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101 5 Leprosy and Other Ailments April 26—July 17, 1891 April 26, 1891, Kawaiahao Seminary Dear Charlie, Miss Pope and Miss Hoppin have a novel experience in store for them. They are going to start tonight with the Queen for Molokai and return tomorrow night. I quite envy them the chance. I don’t suppose I could have gone anyway and I knew nothing about it till after they had obtained her consent . They had quite a time with the Board of Health from whom they had to obtain their “permits.” They objected and went to see the Queen and only brought them around at the last thing, last night. The Queen is visiting different parts of her domain which is quite praiseworthy but her Molokai expedition is exciting considerable comment. She is Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary sick cottage. 102 AN AMERICAN GIRL allowing a lot of natives who have friends there to go with her which is a bad thing, and not allowed under a careful administration. It stirs up the people there and unsettles the whole system. She is being loose in this matter anyway and has already released a number of lepers who were in various receiving stations.1 I don’t think Kalakaua ever went there. Anyway it is a rare chance these two teachers have and I should be glad to take it were I them. I must tell you of Miss Pope’s experiences on her trip to Molokai. I was intensely interested in all she had to tell. There were 400 natives about that little ship and for white people besides themselves only a Professor Bingham and Mr. Berger of the band. He made himself their protector and secured for them the last two berths or shelves opening into the dining-room. Miss Pope was sick all night long. Every where the people lay around and the Queen stretched herself up on deck where her countrymen and the tobacco smoke was the thickest and in the morning they paid their respects to her there as she sat on her mattress and ate poi from her bowl with her fingers. At Molokai, the scenery is beautiful the dwellings of the people comfortable and there is every evidence that they are well cared for but the marks of the leprosy are everywhere to be seen. It is not the scaly Asiatic kind, but shows itself in swollen, distorted features, missing finger tips, purple bunches, etc. It was a sad sight to see the lepers greet their friends. They tried to be festive Leper settlement, Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i. [3.141.30.162] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 14:44 GMT) for the occasion and had a decorated arch and the leper band to greet their Queen. Miss Pope and Miss Hoppin kept clear of the Queen’s party and investigated on their own. They went to the girl’s school—75 of them and saw little Ella Bridges whose sister is in my room.2 They were particularly pleased with the 3 sisters who have the school in their charge.3 They are quite refined cultivated, capable—the world does not know of them but they do everything for their girls, doctoring and teaching them and having to do everything for themselves besides. They treated our teachers so well, bringing them coffee and bread and butter and telling them so frankly about the work. They looked up Margaret Power’s mother and sister. They live in a little cottage .4 Emma is married and she and her husband are among the worst lepers —still there was a baby a week old. They noticed there a woman and a little boy whom they thought they had seen on the steamer. She was holding and fondling the baby and Emma explained to Miss Pope that it was her husband’s first wife! No comments are necessary on this story. This Emma used to be a very beautiful bright girl. They walked over to the boy’s school, three miles away and found them much worse in appearance than the girls. They sang songs of their own composition to the Queen which made everyone weep. The parting too was very sad but they brought none away as it was feared they might do. Professor Berger and his band came and played to our girls and were treated to coffee and biscuits. The little girls were out on the grass and big ones sat...

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