidently affirmed that the results of twenty-five years' efforts to rescue their offspring while still untainted, prove the possibility of saving the children of Indian lepers from the lives of suffering and misery to which their parents are condemned. This work is at once positive and preventive. It not merely rescues young lives from a fate too ghastly to contemplate, but it saves them for lives of real usefulness. From the Children's Home of the Mission at Tarn Taran have gone forth many young men and women as teachers, artisans and nurses. At the Purulia Institution, ten or twelve efficient members of the Asylum staff are rescued children of lepers, who, together with their little ones of the next generation, are free from the taint. Others, now in the Children's Home, are being syste- matically trained for the work of compounders, caretakers, and catechists, and there is reason to hope that before long a supply of satisfactory workers not only for this, but for other Asylums will be forthcoming from among the children of the lepers — a striking instance of the utilisation of lives that must otherwise, in all probability, have become worthless wrecks. Among the home departments of the work during this closing period, the formation of the Helpers' Guild deserves mention. This was established in 1899, with the object of banding together the boys and girls of the home-lands on behalf especially, though not exclusively, of the children of the lepers. The Guild has proved of real service in directing and extending the interest of young people in a, work which appeals strongly to their 148 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 sj'mpathies, and substantial results have already accrued, results which we believe will be largely exceeded in the future. " Workers Together," the little quarterly paper of the Guild, was for several years ably edited by Miss Maud Battersby. This, however, was only one of many labours of love in which Miss Battersby engaged on behalf of the lepers — labours which merit the cordial recognition they here receive. Alike by tongue and pen, she has effectually pleaded the cause of these sufferers while busily engaged in other forms of active service. Another of Ireland's many gifts to the Mission to Lepers is Mr. Alfred T. Barber, who was appointed Organising and Deputation Secretary in Ireland in the year 1899. One object of the Committee in securing the services of Mr. Barber was to relieve their devoted Hon. Secretary, Miss C. E. Pim, whose failing health was the cause of sincere regret to all her host of friends. Mr. Barber's efficient services, though limited to his leisure time, have proved of great value in further developing Irish interest in the work of the Society. A much-needed step towards consolidating the interests of the Society was taken in 1900 by the formation of the Leper Mission Trust Association. This body, which consists of members of the Committee of the Society, has greatly facilitated the acquisition and holding of property abroad, and saves both trouble and expense by acting as a permanent trust for the various properties of the Mission. An Agency that has rendered substantial aid to the work among the lepers is the All Nations Missionary Union — known until 1903 as the Missionary Pence Asso- ciation. Having for its basal idea the modest contribution pleaded for by William Carey a century earlier — viz., one penny per week — the Association was formed in 1892. Its plan of small and systematic gifts has enabled AUXILIARY AGENCIES 149 thousands of the poor to help the still poorer. In " Without the Camp " for January, 1901, the indebted- ness of the Mission to Lepers to the Pence Association is thus acknowledged : " Our own Mission owes a very big debt of gratitude to the members of the A.N.M.U. for their kindly help during all these years. During 1900 this help reached a total of over .^1,500, a large portion of which was for famine relief." Up to December, igog, the sum of ^^8,064 igs. 6d. had been contributed by the All Nations Missionary Union to the funds of the Mission to Lepers. As its founder and still its Hon. Superintendent, the author may be pardoned for mentioning that this hand- maid to all Missions has, since its formation, collected about ^45,000 and has aided work in every part of the great mission field. To Miss Lyne, of Drayton Park, London, N., came the happy inspiration to found a depot for the sale of suitable articles on behalf of the lepers, and the Society is much indebted to her for ten years of voluntary service in this connection. Miss Lyne has not only set aside a room in her house, but has devoted much time and effort to the management of the depot, which, it is a pleasure to record, has rendered very substantial aid to the funds of the Society.* Occasional references will have shown the readers that the author of this volume has been able, to some extent, to write as an eye-witness of the work he has recorded. It was in the winter of 1900-1901 that I undertook a prolonged tour through India, during which the principal centres of the Society's work were visited. It was an ♦Readers willing either to contribute articles for sale, or to make purchases, are invited to communicate with Miss Lyne at 26, Drayt n Park, HoUoway, N. ISO LEPERS, 1899— 1903 experience that left a lifelong impression, not only as regards that land of inexhaustible interest, but especially with reference to the need for extended effort on behalf of its lepers. My conviction, that I should find in such work Christian philanthropy of the most genuine and successful character, was amply confirmed, and I returned more than ever an enthusiastic believer in the Mission to Lepers and its beneficent operations. It will assist the reader to realise the condition of the lepers, and the nature of the work, if I transcribe the following notes of nine consecutive cases received at the Ramachandrapuram Asylum. These notes were taken at the time of admission, and the cases are regarded as fairly representative : — MEN. N. P. — Face deformed, hands withered, fingers partly gone, one entirely gone : ulcers in feet and feet stiff, ulcers on arms. M. R. — Toes partly gone, numbness all over body, burning sensations, blotches, ulcers in hands. G. V. — Pain in upper extremities, numbness in lower, legs swollen, does not know when feet touch ground, burning not felt, blind. G. N. — Breaking out all over the body, legs swollen and twisted out of shape, ulcers on feet. K. S. — Whole body numb, blotches, face slightly deformed, hands stiffening. S. V. — Nose almost gone, several fingers partly gone. Toes partly gone, ulcers in feet, voice affected and hearing bad. WOMEN. B. T. — Numbness, two fingers partly gone, ulcers in feet, several toes gone, hands stiffening. K. V. — Face and ears badly deformed, muscles gone on arms so that the skin hangs loose, feet badly swollen. LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 151 If feet are burnt, will only know by the blisters that come ; nose bleeding. T. S. — Blotches, numbness, fingers stiff, difficult to grasp anything, ulcers on foot. y^ 7^ ^ 7^ ^ "You ought to have seen their bright faces when they saw their new iron cots, with a clean white sheet and a blanket on each." The " bright faces " were those of the lepers of Calicut, and the " white sheets " were the coverings of their beds in the new Asylum provided for them by the joint efforts of the Mission to Lepers and the Basel Missionary Society, and opened in October, 1903. The normal surroundings of most of the readers of this volume are cheerfulness, comfort, and cleanliness, and it requires some sympathy, and a little imagination, for them to realise the contrast between the provision and protection offered the leper in a Christian Asylum and the unmitigated misery of his lot as a wandering beggar. Let us continue the description, by an eye-witness, of the entry of these outcasts of the outcast into the new quarters in which they were once again to know the safety and security of a home : — "Each man soon had his belongings on his chosen bed, and seemed to be very happy and content. All the guests (at the opening ceremony) are full of praise of the beautiful site and comfortable Home. As we drove away we could see the first lights shining in their rooms, and hoped that this Home might be the means of bringing many of those poor sufferers to the true Light of the world, and that those who are Christians might shine among the others." The disfigured faces of these grateful lepers were beaming with happiness and contentment, because here at length they were sure of food by day and a bed by night, of protection from persecution and some alleviation of their sufferings — together with all the helpful ministries 152 LEPERS, 1899— 1903 of a Gospel of hope. We can only see the shining of the stars when the sun is absent. So to these from whose lives the sunshine of hope has long been blotted out, the common mercies which come as matters of course to others, are as stars shining from new heavens upon a new earth. CHAPTER XX 1904-S ALIKE by precept and example, Christian Missions are slowly bringing home to the Hindus the claim that even the outcast leper has upon their charity, at least for the food and shelter they bestow upon their animals. This is evidenced by the interest awakened in the condition of the leper in several of the native States of India, in which naturally western ideas are very slowly assimilated. We need not enquire too closely how far these bodies are influenced by a desire to protect their communities from the presence — at once disgusting and dangerous — of maimed and neglected lepers in their centres of population. Such a desire is entirely laudable, and therefore, whether pity or policy is the prevailing motive, we can rejoice in every effort to ameliorate the lot of these most unfortunate of all human sufferers. These reflections are suggested by the opening of the Henderson Memorial Asylum at Dhar, in Central India, to the origin of which reference has already been made. Some facts of interest concerning the Asylum and the need it is designed to meet are given in the following extract from an address by Rev. F. H. Russell at the opening, which took place on October 5th, 1905 : — " It is a proof of the necessity which exists for an Institution of this kind that, in spite of the decimating effect of the recent famine, which was especially hard upon the mendicant classes, there are at present over 200 lepers in this Agency alone. Although it cannot be expected that even a majority of these will 154 LEPERS, 1904-S immediately become inmates, we yet hope that in course of time the work done by the Asylum will demonstrate the advisability of inducing the whole leper population, as far as possible, to take up their abode here. And the indications even now are that we shall soon find the present buildings, which are all that the funds in hand permitted us to build, quite inadequate to the purpose." The opening ceremony was performed by the Hon. Major Daly, C.S.I., CLE., Agent-General to the Govern- ment in Central India. In the course of his address, he said : — " Any measures taken for the amelioration of the sufferings of lepers must always have a special interest for Christians on account of the attitude of our Saviour towards lepers who applied to Him for relief. . . . From the cases that are mentioned in the Gospels, it seems that the briefest prayer from a leper was sufficient to elicit the relief which he sought : " Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." Instantly comes the effective answer, ' I will ; be thou clean.' " Mr. Russell has told us that the nature of the disease is still a puzzle to the medical faculty. The one thing certain appears to be that segregation, good food, and proper housing are the measures which give the best hope of affording some relief to the sufferers.'' At Meerut, U.P., India, another new door was opened for the helpful ministry of the Mission during the supple- mentary period of the years 1904-5. A small Asylum had existed near the city for some years, maintained by the municipality. That body, like not a few similar bodies elsewhere, became convinced that the usefulness of the institution would be increased by its being placed under the control of the Mission to Lepers. The Society in the interests of both the present and prospective inmates, accepted the transfer, and the Asylum passed under the control of the Mission. Meerut offers one more example of that co-operation between the authorities and the Mission which is so full of hope for the future. INDIA AND CHINA 155 From Kodur, in the Cuddapa district of the Madras Presidency, an appeal reached the committee from the Rev. J. N. Wittmann, who represents another society desirous of caring for these outcasts, and looking to the Mission to Lepers for support and guidance, Mr, Wittmann wrote on behalf of the Hermannsburg Evan- gelical Lutheran Missionary Society, The need was certainly a clamant one. It was estimated that in the districts of Cuddapa, North Arcot, and Nellore there were fully 3,000 lepers, while there was no refuge for them nearer than the Asylum at Madras, about a hundred miles distant. Assured of aid from the Mission to Lepers, Mr. Wittmann secured a suitable site of thirteen acres, and soon an Asylum was erected, Nor was it only in India that the work continued to develop, In the years 1904 and 1905, three new and hopeful openings presented themselves in China. The city of Tungkun lies not far from Canton, and outside its walls is one of the innumerable colonies of lepers to be found in that vast Empire, On an eminence, known as Orchard Hill, stands a group of miserable huts. This settlement has for centuries been the dwelling-place of the lepers of the town and district, or rather of as many of them as can crowd into it. Many others are compelled to live in small boats on the river, and to keep themselves alive as best they can by begging. From this abode of misery, such of the lepers as are able to walk, or even to crawl, have for years issued forth, basket in hand, to crave alms of the passers-by. The sight of these sad and hopeless sufferers appealed irresistibly to the compassion of Dr. Kuhne, a medical worker of the Rhenish Missionary Society. He was there in his Master's name to heal the sick and to preach the Gospel to the poor, and here, in dire need of his iS6 LEPERS, 1904-5 ministrations, were men and women sick unto death and poor indeed. "Oh, that I might bring you here," wrote Dr. Kuhne, "and shew you this misery. You might then realise the longing of my poor lepers to have an Asylum where they could be fed and taken care of, free from the perpetual dread of dying of hunger." The missionary first made his appeal to the Tungkunese themselves, pointing out how beneficial it would be for their city if these diseased and importunate beggars were removed from the streets and placed in a refuge. The response was so far favourable that one-third of the sum required for the erection of a suitable Asylum was forthcoming from local sources. At this juncture the mis- sionary made his appeal to the Mission to Lepers for help. A grant was made by means of which an island on the neighbouring river was promptly purchased, and it is satisfactory to record that in a year from Dr. Kuhne's first appeal a beautiful Asylum came into existence for the outcasts of Tungkun. At Wuchow, on the West River, South China, the establishment of a centre of light and hope for the lepers has to be recorded. Dr, Macdonald, of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, was led to take up the case of these helpless people, owing mainly to the fact that a farmer who was a convert of the Mission had developed the disease. He had necessarily to be isolated from his sons, who were also connected with the Mission. Dr. Macdonald regarded his sad case as an indication that something should be done for the many lepers of Kwangsi. In response to his appeal, the Mission to Lepers made a grant sufficient for the purchase of a small island in the West River, which proved the beginning of an effort to provide for the bodily and spiritual needs of these destitute outcasts. In the two years under notice (1904-5), a few matters ACROSS THE ATLANTIC 157 of interest in connection with home administration remain to be noted. One of these was the writer's visit to the United States and Canada in 1904. Many of the principal cities of both countries were visited, and every- where a most sympathetic response was given to the plea of the leper. Leading representatives of the missionary cause interested themselves, and in many of the principal churches I was permitted to tell of the needs and results of the work. The programme for this long tour was arranged, at the cost of much thought and care, by Miss Lila Watt, the Society's Secretary for North America. One result was to make clear the fact that to adequately represent the Society both in Canada and the States, was a task that no one worker could be expected to accomplish. It was accordingly recommended, at a Convention held at Brantford, Ontario (June 14th and 15th, 1904), "that the executive take steps to secure an Organising and Deputation Secretary especially for the United States." In England, also, the necessity for further help in Home Organisation was felt owing to the rapid development of the work. This need was met by the appoint- ment of Mr. C. Douglas Green to serve as Deputation Secretary. Mr. Green held for several years the important position of Secretary to the British and Foreign Bible Society in Bombay. The considerable knowledge he then acquired of work among the lepers has enabled him to largely extend the interest in the United Kingdom in the Mission and its work. Important changes in the Society's offices have also occurred in these closing years. In 1904, an office was opened in Toronto, in order to provide an efficient centre for the work in Canada. In' 1905, the Edinburgh office was transferred from Mr. Bailey's residence in Greenhill Place to No. 28, North Bridge, 158 LEPERS, 1904-5 In the record of these two years, we have to note the removal by death of two valued friends of the Mission. Georgiana, Lady Seafield, was the generous donor of the Asansol Asylum, and continued to take a warm and sympathetic interest in its inmates. Not long before her decease, she wrote to the missionary in charge, the Rev. W. P. Byers : " I think you have done wonders with the money I sent for Asansol. You could not have spent it in a better way. You are doing a wonderful work for God in ministering to the poor lepers, and it must often be trying. But I think they are the most afflicted people on the earth, and are justly called the ' brothers and sisters of death.' " Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., LL.D., etc., was a vice-president of the Mission to Lepers, and always willing to preside at its meetings or speak on its behalf. He passed away at an advanced age after a life of great activity and usefulness. The settled policy of the Mission to Lepers not to send out workers, but rather to utilise the services of mission- aries already on the field, has frequently been referred to in the course of this history. One result of this principle is, that from time to time offers of service among the lepers have to be reluctantly declined, even though coming in some instances from candidates who give promise of great usefulness. In one instance it was, however, found possible for the Mission to accept such a worker. This was Mr. William H. P. Anderson, of Guelph, Ontario, who, in a spirit of noble self-sacrifice, surrendered a good position as a Chartered Accountant in order to devote himself to ministering to the bodily and spiritual needs of some four hundred and fifty lepers and children in the Chandkuri Asylum of the Mission to Lepers. After deeply interesting valedictory meetings Mr. Anderson left London on October 27th, 1905, and arrived at Chandkuri on Sunday November gOtb, On A ISfEW MISSIONARY 159 his arrival at the scene of his future labours, he was warmly welcomed both by his colleagues and by the sufferers to whose relief he has devoted his life. The Lepers Band, with their quaint native instruments, met him on his way, and the untainted children welcomed him with hymns. A touching service was held in the Church of the Asylum, and in the presence of a congregation of upwards of 400, this new worker was dedicated to the Christlike service he has chosen. CHAPTER XXI 1906-1910 THE last chapter brought the history of the Society's work down to the close of 1905, and the record to that point was published early in 1906. A new edition being called for, we have now to resume the narrative, and to condense into an appendix of two concluding chapters the events of at least four years. Exigencies of space necessitate severe compression, and a brief mention must suffice where the interest of the topic would justify lengthened reference. Let it be noted at the outset of this supplementary narrative, that the story is still one of continued extension. Wider knowledge and deeper sympathy at home have been transmuted into ever-increasing comfort and hope for the sufferers abroad. The Mission has been privileged during these later years to co-operate with new workers in new centres in bringing brightness to the lives, and blessing to the souls, of many outcasts, hitherto hopeless and helpless. A gratifying expansion of income has enabled the Mission to extend its beneficent operations to fresh fields, in illustration whereof it may be noted that, in the first three months of 1910, three new Stations have been added to the list — already lengthy — of centres of hope and help for the lepers. To these, as to other Asylums opened or enlarged during the period under review, allusion will be made in due course. In these added chapters the general plan of the book will be adhered to. First, arranged in order of date, will MR. & MRS. BAILEY'S TOUR 161 come the places in which new work has been begun. Next will follow reference to Asylums at which important extensions or alterations have been made. Supplementing these, items of interest, both at home and abroad, will be recorded. An event of far-reaching importance at this period was the tour of the Superintendent and Mrs. Bailey to India and Ceylon. Leaving Liverpool on October 13th, 1906, they reached Edinburgh on their return on May loth, 1908. Many friends assembled to bid them God-speed on their departure, and a still larger gathering greeted them at the Annual Meeting of the Mission two days after their arrival home. The origin of this important journey will be indicated by the following extract from a letter addressed by Mr. Bailey to the readers of Without the Camp, for October, 1906. " Owing to the fact that my health has not been good for some time, especially in the winter season, it is considered advisable that I should be away from this country for two winters, if possible, while rest from the great strain of work that has been upon me for some years is deemed imperative. The Committee have accordingly arranged that we are to go to India in the interests of the work, and make a prolonged stay there. This arrangement, it is hoped, will, under God, result in renewed health and vigour, and thus spare us for a little longer to the work which has been so much to us for the last thirty-seven years." On his return the superintendent summarised his experiences in a similar letter in the issue for July 1908, in which (inter alia) he said : " Through the good hand of God upon us, we have accomplished our long journey in health and strength, without let or hindrance of any kind. We have travelled about 21,700 miles in India, and have seen and heard things that have filled our hearts to overflowing with joy and gladness. M i62 LEPERS, 1906-10 The joy of the missionaries in this self-imposed service of ministering to these, ' the least of His brethren,' has been to us an inspiration. Not only is such service rendered by the missionaries, but in some instances by devoted Christians among the Indians also. The earnest Christian lives of many of the lepers, as seen by us, and as testified to by the missionaries, have also been an inspiration. The patience with which their sad lot is borne by many of them is something to be wondered at." The foregoing quotations convey a mere suggestion of a tour that was not only charged with intense interest for Mr. and Mrs. Bailey, but was fraught with importance to the work originated by them years before, and the growth of which filled them with wonder and gratitude. Mrs. Bailey acted as special correspondent for Without the Camp during the tour, and its readers will recall her graphic letters, conveying, as they did, pathetic pen pictures of the light and shade, the joy and suffering, of life among the lepers. Did space permit, many extracts of profound interest might be quoted, but two or three must suffice. Here, for example, is a glimpse of the arrival at Chandkuri, and of some experiences there. " The sun set shortly after we had crossed the river, and we enjoyed a fine afterglow for a time, then darkness fell. By this time, however, we had reached a good road, and so had little difficulty, and Mr. Anderson's man having met us with a lantern we were not without light to guide us on our way. About a mile outside Chandkuri we were met by a company of the Christians, carrying torches and flags and singing with all their might. Next a group of our poor leper men greeted us with many salaams. The advent of these friends put new heart into our doolie bearers, who had been showing signs of flagging, and who had evinced a chivalrous desire to convey the mem-sahib rather than the sahib, the spare men being generally found hovering near her doolie, ready to change with those who were tired. The Christians, other than lepers, kept up with us and con- tinued their hymns until we came to the entrance to the Mission A TOUCHING CEREMONY 163 compound, where a great reception awaited us. An arch of greenery, with the word ' Welcome,' in large letters, was erected at the gate, and beyond it a great company of Christians, among them the boys and girls from the Untainted Children's Home, lined the roadway right up to Mr. Anderson's bungalow. These, too, sang hymns of praise to God Who has done such great things for them." A touching glimpse of a baptismal service is afforded in the following extract from a letter from Champa (C.P.) " The church being yet in the future, we met under a glorious old mango tree, chairs being placed under its protection for us Europeans, the lepers sitting in front in a space which they had enclosed with garlands of green set upon poles — most picturesque. All looked bright and very neat. Although many have the hands and feet mutilated, yet there are not a great number of faces marred among them. Mr. Penner conducted the service, and after the sermon thirteen were baptised into the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There were nine women and four men. Several repeated the Apostles' Creed when asked, and all could have done so if required, as all have been taught that, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. But their knowledge is, Mr. Penner is convinced, not merely the head- knowledge required to commit passages to memory ; he has good reason to hope that it is that heart-knowledge which is " Life Eternal." It would be impossible to convey by word the solemnity of that service, as each candidate replied in clear voice to the questions put to him, and then, his hand on each bowed head, Mr. Penner uttered the words which severed them from the heathen, and proclaimed them Christ's," The following references to Purulia — the largest of the Society's Asylums — are selected as presenting contrasted aspects of the life of the institutions : they are from accounts which deserve to be quoted in full. " It would take many visits before one could feel that one had grasped this Asylum in its vastness. It is really a splendid place, wonderfully planned and executed. The houses are strong and look very picturesque, being colour-washed in different hues. 164 LEPERS, 1906-10 There are groves of trees all over the grounds, which are so spacious as to make a journey through them a good long walk. We finally came to the church, where many of our poor friends who were unable to walk with the rest had taken their places early in the afternoon, so as to be ready for the gathering there. The church is full of interest — how we wish the friends who gifted it could even for once worship under its roof with those hundreds of Christian lepers. By this time it was nearly dark, and as there is no provision for lighting up so large a building the effect was impressive of the throng of lepers in the body of the church, dimly seen by the two or three lanterns and the candles, most of which were in the part of the church occupied by the healthy. There was singing of bhajans and also of an address of welcome, composed by some- one of the company. Mr. Wagner also gave an address in Bengali, which, alas, we could not understand. Then Mr. Bailey spoke to them, being interpreted by Mr. Wagner. The most touching thing of the whole was when one of the leper men — Nitya Anand, by name — came forward, and in a hoarse whisper, spoke the welcome of himself and the rest. His voice was so en- feebled that Mr. Wagner had to stand close beside him in order to catch what he said and interpret it. Thursday was a great day, the day of the sports at the Asylum. We drove out once more between the rows of flags, three- quarters of a mile in extent, to the open space near the office, where already were gathered hundreds of the inmates, as well as the children from the Untainted Home. The Asylum band was in full force — several tumtums, a couple of mouth instruments, a fiddle, another instrument with one string, cymbals, small brass things of the same style, and finally a tambourine which had just been presented ; this latter much delighted their hearts. One event on the unwritten programme was drill by the healthy, boys, and at the same time paper-folding by the healthy girls who sang as their fingers manipulated the paper. The result was a quaint little lantern-shaped box. Later there was much the same drill by the leper boys,and wefelt thankful that they could have this exercise and pleasure. Of course there was a sack race, one boy performing wonders in the way of jumping along. One event which elicited peals of laughter, was the groping for pice in basins of flour ; when the little faces looked up quite white the appreciative spectators EUROPEAN LEPERS 165 shouted again. The girls, both healthy and lepers, had a race with earthen water vessels on their heads. They were not allowed to put up their hands to balance them, so sometimes they fell and were broken, but more often they came safely to the end. At Sabathu, Mr. and Mrs. Bailey visited with special interest the quarters for European and Eurasian lepers. Mrs. Bailey writes : — " After going over the Indian part of the institution, we con- tinued along the hill path until we came to the prettily situated, and most pathetic, little building for Europeans. It could scarcely be better placed as regards scenery. It is on a ridge of hill, a straight building, the rooms opening off a neat verandah, where the inmates can sit out when able, and enjoy the air and the lovely view. The cottage contains three small and two larger rooms, the two last being meant for dining and sitting-rooms. But, owing to the number having increased, the sitting-room had to be given up and utilised as a bedroom for two boys who are here at present, the other rooms having one occupant each ; two being youngf women whose beautiful Christian life, in the midst of terrible suffering and distress, is nothing less than an inspiration. The fifth and last inmate is a married man of middle life, who still has a good deal of vigour (as have the boys), and who also bears his great sorrow with Christian patience and hope. The great employment of these three is the care of rabbits and pigeons, for which Dr. Carleton has had a large cage made at the end of the verandah." The visit of the travellers to Ramachandrapuram coincided with the opening of the Albert Boulter Memorial Home for female lepers, erected by Mrs. Boulter as a memorial of her husband. The programme included addresses of gratitude to Mrs. Boulter, and of welcome to Mr. and Mrs. Bailey. There were thank-offerings from the Christian and Hindu visitors — not excluding the lepers. In concluding her account, Mrs. Bailey says, " The final part of the proceedings was the opening, ' To the glory of God and the relief of the suffering women i66 LEPERS, 1906-10 of Ramachandrapuram,' of the door of the Home. This I felt much honoured in doing — as also in receiving the silver key with which it was done — in the absence of the donor, Mrs. Albert Boulter, whose memorial to her beloved husband has taken the tender and most practical shape of this Home of rest." In 1906 Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Bailey visited the United States of America, in the hope of promoting the organisation of the work of the Mission among the American Churches, many of whose missionaries are co-operating with us in ministering to the lepers. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey rendered valuable service to the Society by addressing meetings in many large centres, includ- ing New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago, &c. Large audiences listened to the story of the work in Canada, as well as at Northfield, Mass. A Committee was constituted in New York, with Mr. John Sinclair as Chairman (since deceased), Mr. Wm. Jay Schieffelin as Vice-Chairman, and Mr. Fleming H. Revell as Treasurer. It is hoped that this Committee will form the basis of an active organisation in the States which will secure adequate support from the Christian public for a work which only needs to be known to be appreciated. In concluding an account of the tour Mr. Bailey writes : — " It would be invidious for me to refer specially to individuals from amongst the host of friends who showed us great kindness, and rendered valuable help, and to all of whom we are deeply grateful ; but I feel that our special thanks are due to the secretaries of the Mission Boards who, in the midst of their many duties, made time to grant us several interviews, write for us letters of- introduction, and give us much valuable advice and guidance." In order that subsequent allusions may be better understood, it is necessary that a reference personal to ROUND THE WORLD 167 the Author should be inserted here. In Without the Camp, for July, igo8, the following note appeared. " As many of our readers are aware, Mr. John Jackson, the Organising Secretary of the Mission, has been in poor health for a year or two, and his recovery from the severe illness of last year has been found to be incomplete. With a view to effecting a permanent restoration, the Committee have granted Mr. Jackson six months' leave of absence, in the hope that a pro- longed sea voyage, together with a time of rest and change, will enable him to take up his work again with renewed energy." The winter of igo8-g was spent in a tour round the world — in many respects, a memorable experience, and not least so on account of the opportunities it afforded of visiting some of the Society's Stations in Japan and China, as well as several of the most important ones in India. Although we had been well aware of the existence of large numbers of lepers in the great lands of the utmost Orient, and the Mission had long been aiding them, it was no small advantage to gain first-hand knowledge as to numbers and conditions, and to be able to compare these with those obtaining in other lands. A rapid sum- mary of an intensely interesting tour must suffice. From this must be excluded much that might be well worthy of record did space allow. The voyage over the Atlantic and across the American Continent from New York to San Francisco, presented the ordinary features of interest. After a week spent in the Californian city we sailed out through the Golden Gate in the teeth of a cold wind, and over a tossing and angry sea. Next day, however, the voyagers felt that the Pacific Ocean was not mis-named, and five days of calm seas, blue skies, and bright sunshine, yielded the rest and recuperation so sorely needed. A stay of a fortnight in the Hawaiian Islands afforded an opportunity, of which I gladly availed myself, for a i68 LEPERS, 1906-10 visit to the well-known Leper Settlement on the Island of Molokai. After a steamer-trip from Honolulu, followed by a somewhat adventurous journey across the Island in a motor-car over a bullock track, for three hours in the dead of night, I found myself at the top of the precipice which forms a natural barrier shutting off the Leper Settlement from the rest of the Island. This pali, to use the Hawaiian term, is 1,800 feet high at the lowest point, and so precipitous that I was glad the horses provided by the courtesy of the Superintendent (Mr. MacVeagh) were awaiting us at the bottom, and not at the top ! A cordial acknowledgment is due to the President and Officers of the Board of Health for the Territory, who provided facilities for my journey, and treated me as their guest during my stay at the Settlement. Here I found a community of about 800 lepers, together with nearly 100 healthy people — assistants, or relatives allowed to attend on the more helpless cases. On the material side nothing is left undone to render the lives of these exiles comfortable and pleasant. Liberal food and other allow- ances are made by the authorities : the medical staff is efficient and sympathetic, and no reasonable need is unsupplied. Religiously, the residents in the Settlement are ministered to by two Roman Catholic Churches, two Protestant Churches, and two small Mormon Meeting- Houses. The Bishop Home, for men and boys in advanced stages of the disease, is presided over by Brother Joseph Button, aided by four other lay brethren, and the Baldwin Home fulfils a similar function for girls and women, under the charge of five resident Roman Catholic Sisters. These are really small Asylums within the Settlement, and their inmates are well and kindly cared for. The memory of Father Damien is still cherished at Molokai, and his mantle of self-sacrifice appears to have descended to his friend and, in a sense, his GOVERNMENT ACTION IN JAPAN 169 successor, Mr. Dutton. As The Mission to Lepers is in no way connected with the Settlement at Molokai this altogether too brief reference is all that can be permitted here to a most interesting experience, which the writer hopes to treat more adequately elsewhere. My visit to Japan proved to be opportune, in view of the action of the Government with regard to the lepers. As already recorded, the Mission has provided an Asylum for the outcasts of Tokio, and largely aided another at Kumamoto, in the South Island. The former of these had for some years been under the sympathetic observation of representatives of Government. Here they had seen with surprise the extent to which humane segregation, medical care and kindly sympathy could alleviate the sufferings, and brighten the lives, of the most hopeless of human sufferers. It was with intense interest that I learnt from Professor Kitsato that the Government was about to build five or more central Asylums, in which to care for at least the worst of the 28,000 lepers of whom they had official knowledge. At the time of writing (April, 1910) the first of these — at Tokio — has been opened, and is affording shelter to 148 inmates. This forward movement by the Japanese authorities is full of hope for the thousands of sufferers in that fair land, and we trust it will be vigorously followed up, alike in the interests of the lepers and of the healthy community. Though so far no systematic mission work has been undertaken in this new Institution, it is hoped that this may become possible later on. Meanwhile, occasional services are being held, and the missionaries are welcomed by the lepers, and their messages readily listened to. I found the Asylum built by The Mission to Lepers fifteen years ago, giving a home to upwards of 100 lepers who were comfortably housed in well-kept wards, and who gave me a warm welcome in their clean and neat little chapel. 170 LEPERS, 1906-10 My visit to the Canton Leper Village will not soon be forgotten, nor the service in the Chapel, with distribution of Christmas gifts to nearly 100 Christian lepers. I met poor Un Ho, the blind leper to whose faithfulness is due the introduction of Christianity to this forsaken village. In the Home built by the Mission for Untainted Children Dr. Boyd, of the American Presbyterian Medical Mission (to whose courtesy and hospitality I was greatly indebted), and I spoke to, listened to, and distributed gifts to seventeen boys and girls — a number that might be doubled so far as accommodation is concerned. One hundred miles up the East River took us to Tungkun, where The Mission to Lepers co-operated with the Rhenish Mission in building and supporting a much- needed Asylum. The well-built wards were in every case overcrowded, and the inmates were unanimous in their demand for additional houses. In order to limit the number of applicants, and to assist the finances, a premium was charged for admission for a time. The eagerness of these outcasts to enjoy the protection of the Asylum was evidenced by a man who begged for over a year in order to save the twenty-five Mexican dollars (about £^) to secure his acceptance, In another case an old woman, whose son was a leper, sold the house which was her only remaining property to raise the amount for his admission. The moral tone of the Tungkun Asylum appeared to be excellent, and the inmates grateful and cheerful ; but there were many advanced cases and some very hideous disfigurements. On my return to Canton, I called, in company with Dr. Boyd, on the Head of the Police Department. He was courteous and sympathetic, and well disposed to work hand-in-hand with the Mission in dealing with the leper problem as it affects Canton and the Province of guan Tung, in \vhich he estijnates the nupiber of 09.8^5 •a o (U >• SYMPATHY FROM SIR ROBERT HART 171 to be fully 15,000. At present, however, the position appears not to be clear enough for any definite action on either side. Meanwhile the efforts of missionaries to succour the lepers of Southern and Central China are doing not a little to remove the prejudices alike of the Officials and of the masses of the people. So competent a judge as Sir Robert Hart, G.C.M.G., has formed a high opinion as to the value of their efforts. In a letter to Dr. Kuhne — accompanying a donation of ;f 100 — he wrote on December 22nd, 1907 : " I sympathise deeply with the sufferers, and the world should be thankful to you, and to men like you. . . Your work must be of a most trying kind, and must tax your strength, but it is good work — none better — and the blessing of God goes with it, and the approval of all men." The next point at which I found any considerable number of lepers was at Penang. Here, through the courtesy of Dr. Fry, the Officer of Health, I was enabled to visit the Government Leper Asylum on the Island of Pulau Jerejak, a few miles from Penang. This Settle- ment was, at the time of my visit, reserved for male lepers, though it was hoped shortly to provide a similar one for women. Here I found some 400 men located on the shores of a pretty bay, with a background of wooded hills, in well-built and well-kept wards. A liberal dietary is provided, of which rice cooked by healthy people is the staple item. The greater majority are Chinese who have come to the Straits as coolies, which is the case also with a minority of Indians, mainly Tamils. In the Federated Malay States the number of lepers is estimated at 1,000, and the authorities are gradually segregating the worst cases. There is a small Asylum at the Capital, Kuala Lumpur, containing about 40, and 70 Malays are cared for in a settlement by themselves. Religious work in ithe Asylum at Pulau Jerejak is represented by the 172 LEPERS, 1906-10 occasional visits of Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries, whose ministrations are welcomed by the lepers. A short, but enjoyable, visit to Mandalay made me acquainted with the successful work of the Home for Lepers there, managed by the Wesleyan missionaries, and maintained by The Mission to Lepers. I found about 140 inmates of both sexes, and an unmistakable air of home prevailing in this Institution, though the build- ings are by no means imposing. It was, I think, typical of the tone prevailing in the Asylum, that the first sotind that greeted us on entering was the singing by the lepers of "Jesus loves me, this I know." Some of the twenty- five untainted children provided for in the Boarding- Schools of the Wesleyan Mission were remarkably bright, pretty girls. The Protestant work for the lepers of Mandalay has for many years been under the efficient supervision of the Rev. A. H. Bestall, aided by Mrs. Bestall and Miss Norah Butt. On Mr. Bestall's return to England in 1908 he was succeeded by Rev. T. G. Phillips. Through the courtesy of the priest in charge we were permitted to inspect the large and well-built Roman Catholic Asylum in Mandalay, sheltering some 200 inmates. I must content myself with the merest summary of the Indian part of this tour. In Calcutta, accompanied by Rev. B. Grundy, of the C.M.S., I visited the Government Asylum in the suburb of Gobra, in which only 151 lepers were being segregated at that time. It is to be hoped, however, that the quarters then empty have since been occupied, as there were many pronounced cases still at large in the city — as many as 100 in one ward, according to Mr. Grundy. At the time of my visit twenty-five expected to be discharged shortly as being no longer " lepers," according to the Act which permits — if it does BANKURA AND PURULIA 173 not require — their release wlien there are no longer open sores. A limited, but useful, work is done by the Indian catechist, supported by the Leper Mission, and superin- tended by Mr. Grundy, who also conducts a weekly service. At Bankura, Bengal, I found about 115 lepers as happy as such sufferers can be made, under the efficient and sympathetic care of Rev. F. W. Ambery Smith. The site of the Asylum is well chosen ; the houses well planned, and the whole Institution forms an appropriate memorial to the benevolent donor of the funds for its erection — the late Mrs. Bryan, of Brighton. My visit to the " Edith " Home for Untainted Children awakened memories too tender and sacred for detailed reference. This Home is the memorial of my wife and myself to our own little daughter, and it was with real, though chastened, joy that I found it filled with bright and happy boys and girls who enjoy the affectionate care of Mrs. Smith. There were decorations, recitations, and songs, in honour of the occasion, as well as a distribution of gifts and prizes. A visit to the Purulia Asylum proved that the noble work that awakened my enthusiasm eight years ago was still prospering under the efficient direction of Revs. F. Hahn and Paul Wagner. On my first visit the large leper congregation assembled in their church to bid me welcome, their spokesman being Mansingh, one of the few who remembered my former visit. On the following day, at another gathering in their brightly- decorated church, it was my privilege to address them on the ever appropriate topic of John iii. 16. It was an impressive spectacle, that large congregation of one-time homeless outcasts, now uniting so heartily in singing the praises of the Divine Friend of the lepers. Sadly pathetic were the leper children in front — fifty of them, from three 174 LEPERS, 1906-10 years and upwards. But, in spite of their affliction, they were the leaders of the singing, and several of the boys manipulated their musical instruments with great vigour. Service over, the boys, singing as they went, led the way to where some 400 portions of matai (sweetmeats) were awaiting distribution — a never-failing source of enjoyment to the lepers. Prizes for good conduct and for reading were then distributed to those to whom they had been awarded. It was a pleasure to hand volumes of " The Pilgrim's Progress " and other books to old friends like Sara, Shusilla, Mansingh, etc. On the following day the officers and members of the Christian Endeavour Society were to the fore. The Society is well organised and successful, and is responsible for a service in the church once a week, in which many take part. It is gratifying to find the principal members of the native staff taking an active part in the work of the C.E. Society, including the doctor and the shopkeeper. The religious tone of the Asylum continues to be satis- factory. There were fifty-four baptisms during 1908. That these poor people have the spirit of Christian giving is shown by the amount of their church collections, which amounted for the year to £27 is. The distribution of this is interesting. Part goes to poor widows and orphans of lepers ; part to the support of their own native pastor ; and part to the British and Foreign Bible Society. Out of the balance they have a simple love-feast or treat. I left this noble institution deeply impressed by its efficiency and Christ-like character. Those who con- tribute to it, as well as those who carry it on, may feel assured that they are co-operating in an undertaking that is doing not a little to promote the Kingdom of God in India. While preparing this volume for the press the sorrowful tidings reach us of the death of Mr. Hahn, which took IN CHURCH WITH THE LEPER'S 175 place at Mussoorie on May 3rd, 1910. The loss of this devoted worker will be severely felt, not only by the lepers, but in connection with the work of the Gossner's Evangelical Mission in general. He was a gifted, as well as a devoted, Missionary. As stated elsewhere, his services on behalf of the lepers were recognised by the bestowal of the Kaisar-I-Hind Medal of the First Class, while his labours in translation and other literary work were highly appreciated. It was as early as 1883 that Mr. Hahn first appealed to the Mission to Lepers on behalf of the sufferers of Lohardaga (in Bengal), and from that date till the close of his life he was a devoted and self-sacrificing friend of the lepers. From Purulia to Chandkuri was the next stage of this interesting journey. Here I was welcomed by Mr. W. H. P. Anderson, who for four years had been in charge of what is now one of the largest, as it also is one of the most thoroughly organised and equipped, of the Asylums of the Mission. From an account written at the time of my visit I quote the following: — " I will try at once, this Sunday afternoon, and while the im- pression is fresh, to describe the service of this morning. As I sit in the Church on a platform two steps above the level of the floor, and look out through the open door, the scene is a bright and pretty one. Down the path leading from the entrance gate to the church door, young trees are growing, and flags are waving, and an arch of evergreens erected by the lepers bids welcome to their guest. While the congregation of nearly 300 lepers and about 100 untainted children and helpers are gathering, I am contrasting this lofty and airy church with the old low-roofed and overcrowded building in which I last worshipped with the Chandkuri lepers eight years ago. Next my mind travels back to the spring of 19Q4, and to my first meeting in Boston, U.S.A., with Mr. W. H. P. Anderson, the results of whose devoted work of four years I see on every hand, and who is to reap some of the fruit of his labours in the Baptismal Service of this morning. 176 LEPERS, 1906-10 As the lepers gather and seat themselves quietly and reverently I recognise a face here and there : notably the happy counten- ance of Bayan, who reminded me on our first meeting yesterday that she had, eight years ago, invited me to come again, but that I had " been a long time coming." Mr. Anderson seats himself at the organ, which was made in his native town of Guelph, Ontario, and was the gift of a Mission Sunday School there. Soon a volume of vocal harmony fills the building as choir and congregation unite in singing " Christ for me." The prayer service is led by Rev. Mr. Jost, and is partly liturgical. The responses are made heartily by the lepers, of whom about 240 are Christians. Mr. Jost then interprets, with emphasis and expression, as I am assured afterwards, my address on John iii. 16, the words of which are on the wall before their eyes. First comes a reference to their old church, and to my former visit. Then a brief account of Mr. Anderson's call to the work, and to the sacrifice that call involved. On this is based an appeal to his flock to give him true and loyal support in his difficult work. His self-sacrifice as well as the gifts that have made this Asylum with all its benefits possible to them, were then enforced as proofs that the text is true, and that God's great love is the source of it all. Finally, the supreme expression of that love in the gift of His Son is made the ground of a plea for love to one another, and for surrender by the non-Christians to the claims of Christ. The collection is taken — in coin and in kind — the "kind" is in offerings of rice saved from their allowance. Several rise from their places and quietly advance and place on the steps of the platform special thank-offerings, in some instances as many pice as the poor maimed hands can hold. Mr. Anderson then, as pastor of the church, gives to the new converts the baptismal charge, concluding with the Confession of Faith, audibly repeated by the candidates. In groups of five or six they rise in response to their names, and advance to the table and receive the sacred sign in the Triune Name. One or two are blind and are led forward by friends, others are sorely crippled, and are also willingly and gently assisted to rise. It is pathetic to note the poor stumps of hands removing the saris from their heads and re-adjusting them. At Raipur (C. P.), I found seventy-six lepers in RAIPUR AND ALLAHABAD 177 comfortable quarters at a Municipal Asylum to which the Mission to Lepers makes an annual grant. The buildings are good and well kept, and the situation safe and healthy. Some of the lepers are keen gardeners, and their plots are fruitful and well-cultivated. The inmates gathered at the entrance to welcome me, and some of them made a pathetic attempt at an Indian dance to the accompani- ment of the tom-toms. A considerable source of revenue here is a tax, or octroi duty, of one anna on each cart of grain entering the town. As this has averaged nearly Rs. 3,000 (=: ^£"200) per annum of recent years, it speaks well for the trade of Raipur, since it represents about 48,000 cart-loads annually. At Allahabad I found a most hopeful state of things, so far as the lepers were concerned. Under the practical and sympathetic care of Professor Higginbottom, of the American Presbyterian Mission, nearly 200 of the inmates were enjoying the shelter of well-built wards, and finding healthful occupation and interest in their gardens — the latter, a branch of the work which has been taken up here with unusual thoroughness. Established many years ago, the Asylum was in 1906 a neglected and almost forgotten place, sheltering a few lepers, most of whom only remained because too helpless to run away. The authorities, represented by Sir J. D. La Touche, responded readily to the suggestion that the Asylum should be transferred to the care of the Mission, with Professor Higginbottom as Superintendent. Aided by official encouragement, as well as by substan- tial grants, soon a transformation was effected. Not alone with regard to the betterment of their bodily conditions was this true, but with regard to moral and spiritual mat- ters the improvement was equally manifest. In the first three years after the transfer, nearly 100 lepers were found desirous and prepared for baptism, and it was my privilege N 178 LEPERS, 1906-10 to join them in their first Communion Service in the new and airy church. An excellent Home for Untainted Children near by was protecting some bright boys and girls from contamination, and affording them a Christian education. CHAPTER XXII (1906 — 1910) INCIDENTAL reference has just been made to several of the most important of the Stations of the Mission established prior to igo6, and we have now to deal with the Asylums built, or acquired, during the four years following that 'date — a period, as will be seen, of considerable advance in various directions. At least four places have to be noted in regard to which some allusion has already been made as to the origin of the work. Its consolidation, or development, has now to be recorded. At Tungkun, a large and efficient Asylum, materially aided both as to erection and maintenance, has grown out of the effort named in an earlier chapter. Muzaffarpur, in Tirhoot, Bengal, has now a much-appre- ciated Home for its outcasts, and the Asylum here, as in so many other places, affords an object-lesson of practical philanthropy to the Hindus. A Brahmin merchant was asked to buy a Christian tract. He replied to the native worker, that he objected to hear about Christ. " Why," enquired the young man, " what good has the worship of Ram ever done ? but Christ, you see, takes care even of the lepers." The latest report tells of tidy houses and well-kept gardens, and a cheerful and healthy tone among the inmates. At Kodur, in the Madras Presidency, similar progress has to be recorded, and a complete and comfort- able little Asylum is now an accomplished fact. Salur, near Vizagapatam, is another place at which temporary relief has developed into a successful Asylum, owned by the Mission, and reporting 55 inmates at the end of 1909. i8o LEPERS, 1906-10 At Champa, C. P., the Asylum described as temporary in 1905 has since been made permanent, and is now sheltering 113 grateful inmates, a large majority of whom have welcomed the spiritual privileges no less than the material benefits of their home. Meerut, U. P., affords an instance — and by no means a solitary one — in which an Institution has been transferred to the Mission by local authorities who have come to recognise that the super- vision of a Leper Asylum to be efficient must have sympathy for its moving motive. What was transferred to the Mission by the Municipality was a few somewhat dilapidated wards. In their place is now a commodious, well-built place, bearing on a tablet over the entrance, " The Grace Otway Mayne Memorial Asylum," so named in honour of the lady who contributed the funds for it, and whose decease we regret to record while preparing this book for the press. The Meerut Asylum has just (in 1910) been completed by the addition of a Church, recently consecrated by the Bishop of Lahore — Meerut being a station of the C.M.S., whose Missionaries super- intend the Asylum on behalf of the Mission to Lepers. The Church was provided by funds collected by Mrs. Grace Otway Mayne and Miss F. A. Goodman. As far back as 1884 the needs of the lepers of Rawal Pindi were first brought to the notice of the Mission, but it was not till 1908 that anything really satisfactory was accomplished on their behalf. In the Annual Report of the Mission for that year we read : " At Rawal Pindi, in the Panjab, where for many years the condition of the so-called Leper Asylum was a standmg disgrace, suitable buildings have been erected, which include several new wards for men and women, a hospital for each of the sexes, and a caretaker's house and premises. This has become possible by the hearty co-operation of the Panjab Government, and the unflagging energy of the Superintendent of the Asylum, Mr. Nicol, of the American United Presbyterian Mission." AN IDEAL ARRANGEMENT i8i At Poona the combined efforts of the Mission and the authorities have, after considerable delay, resulted in the provision of a large and well-equipped Asylum, owned and controlled by the Society and financially supported by the Government. This arrangement may be regarded as ideal', since it secures for the lepers comfortable quarters under kind and efficient control, while these unfortunate and helpless sufferers are supported in part at least by the public to whom their segregation is a marked benefit. It should be recorded that at the time of writing (1910) the Poona Asylum is under the charge of Miss Lilian Currie, a young lady who volunteered for this special service as a trained nurse in connection with the United Free Church of Scotland Mission. A considerable number of new names appear in the Society's list of Stations in the course of the years under review. In some instances only temporary help was given, in others, permanent and important Asylums have resulted, or may be expected to do so. India continues to be the field in which the work most rapidly and naturally extends, and in this country the following new stations come before us. In the Orissa district of Bengal, and in the small Native State of Mourbhanj, there is an Asylum, subsidised to some extent by the Maharajah, and visited by workers of the Mourbhanj State Mission — an Australian Society. Application for a grant in aid was responded to in 1907, and enlargement and improvement was the result. A neat little chapel has been erected by our Society, and the whole work, both on the physical and religious sides, has been rendered much more efficient. What is virtually a new Asylum was formally opened by Mr. and Mrs. Bailey on the occasion of their visit in 1907. Another instance of co-operation between The Mission to Lepers and a Native Indian State, is to be found in the i82 LEPERS, 1906-10 case of Gwalior. With a view of providing shelter for the many lepers of his State, and at the same time protecting the healthy community, the Maharajah has built an Asylum and placed it under the management of The Mission to Lepers, as represented by Dr. Nugent, of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. A considerable number of destitute lepers have been gathered in, and the future progress of this effort will be awaited with much interest. In this connection it may be recorded that one of the native Princes of Bengal, after a visit to our Asylum at Raniganj, recorded in the Visitors' Book his entire sympathy with what he described as a "real Christian Mission," and left a donation of -£so for a new ward. On behalf of the lepers of Sikkim — a small independent State in North India — an appeal reached the Committee in 1908, and the sum of £150 was placed at their disposal by a generous and anonymous donor. After delays arising from sickness among the missionaries of the Scandinavian Alliance Mission, and from difficulties as to a site for even a small Asylum, the attempt had to be abandoned, at least for the present, and the £150 devoted to the erection of a ward in a new Asylum at Madura. This, perhaps in the eyes of the Hindus the most sacred city of Southern India, is the resort of many lepers. Though Madura has been famous for its temples for centuries, it has been reserved for Christian missionaries in igio to provide the first Home of refuge for its lepers. In answer to an urgent plea from Dr. Harriet E. Parker, of the American Congregational Missions, The Mission to Lepers has undertaken at least one ward of a new Asylum, which, soon after this is read, will, it is hoped, be built and tenanted. In 1909 the Mission became associated with an effort on behalf of the Lepers of Raj Nandgaon, in the Central Provinces of India. For several years an inadequate LEPERS AS BUTCHERS AND BAICERS 183 attempt has been made by this small Native State to provide for a few of its lepers. Finally the missionaries of the Pentecost Bands of the World (U.S.A.) arranged to accept the transfer of the Asylum to their care, together with a site for new and improved buildings. To this undertaking the Committee of the Mission gladly sanctioned a grant, and it now appears as one of our aided Stations. The latest new effort in India to be recorded in this volume is one of great interest and importance. It has for its aim to provide a place of refuge for some of the thousands of lepers to be found in the large Native State of Hyderabad. Early in 1910 the Committee of the Mission had before them an urgent appeal from the Rev. G. M. Kerr, of the Wesleyan Methodist Society, for aid towards an Asylum to be erected in Nizamabad — about one hundred miles north of the Capital of the Nizam's State. In presenting his plea Mr. Kerr states, that there are believed to be no fewer than 2,000 lepers within a radius of forty miles. He tells of the bakers of the city having been expelled because leprosy was rife among them. The butchers were also found to be similarly infected. A gratifying feature in connection with this new effort is that a suitable site has been offered by a local Hindu merchant, who has also generously given ;^590 towards the erection of the Asylum. In transferring these gifts to the Mission this gentleman stated, that he was con- strained to appeal to the followers of Christ to do for these outcast people what the followers of Vishnu were unwilling to do. The Committee were glad to be able to respond favourably, and by the time this is read we believe a comfortable Asylum will be in course of erection. At Raniganj, Bengal, I found that considerable exten- sion and improvement had taken place since my former visit. Not only had additional land been acquired on 184 LEPERS, 1906-10 which new Wards had been erected, but a much-needed new Church had lately been completed. Though I was struck by many sore disfigurements, and even ghastly mutilations, in this Asylum, it was on the whole a cheery congregation that greeted us in the new Church, with its twelve doors standing open to the air. An elder has been appointed for each ward of twelve people, and these were seated at the end of the rows in the church. The singing of this large gathering of Christian lepers was especially hearty, and their earnest response to the prayers was most marked. I only wish the generous donors to the new church could have witnessed the sight of these grateful worshippers assembled in their new house of worship, with which they are delighted. Mr. Bleby kindly interpreted the short address I gave to them, and when at its close I asked if they had any message for their friends in England, there were several prompt responses, both from men and women. One man in an advanced stage of the disease said, " We see that we owe this Home and all our comforts to the love of Jesus, and we are now on our way to live with Him." Another said. " We were dying in sin and misery, but are now happy in this Asylum and in the love of God." Another, " I thank God for bringing you to us again. We pray for you and for all our friends." A woman, who spoke with deep feeling, said, " When my father and mother turned me out, and everybody drove me away, God's people provided this Home for me. Here I am happy, and here I have learned of Jesus Who is ' the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' " Other stations of no little interest must be dismissed with a brief mention. At Sabathu, in the Panjab, India, an old and dilapidated Asylum in which the Mission has carried on a successful work for many years is being replaced by a new Institution, in the maintenance and KOREA AND SI AM 185 management of which it is hoped the Mission and the local authorities will co-operate. At Fusan, in the south of Korea, a well-built Asylum has been erected, and at the moment of writing we are cheered by tidings that it is open and occupied. Of the need for it there can be no doubt. In an appeal on behalf of the lepers of the district Dr. Irvin, of the American Presbyterian Mission, writes : " In cold weather they crawl into the fireplaces after they have sufficiently cooled, and the accumulation of soot does not add to their health, their comfort, or their appearance. They are badly clothed, if clothed you can call it. They are truly outcasts, despised and shunned of all men." The Committee were able to respond to this piteous plea mainly through the generosity of anonymous friends in the West of England. The " Gennesaret " ward for men was the personal gift of these donors, and a similar ward for women has been built by the proceeds of a Half- penny League founded by the same helpers, of whose invaluable gifts and service cordial acknowledgment is hereby made. A Chapel has also been provided and the Institution is located in a pleasant and healthy spot at a suitable distance from the city. The sad case of the lepers of Siam was brought before the Committee by Dr. McKean in 1907. As in Korea so in Siam ; the East moves slowlv, and disappointing delays have been experienced at both these Stations. The Siamese authorities provided land, however, and by the end of 1908 an encouraging beginning was reported. A considerable area of the land had been cleared for cul- tivation, and temporary houses were occupied by a number of grateful inmates. An experienced Christian and his wife had been found for caretakers, and the prospect was brightening. To this Asylum the Mission to Lepers has i86 LEPERS, 1906-10 made a grant, though not able to assume the entire responsibility. A report dated February, igio, tells of steady advance and gratifying results. Twenty lepers were resident in this Island Home, of whom eighteen had become adherents to the Christian Faith. At Wuchow encouraging progress has been made, and our little colony of lepers are accommodated on an Island in fifteen well-built little houses. The Superintendent writes as follows, in connection with this interesting Station : " The Home is also of the greatest help to our Mission as a whole. The fact that the Christian Church provides for these poor outcasts is known far and wide. Our work in this direction at least admits no suspicion. The favourable impression created by works of philanthropy in China, whether it be the care of the aged, or the blind, or the leper pariah, reacts most beneficially upon every variety of missionary labour. Perhaps, more than any other way, acts of charity such as these give a living example of the true spirit of Christian love, and commend our religion to all around." The need of the leper community in the village near the West Gate of Foochow City was urgently brought before the Society by Rev. W. C. White in 1908, and it was arranged that workers should be supported and, as soon as practicable, houses erected for them, as well as a Chapel and a Home for untainted children. News of progress in this important centre is anticipated at an early date. A lady visiting this village describes it as a collection of sties — a mere leper den in a defile between the hills, and an abode of the most hopeless misery. A new effort for the lepers of Southern China is being undertaken in 1910, in conjunction with the missionaries of the American Methodist Society. About two miles outside the Gate of Yen Ping City is a Leper Village, with about 80 people. They have shown themselves Lepers at the Tokio Asylum, with Christmas decorations put up by them. Inmates of the Asylum at Kumamoto, Japan. A TRAGEDY IN THE PHILIPPINES 187 particularly responsive to Christian teaching, and an urgent appeal was made to the Committee to provide them with a Chapel, together with a grant for medical and other comforts. This was responded to, and it is hoped that this modest beginning may lead on to greater things. In connection with this opening it is interesting to learn that the native Christians are most anxious to see it developed. They are much touched by this practical application of the Christian Gospel. At Kumamoto, in the South Island of Japan, the Asylum founded by Miss Riddell, and aided both as to building and support by the Mission, continues its useful work. A recent report tells of many efforts to cheer the sad lives of the inmates, one of the most successful being the Christian Endeavour Society. A library and a reading club, and even a Literary Debating Society with its own Magazine, all contribute to the social life of the institu- tion, which numbers among its inmates men of education and refinement. A new field full of interest and hope has been entered in the Philippines. These rich, fertile and beautiful Islands are sorely stricken by leprosy. The first appeal to reach the Mission came from the Rev. F. Jansen in 1907, His attention was directed to the inmates of the San Lazar Leper Hospital, in Manila, numbering some 400. Their condition in many respects was deplorable, and the need for regular work amongst them was felt to be urgent. The Committee responded by undertaking the support of an evangelist who has for some three years been rendering useful and satisfactory service. As showing the need these sufferers have of comfort and hope, we quote one instance out of several. "A beautiful young Philippina woman, accomplished and refined, and of excellent family, married most happily for nearly a year to a young American business man, who loved her dearly, was i88 LEPERS, 1906-10 taken by the Inspectors from a boat in the Bay as a leper to the Hospital. Her husband was just about to take her to China or Japan. Their entreaties were of no avail. She was about to become a mother, and a few days later a young broken-hearted mother, with a new-born infant, were laid to their long rest. In 1910 a further development is taking place in conse- quence of the efforts of the Government to segregate the lepers of the Philippines on the Island of Culion — one of the smaller of the group that has been found suitable for the purpose. Most of the inmates of the San Lazar Hospital have been transferred to the new Settlement, and the hospital is being used as a Distribution Depot. At the time of writing some 1,600 lepers have been col- lected at Culion, a number that will doubtless be increased in the future. The Evangelist supported by the Mission has paid a lengthened visit to this Settlement, and reports great interest among the lepers there. It is hoped that an efficient worker may soon be settled at Culion, where he will clearly have an extensive field for his activities. In the latest report the Superintendent of the work. Rev. G. W. Wright, of the American Presbyterian Mission, says — " Thank you most sincerely for your continued help. You are making possible a work which I believe is truly appreciated. Our leper evangelist is much beloved." Mr. Wright wisely adds, with regard to our work in a Settlement where the majority are nominal Romanists, that our aim is " not to quarrel with Catholicism, but to preach a religion of vital faith and consistent works, and this is our policy among the lepers as among others." In addition to these definite developments of work in new centres, considerable extensions were effected in established Stations. Reference to the Annual Report for 1907, for example, reveals that in that one year alone new buildings were erected at thirteen different Asylums — included in these being Churches, Hospitals, Wards and CO-OPERATION WITH GOVERNMENT 189 Children's Homes. Similar progress, if in a smaller degree, marked the other years under notice. This continued extension of work, that is at once remedial and preventive, must afford real satisfaction to all who have at heart the interests of India and the East. Allusion has already been made to the co-operation between the Indian Governments and the Mission in segregating the lepers and saving their children. There can no longer be any doubt that in the interests ofpublic health and safety, no less than in those of economy and efficiency in the administration of the Acts, the wisest policy is for the authorities to take the fullest advantage of the voluntary and capable co-operation of Mission workers. This co-operation the Mission to Lepers as an Interdenominational and International body is admirably adapted to promote. The Committee of The Mission to Lepers would here gratefully acknowledge the generous help of the authorities, without which their operations must be seriously curtailed. The relations of the Mission and its agents with the governing bodies and local authorities have been, and are, of the most cordial character. Nor has official recognition of the devoted labours of representative workers among the lepers been wanting. In successive years — 1906 and 1907 — the Kaiser-I-Hind Gold Medal of the First Class was conferred on the Superintendents of two of the Mission's largest Asylums, viz: Rev. F. Hahn, of Purulia, and Rev. E. Guilford, of Tarn Taran. While the foregoing evidences of material progress are thankfully noted, even more grateful acknowledgment must be made of marked success on the Missionary side of the work. The reader will have long ago noted the peculiar readiness of the lepers to respond to the Message of Hope which they have the daily opportunity of hearing. It is remarkable that for each of the past 190 LEPERS, 1906-10 four years (igoS-igog) the number of baptisms at the Stations of the Mission has steadily averaged upwards of 500. The four years yield a total of 2,158 baptisms, and the steadiness of the numbers year by year is striking evidence that these additions to the Christian Community among the lepers are not the results of spasmodic excitement but of a quiet Christian influence. " But " (in the words of the Committee's Report for 1908) "what is of more value than actual tabulated numbers, the lives of the Christian inmates of the Asylums testify more and more to the fact that a living personal Christ is to them a reality, and that nothing but His gospel can give them comfort in their distress." Among events worthy of note at this period the Conference of Superintendents of Asylums held at Purulia February 18th, to 21st, igo8, deserves a place. The Conference was presided over by Mr. Wellesley C. Bailey ; the secretary was Rev. H. M. Bleby, and Rev. F. Hahn was responsible for the local arrangements. The meetings were full of interest, and the frank discussions proved help- ful to the workers present. This Conference concluded with a public meeting in the Town Hall of Purulia, presided over by the Hon. Mr. Macpherson, Senior Member of the Viceroy's Council. In concluding his impressions of this important gathering, Mr. Bailey writes : " We were all drawn together as fellow- workers in a great cause, and I think we realised the importance of the work as never before, whilst the spirit of loyalty to The Leper Mission was most marked." The delegates placed on record their " unanimous opinion that leprosy is con- tagious, and that the only solution to the leper problem in India is wise, humane, but complete segregation of the diseased leper from the healthy community." The conclusions reached by these practical workers among lepers were confirmed in a remarkable manner by THE BERGEN CONFERENCE 191 a representative Conference of Specialists from all over the world, which assembled in Bergen, Norway, in August, 1909. The delegates to this important gathering included men eminent for their investigation of the subject, such as Dr. Armauer Hansen, the discoverer of the lepra bacillus ; Sir J. Hutchinson, Professors Ehlers, Arning and Petersen, and other distinguished leprologists. The work of the Mission to Lepers was recognised by an invitation to its Superintendent, who was present as a delegate. To the Executive of The Mission to Lepers in particular, and to its supporters in general, the decisions arrived at by the Conference were entirely satisfactory. They constituted indeed an emphatic endorsement of the policy pursued by the Mission for the past thirty-five years, viz., the segregation of the lepers, and the separation of their healthy children. We quote the most essential of the resolutions arrived at by the Conference. 1. Leprosy is a disease which is contagious from person to person, whatever may be the method by which this contagion is effected. Every country, in whatever latitude it is situated, is within the range of possible infection by leprosy, and may, therefore, usefully undertake measures to protect itself. 2. In view of the success obtained in Germany, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, it is desirable that countries with leprosy should isolate lepers. 3. It is desirable that the children of lepers should be separated from their leprous parents as soon as possible, and that they should remain under observation. 4. An examination should be made from time to time of those having lived with lepers by a doctor having special knowledge. The findings of yet another Conference must be noted as having a direct bearing on our subject, viz., the China Centenary Missionary Conference held at Shanghai in 1907, and representative of the whole of the Missionary 192 LEPERS, 1906-10 forces of China. The topic of Lepers and work among them was dealt with by the Medical Committee who reported, in part, as follows : — "Though no cure has yet been found, much can be done to mitigate pain, and to teach the importance of segregation and other preventive measures. Life and the power to work can be prolonged, and the last years of the helpless made happy. No class of the population have shown themselves so ready to receive the Gospel, and to receive it with their whole hearts. ^^ We find three Conferences diiferent in character, and assembling in diiferent countries — Europe, India and China — unanimous in their recommendations, and emphatic in their endorsement, of the methods of The Mission to Lepers, to the value of whose work no stronger testimony could be conceived. It cannot be too clearly understood that the work of which this volume is the record is the work of the whole of Evangelical Christendom, The Mission to Lepers being the body which directs and unifies their efforts. That the Mission is now financing work among lepers which is supervised by the agents of 30 Societies is a gratifying evidence of Christian unity. And this is the more striking when it is remembered that these workers include missionaries of European (British & Continental), American, Canadian and Australian Societies. The relations between the Mission and these co-operating Societies were thus recognised and defined in the Annual Report for 1908. " The Mission to Lepers is under deep obligation to the several Missionary Societies which permit and authorise their agents to undertake the supervision and management of institutions founded by this Mission or through its assistance. The contribution made by these Societies in the way of the service of spiritual agents, trained and sent out by them, and receiving from them main- tenance, pension, travelling, and furlough expenses is of enormous MISS MARY REED 193 value to this work. If the Mission to Lepers were called upon to provide these workers its field of operations would be greatly restricted. It is the desire of the Committee that there shall always be on our part a full and hearty acknowledgment of the work of the several Societies and Missionaries acting in co-operation with us.'' A passing mention must be made of Miss Mary Reed in connection with a much-needed furlough she was enabled to take in 1905 and igo6. In reporting her return to the work, in which her experience has been unique, Miss Reed writes on November 27th, 1906 : " It was a real joy to be able to resume my duties here to-day. The warm welcome and loving greeting our eighty poor patients, and many other kind friends and neighbours, gave me was most inspiring. It is good to be here, so refreshed and thoroughly rested now." Miss Reed's general health has continued fairly good, and she has been cheered by tokens of moral and spiritual advance among her lepers. At the time of writing she has the advantage of the com- panionship and co-operation of Miss A. E. Kemp, who has volunteered to assist in the work at Chandag, after a short period of service at Sabathu. Exigencies of space demand that references to events of considerable importance in the development of the Society's work must be very brief. From time to time the public standing of the Society has been strengthened by the addition of men of eminence to its list of Vice- Presidents. Its cordial relations with other Missionary bodies has been emphasised by the election of Rev. W. H. Findlay (Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society) ; Rev. and Hon. Arthur Gordon (Church of Scotland), and A. H. Baynes Esq. (Baptist Missionary Society). Two others noted for their knowledge of the work of Missions in China and India, respectivel)^, were added, viz : Sir Andrew Eraser, K.C.S.I., and Sir Robert Hart, G.C.M.G., o 194 LEPERS, 1906-10 both of whom have given public expression of their high appreciation of the Work of the Mission. Among changes in the Home Staff may be recorded the appointment, in 1908, of Mr. Thomas A. Bailey to be Honorary Finance Secretary and Secretary for Scotland. This arrangement was made with the double object of relieving the Superin- tendent of some part of the ever-growing work of finance, and of promoting the interests of the Society in Scotland. The Mission is now deriving an encouraging degree of support from the Christian public of Australia — thanks in no small measure to the active efforts of Mr. H.J. Hannah, of Melbourne. Development in Canada has been some- what restricted by the prolonged illness of the Society's valued Secretary, Miss Lila Watt. It is hoped, however, that her convalescence is nearly complete, as she has recently resumed the work she loves. Owing to the demolition of Exeter Hall, the London Offices ofthe Mission were removed at Midsummer, 1907, to 33 "Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. In 1906 the publication of Without the Camp was transferred from the Edinburgh to the London Offices, and the present writer appointed Editor. The Report for 1906 thus referred to the publication of the First Edition of this volume : " This deeply interesting record ofthe work of the Mission has met with a very hearty reception both from the press and the general public, and has already borne much fruit in awakening fresh interest, and in stimulating old friends to greater zeal and effort. The press notices show how deep is the impression made by Mr. Jackson's book. The Committee have conveyed to him their grateful sense of the service which he has rendered by its publication.'' Other publications of this period included a popular edition of " In Leper Land," and a revised edition (the GRATEFUL THANKS 195 ninth) of " Mary Reed." A series of penny booklets by various authors were issued, and in January, 1910, the Society's Magazine was changed in size and style — a change regarded by the main body of its readers as a marked improvement. Among the agencies employed on the Home side of the work mention must be made of Missionary Exhibi- tions. By the courtesy of other and larger Societies, notably of the C.M.S. and the L.M.S., The Mission to Lepers has been enabled to bring its work to the know- ledge of thousands who would otherwise have remained ignorant of it. In two large London Exhibitions — "The Orient " and " Africa and the East," as well as in many others in large provincial centres, the " Leper Court " has proved a feature of considerable interest, and has awakened much sympathy. In the pages of this, the Official History of the Society, the committee would once more record their grateful recognition of the way in which their ever-growing financial needs have been supplied. One specific example may be given. In the October (1909) Magazine it was stated that the bank account was overdrawn by some £1,600, and that if the Home Income were to equal that of the preceding year not less than £10,400 must be received by December 31st. With deep gratitude be it recorded that before the books were closed for 1909 the sum of £12,292 had been contributed, the largest gift being one of £1,320 by an American farmer and his wife. The statement of income and expenditure for 35 years, appended to this chapter will show a steady and rapid growth of revenue, which has been accompanied by an even more rapid expansion of the beneficent operations of the Society. But our heartfelt gratitude for the marked and manifest success which the Divine Disposer of all things has granted to our efforts, is shadowed by the 196 LEPERS, 1906-10 thought of the multitude of outcast sufferers still waiting in the outer darkness of a heathen leper's lot for the hope that only Christian Missions can afford them. If it seems a great thing, and it is assuredly not a small one, that the Mission is now supporting, or in some degree aiding, not less than 10,000 lepers, or children of lepers, let it never be forgotten that in the field of its operations these stricken people number from a quarter to half a million ! Accursed, as they believe, by their gods : cast out by their own kindred : shunned by their fellows, this vast throng of the sons and daughters of death lift up their hoarse voices in a bitter cry, and stretch out their fingerless hands in a pitiful plea, for the help and sympathy of the healthy and happy people of the Christian lands in whose language the sweetest word is Love. ''Both riches and honour come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all; and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. " Now, therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious Name." SUMMARY OF WORK 197 Statement Showing Receipts and Expenditure FOR Thirty-five Years. First 5 years (1874- 1879) Second 5 years (1880-1884) Third 5 years (1885-1889) Fourth 5 years (1890- 1894) Fifth 5 years (1895-1899) Sixth 5 years (1900- 1904) Seventh 5 years (1905-1909) First 5 years(i874-i879) Second 5 years (1880- 1884) Third 5 years (1885-1889) Fourth s years (1890-1894) Fifth s years (1895-1899) Sixth 5 years (1900-1904) Seventh 5 years (1905-1909) Receipts. £ s. d. 4,154 I o 4,606 3 3 8,717 3 I 26,028 13 4 37,463 o 10 88,822 19 5 I35>359 16 7 35 years ... •• .£305,151 17 6 Expenditure. "... '.'.'. 2,254 18 4,378 16 8,194 7 26,024 15 37,221 II 81,912 4 130,544 15 d. 9 10 7 2 2 S 9 ■■or 35 years... •• .£290,531 7 8 SUMMARY OF THE WORK OF THE MISSION TO LEPERS IN INDIA AND THE EAST AT DECEMBER 31ST, 1909. Lepers. Untainted Children. Total. In the Society's Asylums and Homes In other Asylums and Homes aided by Funds or Teachers ... Total supported or benefited (about) 4307 5789 484 89 4791 5878 10,096 573 10,669 Of the above 3,615 are returned as Christians. V ^-\. \^^ '^ J ''OINr ^ ^-"^ ^- v\ Co » /• TpJSHETu Khan 3^ S h a >" ° TSETSEN K Ala-s.h7a| -z;^N ^^^ ^ '-\( "T^H" R ^'iir^.''- !:^ .w "Chi- a .»y. Tun^ijn£ N(W!-kin; ,NGAI-HWElX' SlT Baofoj^aju -^ i i'.V^afluiJ M<' atates 7. ? iFU-Kr'EN: "7 ,0^ Tainsf is: 1 LaPa^'^"' ING tMhur span} laUtsi-onilBr) ftUodaw l(HO>^« V^//I '*fS ij/n;- ^('c ^Hian-chCij fi V'W^ tttouths of tht Shanghai AN6 ; Jng-(>c ,e» Hag"' ^\ jHtUt>iJ> iioshiif'^ /kiushiu f /! SX. jjra/>«ja«'i'' ^jUoOT'OS*""'" p _^l C -* r I c (Hung f?{itK.oko Bttshi Chofi \ Baton /* \ ti^OUinairallhiroa Honip I E A N d CaM*;....- z:::»,c3L MAP OF CHINA AND JAPAN SHOWING THE STATIONS OF THE MISSION TO LEPERS IN INDU AND THE EAST. Station! of the HIsilon underlined red. By Stations we mean not only thoie plaoee where the lllailon ~to Leperi has homes of Its own, bat also those plaoes where aid Is ^Iven to work carried on by others. wo MO 300 400 " "lio Ximy^&tikX^ttti^ »f lirarai'UK Cfijrjiif'A INDEX PAGE Acts, Lepers' (Legislative) ... ... ... ... ...46, 108 Acworth, H. A., CLE., ... ... ... ... .„ 108 Adam, Miss.., ... ... ... ... ... ... 86 Albert Boulter Memorial Home ... ... ... ... 165 Alexander, Miss E. ... ... ... ... ... ... 22 Allahabad Asylum ... .„ ... ... „ 43, 69, 177 Alleppey Asylum ... .„ ... ... .... ... 37 All Nations Missionary Union... ... ... ._ 105, 106, 148 Almora Asylum ... ... .„ 9, 23, 33, 69, 70, 93, 94, 145 Ambala Asylum .... ... ... ._ .., n, 14, 32 American Advisory Committee ... ... ... ... 80 American Baptist Missionary Society ... .... ... ... 42 American Congregational Missions ... ... ... ... 183 American Foreign Christian Missionary Society ... ... ... 67 American Marathi Mission ... ... ... ... ...65, 107 American Mennonite Mission ... ... ... ... 113, 115 American Methodist Episcopal Mission ... ._ ... 37, 62, 186 Amer. Presb. Mission 10, 12, 26, 43, 57, 66, 107, 126, 170, 177, 185, 188 American Reformed Presbyterian Mission ... ... ... 68 Amherst (Burma) ._ ... ... ... ... ... 42 Anaesthesia ... .„ ... ... ... ... ... 106 Anderson, W. H. P. ... ... ... ... ... 158, 175 Armstrong, Rev. F. W. ... ... ... ... ... 42 Arning, Prof. ... ... ... ... ... ... 191 Asansol Asylum ... .„ ... ... 49, 60, 91, 141, 158 Asaph of Urikel ... ... ... ... ._ ... 119 Baba Lakhan (Punjab) ... ... ... ... ... 67 Baidyanath (Bengal) ... ... ... ... ... ... 85 Bailey, T. A. — Appointed Hon. Sec. for S. Ireland, 78 ; appointed Hon. Org. Sec. for India, 78 ; tour in the United States and Canada, 166; appointed Finance Secretary and Sec. for Scotland 194 Bailey, Mrs. T. A. ... ... ... ... ... ... 78, 166 Bailey, Wellesley C. — Sketch of his Life, 11; holds his first Leper Meeting, 15 ; visit to Ireland, 22 ; becomes General Secretary, 34; styled Superintendent, 49; tours to India, U.S.A. and Canada, 49; at Saharanpur Asylum, 66 ; meeting at Y.M.C.A. (Aldersgate St.), 74 ; 3rd Indian Tour, 78 ; 4th Indian Tour, ... 161 Bailey, Mrs. W. C. ... ... ... ... ... ...11,161 Banister, Rev. W. ... ... ... ... ... ... 55, 87 Bankura Asylum .„ ... ... ._ .« 116, 173 Baptism of Lepers ... 105, 129, 130, 163, 174, 175, 177, 190, 204, 226, 229 Baptist Missionary Society ... ... ... ... ... 43 Barber, A. T. ... ... ... ... ... ... 148 Easel Mission ... ... ... ... ... ■■■67, 151 199 200 INDEX PAGE Batlersby, Miss C. Maud ... ... ... ... ... 148 Bawa, Rev. I. B. ... ... .- ... ... ... 65 Baynes, A. H. ... ... ... ... ... ... 193 Beattie, Rev. Andrew ... .. ... ... .• 126 Begum's Government .- ... ... ... .•• 68 Bengal, Lepers in .... ... ... ... ... ... 64i 9' Bergen Conference ... ... ... ... ... 261 9^. 191 Berlin Conference of Leprologists (1897) ... ... ... 26, 98 Bestall, Rev. A. H. ... ... .., ... ... S^. 143. '72 Bhagalpur Asylum ... ... ... ... .., ... 59 Bible Society and the Lepers ... ... ... ... I39i 174 Bleby, Rev. H. M. ... .. ... ... ... .. 184 Bombay (Dharamsala) ... ... ... ... .- u Bombay, Decennial Conference at ... ... ._ ... S'-' Bombay, the Lepers of .- ... ... ... ... II, 108 Boulter, Mri. ... ... ... ... ... ... 165 Boyd, Dr. H. W. ... .„ ... ... ... ... 170 Brahman Leper, The._ ... ._ ... ... ... 15 Brantford (Ont.) Convention ... ... .„ .- ... 157 Brighton Auxiliary ... ... ... ... ... ... 33 Brooke, Miss ... ... .- ... ... ... 22 Brunot, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... ... 99 Bryan, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... 117, 173 Budden, The Misses ... ... ... ... ... ... 24 Budden, Rev. J. H. ... ... ... ... ... .„ 37 Buddh'sm and Christianity ... ... ... ... ... 3 Buddhism and the Lepers ... ... ... .. ... S^ Bulloch, The Rev. G. M. ... ... ... ... ... 14S Burmah ... ... ... ... „ ... 42, 58, lio Butt, Miss Norah ... ... ... ... ._ ... 172 Byers, Rev. W. P. and Mrs. ... ... .. ... ...62,158 Calcutta Asylum ... ... ... ... ... 10, 38, 172 Calicut Asylum ... ... .„ .., ... ...67, 151 Canadian Baptist Mission ... ... ... ... ... 101 Canadian Presbyterian Mission ... ... ._ no, 182 Canton Lepers ... ... ... ._ ...7, 126, 142, 170 Carpenter, Rev. J. B. ... ... ... ... ... 129 Carson, Miss Harriet S. .... ... ... ... ... 50 Caste prejudices ... ... ._ ... ... ... 60 Census (Indian) and Lepers ... ... ... ... ... 4 Central Provinces, Lepers in ._ ... ... ... 67 Chamba Asylum ... ... ... ... ... 16,19 Chamba State ... ... ... ... ... ... 16, 19 Champa Asylum (C. P.) ... ... ._ ... 115,163,180 Chandag Asylum .... ... ... .„ ... 37, 47, 69, 94 Chandkuri Asylum ... ... ... .„ 83, 136, 158, 162, 175 Child-lepers ... ... ... ... ... 113, 146 Children, Untainted ... ... 24, 71, 85, 117, 128, 145, 164, 170 Children's Homes .... ... 24, 71, 85, 117, 128, 146, 170, 173, 178 China, Central ... ... ._ ... ... ... 55, 86 China Centenary Missionary Conference .„ ... .... 191 China, Lepers in ... ... ... ... 6,52,137,155,170 Chota Nagpore, Maharajah of ... ... ... ... ... 36 Chowsky, Dr. ... .„ ... ... ... ... 48 Christ and the Leper ... ... ... ... ... 3, m INDEX 201 PAGE Christaram (A Leper) ... ... ... ... ... 60 Christaram's Hymn ... ... ... ... ... 61 " Christaram " Asylum — Asansol ... ... ... ... 60 Christmas among the Lepers ... ... ... ... ... 93 Christian Endeavour Societies, Leper ... ... ... 142,174,187 Christianity and Buddhism ... ... ... ... ... 3 Christianity and Hinduism ... ... ... ... ... 2,179 Christianity and the Lepers ... ... 2, 6, 86, 87, 104, in, 123, 186 Christian Lepers 27, 55, 60, 68, 69, 72, 87, 95, 104, 106, 119, 121, 130 Church Missionary Society 10, 30, 37, 54, 56, 59, 87, 98, 106, 129, 180, 19S Church of Scotland Mission ... ... ... ... ... 3' Claire Asylum (Chandkuri) ... ... ... ... .- 84 Clapham Auxiliary ... ... ... ... ... ... 80 Collins, Rev. J. S. ... ... ... ... ... ... 54 Colombo ... ... ... ... ... ... .... 42 Commendation, Official ... ... ... 79, I3S. '37. '71 Committee appointed ... ... ... ... ... 22 Conference of Leprologists at Bergen ... ... ... 26,98,191 „ ,, Berlin ... ... ... ... 26, 98 Conference of Superintendents ... ... ... .... 19° Contagiousness of Leprosy ... ... ... ... 25, 98, 102, 191 Convention at Brantford (Canada) ... ... ... ... I57 Cousland, Dr. P. B. ... ... ... ... ... ... 6, 53 Culion, Island of ... ... ... ... ... ... 188 Cullen, Rev. J. A. ... ... ... ... ... ... S9 Currie, Miss L. ... ... ... ... ... ... iBl Cust, R. N., LL.D. ... ... ... ... ... ... 5 Daly, The Hon. Major, C.S.I, CLE. ... ... .... ... 154 Damien, Father ... ... ... ... ... ... 43, 168 Davis, Rev. J. E. ... ... ... ... ... ... 103 Dease, Dr ... ... ... ... ... 37 Decennial Conference at Bombay ... ... ... ... 50 „ ,, Madras ... ... ... ... 30 Dehra Asylum ... . . ... ... ... ... 26, 33 Denny, T. A. ... ... ... ... ... ... 49 Dhamtari Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 113 Dhar Asylum (Centrallndia) ... ... ... ... 112,153 Dharamsala . . . ... ... ... ... ... ... II Dharmsala Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 43 Dublin ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 22, 31 Dufferin and Ava, Dowager Marchioness of ... ... ... 35, 93 Durand, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... ... 67 Dutch Government ... ... ... ... ... ... 125 Dutton, Bro. Joseph .. . ... ... ... ... ... i68 Edinburgh Office — removed ... ... ... ... ... 157 " Edith " Home (Bankura) ... ... ... ... 118,173 Ehlers, Prof. ... .- ... ••■ ... ... 191 Ellichpur Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 85 European Lepers ... ... ... ... ... 42,46,59,165 Eves, Graves 8. ... ... ... ... ... ... 22 Evington, Bishop ... ... ... ... ... ... 88 " Faithful Witness," The ... ... ... ... ... 112 Fayrer, Sir Joseph, Bt., K.C.S.1 48 202 INDEX PAGE Festivities among the Lepers ... ... ... ... 122,164 Findlay, Rev. W. II. ... .. ... ... ... 136 Foochow ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 186 Foochow Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 87 Formation of the Mission ... ... ... ... ... 22 Fourfold Work, A. ... ... ... ... ... ... 39 Fowler, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... ... 137 Fox, Rev. Prebendary H. E. ... ... ... ... ... 30 Francis of A ssisi ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 Fraser, Sir A. H. L., K.C.S.I. ... ... ... 13S, 193 Friends' Foreign Missions ... ... ... ... ... 68 Fry, Dr. (of Penang) ... ... ... ... ... 171 Fry, Dr. Sargood ... ... ... ... ... ... 39 Fuh Kien Missionary Conference ... ... ... 31 Fusan ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 185 " Glimpse at the Indian Mission Field and Leper Asylums " ... 34 Good, Rev. Thomas ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Goodman, Miss F. A. ... ... ... ... ... 182 Gordon, Rev. the Hon. Arthur .„ ... ... ... 193 Gordon, Rev. E. M. ... ... .. ... ... ... 84 Gossner's Mission ... .> ... ... ... 31,40,119,175 Govindpur Asylum (Bengal) ... ... ... ... 119 Government Co-operation ... 78, 100, 122, 134, 180, 181, 184, 188 See also " Official Commendation." Grace Otway Mayne Asylum ... ... ... ... ... 180 Green, C. Douglas, at Purulia, 140; appointed Deputation Secretary 157 Grundy, Rev. B. ... ... ... ... ... ... 172 Guilford, Rev. E. ... ... ... ... ... ... 37, 120 Gurjan Oil ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Gwalior State, Lepers of ... ... ... ... 110,112,182 Hahn, Rev. Ferdinand ... ... ... 32, 119, J32, 173, 174 Hangchow Asylum ... ... ... ... ... .. 53,91 Hannah, H. J. ... ... ... ... ... ... 194 Hansen, Dr. Armauer .., ... ... ... ... 191 Harris, Lord ... ... ... ... .. ... 108 Hart, Sir Robert, G.C.M.G. ... ... ... ... 171, 193 Harvey, Miss ... ... ... ... ... ... 100 Haswell, Miss ... ... ... ... ... .. 42 Hatch, Miss S. I. ... ... ... ... ... ... loi Hawaiian Islands ... ... ... ... ... ... 167 Heathenism and Lepers ... ... ... ... ... 124 Helpers' Guild, The ... ... ... ... ... ... 147 Henderson, Mrs. (The late) ... .. ... ... ... 112 Henderson, William ... ... .„ ... ... ... 112 Henderson Memorial Asylum ... ... ... ... ... 153 Henry IV. ... ... .„ ... ... ... ... i Herbert, Rev. E. P. ... ... ... ... ... ... 106 Heredity ... ... ... ... ... ... 24, 98, 191 Hermannsburg Evan. Luth. Miss. Society ... ... ... 155 Herron, Rev. David... ... ... ... 26, 42, 66, 68, 80 Higginbottom, Prof. ... ... ... ... ... ... 177 Hill Stations .. ... ... ... ... ... 23 Hinduism and Christianity ... ... ... ... ... 2, 179 Hinduism and the Lepers ... ... ... ... ... no PAGE 128 22 i68 • 53 I.S5 99 67 125 . 48, 191 32 4 3. 29. 133. 192 4. 3°. 133. 192 18S INDEX 203 Hok-chiang Asylum ... Holden, Rev. David .. . Honolulu Horder, Dr. Hurcomb, W. E. Hurda Asylum Huta Salem (Sumatra) Hutchinson, Sir Jonathan, F.R.S. Ilahi Bakhsh Indian Census and Lepers Interdenominational Character of the Mission International Character of the Mission Irvin, Dr. .. Jackson, John, F.R.G.S. — Appointed Hon. Sec. (London), 73; led into the work, 75 ; appointed Organising Secretary, 76 ; visit to India, 149 ; visit to the United States and Canada, 157 ; tour round the world, 167 ; appointed Editor of " Without the Camp" ... ... .. ... ... ... 194 Jansen, Rev. F. .., .. ... ... ... ... 187 Japanese Lepers ... ... ... ... 6, 7, 56, 87, 95, 169, 187 Japanese Testimony ... ... ... ... ... ... 57 John, Dr. Griffith ... .. ... ... ... ... 55, 86 Jost, Rev. Mr. ... ... ... ... ... ... 176 Kangra Kashmir Kellock, Mrs. J. D Kemp, Miss A. E. ... Kerr, Rev. G. M. ... Keskar, Rev. Dr. P. B. Khan, Dr. Barkhurdar Kien Ning Fu Asylum King Edward VII. and the Lepers Kipling, Rudyard Kitsato, Prof. Kiushiu, Island of Kodur (Madras Pres.) Kozensha .„ Kuala Lumpur Kucheng Asylum Kuhne, Dr.... Kumamoto Asylum ... Kumaon District Kurku and Central India Hill Mission ... Kwangsi Laflamme, Rev. F. H. Lahore, Bishop of Laloo (Brahman Leper) La Touche, Sir J. D. Lawrence, Lord "Lepers": 31 years' work among them 43 32 103 193 183 107 20 56 -45. 145 2 169 ... 88 ■55. 179 89 171 ■•• 5' i. 98 155 57. 87. 169, 187 9 85 156 103 123, 180 69 177 5 194 204 INDEX PAGE Lepers : — aijd Missions, 3 ; buried alive, J ; in China, 6, $2, 137, 155, 170 ; in Japan, 6, 7, 56, 87, 95, 169, 187 ; burnt alive 7, 8 ; of Bombay, II, 108 ; medical treatment, 20, 71 ; vforship, 21 caste prejudices, 60; self-denial of, 115, 127, 139; European, 42, 165; occupation of, 70, 114, 125, 177 ; baptisms of, 105, 129, 130, 163, 174, 175, 177, 190 ; acatechist, 55, 56 ; and Buddhism, 58; keeping shops, 64, 91, 102; separation of sexes, 20; con- dition of, in India, 15, 96, no ; their numbers, loi, in, 113, 118, 155, 170, 171, 183; in Korea, 185; and Philippines, 187; inSiam, 185; and native treatment, 65,82; gratitude of, 115, 128, 140, 143, 184 ; singing of, 104, 164 ; at school, 70 ; cruel treatment of, 5, 7, 8, 60, 82, 124 ; and Christianity, see " Chris- tianity and the Lepers " ; sad cases, 83, 87, 89, 92, loi, 106, 150; improved condition after admittance, 93, 114, 123, 151 5 address to Queen Victoria, 93 ; Christmas among, 93 ; life stories of, 27, 60, 72, 104, 106, lig, 126, 127 ; see also " Chris- ian Lepers"; festiviiies among. 122, 164; native workers, 55, 56,98: and the Bible, 126, 140; and the Bible Society, 139, 174; of Gwalior State, no, 112; and Hinduism, no; children of, see under "Children": and Heathenism, 124; Christian Endeavour Societies, 142, 174, 187 ; and King Edward VIL, 45, 145; at play, 164; mutual kindness ... ... .-■ 126 Leper Mission Trust Association ... ... ... ... 148 Lepers' Acts ... ... ... ... ... ...46, 108 " Lepers in India " ... .... ... ... ... ... IS Leprosy ; — in the Hills, 23 : not hereditary, 24, 98, 191 ; anjEsthetic, 106; contagiousness of ... .... ... ...25, 98, 102, 191 Lohardaga Asylum ... „. ... ... ... 31, 36, 71 London Missionary Society ... ... ... 39i 5Si 85, 86, 195 London Missionary Society, thanks of Missionaries of London Office, 73 ; removed ... Lo Ngwong Asylum .. . Louis XIV. Lowell, J. R. Lucas, Rev. J. J. Ludhiana Asylum Lyne, Miss Macdonald, Dr. McKean, Dr. MacVeagh, Mr. Maddock, Robert Madras Asylum Madras. — Decennial Conference at Madura Main, Dr. Duncan ... Mandalay Asylum Mangalore Asylum ... Manila Asylum Macpherson, Hon. J. M. Marcus (Leper) Marshall, Mrs. Matunga Asylum (Bombay) Maulmain Asylum Mayne, Mrs. Grace Otway Medical Treatment ... ...76, 194 54> 99. 137 1 ... 2, . 19 ... 43 ... 14 149 ... iS6 18s 168 ... 22 ... 41 ... 30 182 •'•■ S3 1. 91 i, 137, 143. 172 187 190 69 63 ... n, 109 ... 42, 1 120 180 ... 20,71 INDEX 205 PAGE Meerut Asylum .... _ ... ,., ... 154,180 Mennonite Mission, General Conf. of N. America ... ... 115 Middleton, Rev. F. E. ... ... ... ... ... 81 Miraj Asylum ... ... ... ... ... .„ 107 Mission to Lepers. - Formed, 22 ; income, 52, 73, 160, 195 ; title, 51; sphere of operations, 29 ; Interdenominational character, 3, 29. I33> 192; International character ... ... 4,30, 133, 192 Missionaries' (L.M.S.) Thanks ... ... .„ .„ 86 Missionary Exhibitions ... ... ... ... .„ 195 Missionaries — Sympathy of ... ... ... ... ... 96, 119 Missionary Societies : — All Nations Missionary Union ... ... ... 105, 106, 148 Amer. Baptist ... ... ... ... ... ... 42 Amer. Congregational ... ... ... ... ... 182 Amer. Foreign Christian ._ ... ... ... ... 67 Amer. Marathi Mission ... ... ._ ... .. 65, 107 Amer, Mennonite .. ... ... ... 113, 115 Amer. Methodist Episcopal ... ... ... 37, 62, 186 Amer. Presbyterian 10, 12, 26, 43, 57, 66, 107, 126, 170, 177, 185, 188 Amer. Reformed Presbyterian ... ... ... ... 68 Baptist ... ... ... ... ... ... 43 Basel ... ... .« ... .. ... ... 67, 151 Canadian Baptist ... ... ... ... ... loi Canadian Presbyterian ... ... ... ... 110,182 Church of England 10, 30, 37, 54, 56, 59, 87, 98, 106, 129, 180, 195 Church of Scotland ... ... ... ... ... 31 Friends' Foreign ... ... ... ... ... 68 Gossner's Evan. Luth. .„ ._ ... ... 31, 40, 119, 175 Hermannsburg Evangelical Luth. ... ... ... ... 155 Kurku^ and Central India Hill ... ... ... ... 85 London ... ... ... ... 39, 55, 85, 86, 195 Mennonite Mission of General Conference of North America ._ 115 Missionary Pence Association ... ... ... 105, 106, 148 Pentecost Bands ot the world (U.S.A.) ... .„ ... 183 Rhenish ... ... ... ... 8, 124, 125, 155, 170 Schleswig-Holstein Evan. Luth. ... ... ... ... 118 United Free Church of Scotland Mission ... ... ...85,181 Wesleyan Methodist ._ ._ ...58, 64, 116, 156, 172, 183 Zenana Bible and Medical ... ... ... ... 100 Molokai ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 168 Monkstown, Co. Dublin ... ... ... .- ... 14 Moradabad Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 65 Morrison, Dr. J. H. ... ... ... ... ... ... 12 Morrow, Dr. P. A. ... ... ... ... ... ... 48 Mourbhanj Asylum ... .- •■■ ... ... 181 Muir, Sir William, K.C.S.L, &c. ... 158 Mungeli Asylum ... .- ... ... .- ...84,105 Municipal Co-operation ... ... ... ... .- 180 Mussuwa (Leper) ... ... ... ... ... ... 72 Muzaffarnagar Asylum (U.P.)... ... ... .„ ... 67 Muzaffarpur Asylum (Bengal) ._ ... ... ... 118,179 Nasik Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 84, 100 National Leprosy Commission... ... ... ... ... 26,45 Native Co-operation ... ... ... ... ... 137, i8i Native sympathy ... ... ... — ••■ 181, 183 Native workers ... ... ... ... ... SSi S^i 98 2o6 INDEX FAOB Nepal 9,38 Neve, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 32 Newton, Dr. John ... ... ... .„ ... 10, 16,27 New York Committee Constituted ._ ... ... .... 166 Neyoor Asylum .. ... .„, ... .„ .„ 39, 49 Nicodemus (Leper) ... ... ... .. 72 Nicol, Prof. W. .. ... ... ... ... ... 180 Niramabad ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 183 Northcote, Lady ... ... ... .„ .. 107 Nottrott, Rev. K. W. .... ... ... ... ... 83, 136 Nugent, Dr. .„ .„ 182 Official Commendation .„ ... ._ ... 79, 13^, 137, 171 (See also Government Co-operation). Otsuka, Mr. and Mrs. ... ... ... .... ... 89 Padiya (a Leper Catechist) ... ... ... ... ... 27 ^*'*°' •" 53>S4.99 Park, Rev. W. ._ _ ... ... ._ ... 3^ Parker, Dr. Harriet ... ... ... .„ ... . . 182 Paske, Colonel E. H. ... .„ ... ... .1. 43 Patpara Asylum ... ... .„ ... ... ... 106 Penang ... ... ... ... ... '" ['[ 17, Penner, Rev. P. A. ... ... ... ... 115 163 Pentecost Bands of the World (U.S.A.) .. .".".' ... 183 Peterson, Prof. ... .... ... ... ... ... igi Petit, Sir Dinshaw ... ... ... ... ... 108 Phillips, Rev. T. G. ... ... ... ... ... ..'. 172 Philippines, The ... ... ... ... ... ... 187 Pim, MissC. E. ... ... .„ !'.* 14, 148 Pittsburg and Allegheny Auxiliary ... ... ... ... 66 Plunket, Right Rev. Lord ... ... ... ... ... 35 Polad pur Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... {jc, 82 Polwarth, Lady ... ... ... ... ... ..^ mi Polwarth, Lord ... ... ... ... ... ... 35 Poona Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... igj Pratap the Rajput ... ... ._ ... .„ ... 04 Primate of All Ireland ... ... ... ... ... 35 Pui Asylum... ... ... .... ... ... ... 65,82 Pulaujerejak ... ... ... ... ... ... lyj Putulia Asylum 25, 31, 40, 69, 79''9o, l3o;'i63, 173 Queen Victoria and the Lepers ... .„ .„ ... 145 Raipur Asylum ... ... ... ... ... 84,112,176 Raj Nandgaon ... ... ... ... ... ... ig2 Ramachandrapuram Asylum ... ... ... ... joi 150 165 Ram Lai (Leper) ... .., ... ... ... '.. ' k,. Ramsay, Sir Henry, C.B., K.C.S.I. ... ... ... ,„ q 3r Raniganj Asylum ... ... ... .„ |" " 64, '183 Ratnagiri ._ .... ... ... ... ... ... log Rawal Pindi Asylum ... .„ .. ... ... 42,180 Reed, Miss Mary ... ... ... ... og .j .q, Ressler, Rev. J. A ' 11^ Revell, Fleming H, .., .... ... ... ... '" jgg INDEX 207 PAGE Revie, Dr. Dugald ... ... ... ... ... ... 85 Rhenish Missionary Society ... ... ... 8,124,125,155,170 Ribbentrop, Rev. Dr. .. ... ... ... ... 119 Richards, Rev. Dr. ... ... ... ... ... ... 37 Riddell, Miss H. ... .„ ... ... ... 7, 57, 187 Rigg, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... ... 56, 87 Rivaz, Sir Chas., K.C.S.I. ... ... ... ... ... 122 Robert Bruce ... ... .„ ... ... ... i Roterberg, Rev. H. ... ... ... „ ... ... 119 Royal Lepers ... ... .„ ... ... ... i Rudriah (Leper) ... ... ... ,., ... ... 104 Rurki Asylum ... ... ... ... ._ ... 38,96 Russell, Rev. F. H. ._ .., ... ... ... ... 153 Russell, Rev. Norman ... ,„ .„ ... ... no Sabathu Asylum ... ... ... .„ 10, 17, 20, 27, 165, 184 Saharanpur Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 65 SaleDep6t... ... ... ... ... ... .., 149 Salur (Vizagapatam) ... ... ... ... ... 118,179 Schieffelin, Wm. Jay... ... ... ... ... ... 166 Schleswig-Holstein Evan. Luth. Mission ... ... ... Ji8 Schulze, Rev. P. ... ... ... ... ... ... 118 Scindia, The Maharajah ... ... ... ... ... 112 Sea6eld, Dowager Countess of ... ... ... 49,62,158 Sehore Asylum (Bhopal) ... ... ... ... ... 68 Self Denial of the Lepers .„ ... ... ... 115,127,139 Separation of Sexes ... ... ... ._ ._ ... 20 Shanghai Missionary Conference, 1907 ... ... ... .„ 191 Sholapur Asylum ... ... ... .„ ... 107, 142 Siao Kan ... ... ... ... ... ... 55,86,137 Sinclair, John ... ... ... ... ... ... 166 Sikkim ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 182 Smith, Rev. F. W. Ambery ... ... ... ... 116,173 Smith, Miss M. A. ... ... ... .. ... ... 22 Stevenson, R. L. ._ ... ... ._ ... ... 2 Stewart, Rev. R. VV. ... ... ... ... ... 98 " Story of the Mission " ... ... ... ... ... 50 Sumatra (Laguboti Asylum) ... ... ... ... ... 8,124 Swatow ._ ... ... ... ... ... ... 6 Tarn Taran Asylum ... ... ... ... 25,36,71,120,147 Tennyson ... ... .... ... ... ... ... 2, 97 Terrell, C. D 68 Tokio Asylum ... ... ... ... ... 57, 87, 95, 169 Toronto, Bishop of •. ... ... ... ... ... 80 Toronto Office opened ... ... ... ... ... 157 Trevandrum Asylum ... ... ... ... ... ... 85 Trombay ... .-• ... ... ... ... ... 108 Tungkun ... ... ... ... ... ... i55. '70, i79 Uflfmann, Rev. Henry ... ... .. 32, 40, 69, go, 130 Ujjain (Cent. India) ... ... ... ... ... ... in Un Ho (leper girl) ... ... ... ... ... 127,170 United Free Church of Scotland Mission ... ... ... 85, 181 Untainted Children, stt " Children Untainted" 2o8 INDEX PAGE Vaughan, Rev. James ... ... ... ... ... lo Virchow, Prof. ... ... ... ... ... ... 26, 98 Wagner, Rev. Paul ... ... ... ... ... 164, 173 Wanless, Dr. ... ... ... ... ... ... 107 Wardha Asylum .„ ... .. ... ... ... 85 Wardrope, Rev. Dr. ... .. ._ ... ... ... 50 Watt, Mrs. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5° Watt, Miss Lila, B.A. ... ... ... ... 50, 157, 194 Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society... 58, 64, 116, 156, 172, 183 White, Rev. W. C ... ... ... ... 137, 186 Wittmann, Rev. J. M. ... ... ... ... ... ISS Wigram, Rev. Preb. F. E. ... ... ... ... ... 30, 35 Williams, Sir Monier Monier, K.C.I.E. ... ... ... 35 Winston, Rev. W. R. ... ... .„ .„ ... 58 " Without the Camp " ... ... ... ... ...79,194 ,, „ ,, American Edition ._ ... ... 80 Woodburn, Sir John ... ... ... .^ ... ...79,116 Woodward, Rev. A. ... ... .... ... ... ... 143 " Workers Together " ... ... ... ... ... 148 World's Congress of Missions (Chicago) ... .. .„ 50 Wright, Rev. G. W. ... ... ... ... ... 188 Wuchow Asylum ... ... ... ... ... 158,186 Wylie, Colonel 68 Yen Ping Fu ... ,.. ... ._ ... ... 87, 186 Youngman, Miss ... ... ... ... ... ... 57, 95 Zenana Bible and Medical Mission ... ... .... ... 100 Zindi (Leper) .... ... ... ... ... ... ... 106 R. W. SIMPSON AND CO., LTD., PRINTERS, RICHMOND, LONDON. By the same Author. POPULAR EDITION. " IN LEPER LAND." Author of "Mary Reed," ** Lepers: 36 Years' Work Among Them," Contains an Account ol the Author's Tour of 7,000 miles among the leper villages and asylums of India, as well as three chapters on his visit to Miss Mary Reed. The following are selected from many favourable Press notices : — •'Abounds in pathetic and graphic passages."— JB«;^/£s^ Times and Freeman. " Deeply interesting . . , vividly written."— J//«s/ra^ed Missionary News, " We heartily commend this book to all students of missionary work."— Afercy and Truth. " Profusely and admirably illustrated from photographs."— 7rte Leicester Post. "Mr. Jackson has written a book which stirs our sympathies without revolting our senses."— Daiiy News. Price Is. 6d, post free, from the Offices of the Mission. MARY REED, Ji;tr""°"" With Portrait of Miss Reed, and other Illustrations. New Edition (the Ninth) with appendix, bringing the story up to 1908. In an Introduction, Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A., says : " Her story is one of the most inspiring in Missionary BiograpJiy." Handsomely bound in boards, 2s. 6d. post free. " Even more stril