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MY LEPER  FRIENDS. 
Photo, by Walery.
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Frontispiece. 
 MY   LEPER   FRIENDS.

             AX ACCOUNT OF
PERSONAL WORK AMONG LEPERS, AND OF THEIR
          DAILY LIFE IN INDIA.
By Mrs. M. H.  HAYES.
               irr
    WITH A CHAPTER ON LEPROSY,
By Surgeon-Major G.  G. MACLAEEX, M.D.
ILLUSTRATED.
                LONDON:
W .THACKEE AND CO., 87, NEWGATE STEEET..
       Calcutta: THACKER, SPINK AND CO.
       Bombay : THACKER AND Co., Limited.
1891. 
WCE
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PREFACE.
The objects I had in view when writing this book were
to interest the public in the white lepers who are home-
less  in  India, and to  obtain  money for the "Leper
Fund"  which  I  raised, and which  is  now being
administered  by  the Very  Reverend  Archdeacon
Michell, of Calcutta.  My publishers, Messrs. Thacker
& Co., 87, Newgate Street, E.C., have kindly consented
to forward to this gentleman any profit that may accrue
from  the sale of  the  book, which, on this  account, I
trust  will be large. I venture to think that, apart from
the good intent, all classes of readers will find this small
work  worthy of perusal, in that it  is a series  of  true
pictures of a very sad phase of human misery, namely,
the inner life of sufferers whom I have known so well
and have cared for so much, that I can in all sincerity
call them " My Leper Friends." 
vi
PREFACE.
  I hear, with  deep regret, that, since my departure
from  India, subscriptions  to  the " Leper Fund" have
decreased.   As it is the means of brightening the lives
of the most wretched of all human beings,  I would
appeal to the generosity of the public to support it by
sending contributions to Archdeacon Michell, Calcutta.
who personally  superintends  the  distribution of  the
fund.  I may mention that  aid is given without  any
distinction  as to  creed.
  My best  thanks  are due to Dr. G. G. MacLaren for
his sympathy in my labours, and for his kindness in
writing a chapter on leprosy for this book.  I, also, am
glad of this opportunity  of  expressing  my great in-
debtedness to  "Brother John," who was my fellow-
worker among  the lepers  and  in the hospitals of
Calcutta.
  I shall be happy to answer  inquiries  on this subject.
My address is,  care  of Messrs. W. Thacker &   Co.,
87, Newgate Street, London, E.C.

                                   Alice Hayes.
London, 3rd September, 1891. 
CONTENTS,
                                                        PAGB
                        CHAPTER I.
   Settling in Calcutta—Our " Sporting News "......      1—4

                        CHAPTER II.
   Brother John—Mr. McGuire—Government officials—
 The leper asylum—An Irish woman—The Jewess—Daisy
 andBella—A death scene—Eurasian lepers    ......     5—23

                       CHAPTER III.
   The accouut  I wrote—Bridget—An official visit to
 the lepers    ......    ...     ...   ...     ......

                       CHAPTER IV.
   Newspaper criticism—"Truth" and  Mr.  Prinsep—
 "The Queen"     ..................

                       CHAPTER V.
   Efforts to comfort—Our subscription fund—Improve-
ments........................
                       CHAPTER VI.
  Miss O'Brien—Amateur actors—A performance in
aid of our fund   ..................    48—55
24—33
34—38
39—47 
viii
CONTENTS.
                      CHAPTER VII.
  White lepers—Dr. McLaren—Heat and misery    ...     56—62

                     CHAPTER VIII.
  Need for a home for  European and Eurasian lepers
—Our public meeting  •  ...    ...    ...    ...    ...     63—73
                      CHAPTER  IX.
  Hope—Kate Reilly    ...............     74—80
                      CHAPTER X.
  Archdeacon  Michell—Disposal of  our fund—The
leper cat—The idiot boy...............     81—88
                      CHAPTER XL
  The nuns  of Loretto Convent...    ...    ...    ...     89—94
                      CHAPTER  XII.
  Medicine—No warm baths—An ugly looking-glass—
Christmas-day in the  L"per Asylum—The leper boy—
Mr. Bailey.....................    95—111
                     CHAPTER XIII.
  Lepers in Bombay—-A lecture at the Sorosis Club—
Our departure from India ...    ...    ...    ...    ...   113—119

                     CHAPTER XIV.
  Remarks on  Leprosy, by Surgeon-major G.  G. Mac-
Liren,  M.D......................   120-127 
MY   LEPER  FRIENDS.
                  CHAPTEE  I.

  SETTLING IN CALCUTTA—OUR " SPORTING NEWS."

In the early summer of 1888 my husband and I found
ourselves enjoying a well-earned holiday in Japan. He,
I may explain, writes books about horses, which have
rendered  his  name widely  known  among English
readers; and having a special talent for making these
animals conform to  his wishes,  he conceived the  idea
of going on a  tour,  with  the object  of teaching all
he knew  about  "breaking" to those interested in
the  subject.  In  England, horses,  as a rule,  are so
well "made" that the equine instructor finds much
difficulty in illustrating his lessons.  But abroad the
case is very different.   In India he had, during the
                        B 
2
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
year he was  there, hundreds of buck-jumpers, man-
eaters, jibbers, and  other  refractory  creatures,  the
subjugation of which gained him great credit, as well
as a  goodly  sum  of money.  Even in China,  from
which we had just come, there were plenty of examples
among the sturdy  Mongolian ponies to test  his skill
and  patience.  When  a horse  or  pony, which pre-
viously  would not allow anyone to mount him, was
reduced to obedience in an  hour or  two, a side-saddle
was usually put on him, and then I mounted him, took
up the reins,  put him through his paces, and jumped
him over some improvised fences.  Although our work
"caught on" wherever we  went, it  proved somewhat
monotonous,  and  I  longed for a settled home after
this  continued round of hotel and   steamer life.  My
husband wanted to go to California, and  then on  to
New York, while I suggested India, where I had spent
a pleasant time in the indulgence of my then hobby—
theatricals.   In those days I looked upon my dear old
teachers—Mr. Hermann Vezin, Mr. John MacLean, and
Miss Glyn Dallas—as the greatest of man and woman-
kind, and thought more of a favourable notice in some
obscure local print of my acting, than  of the praise in 
SETTLING IN CALCUTTA.
3
the Field and Graphic,  accorded to my riding, when
my husband gave  a performance  at  Neasden, near
London, in aid of the funds for the " Home of Eest for
Horses."  Knowing what a charm novelty had for my
husband, and wishing to get back to India, I suggested
the advisability  of his going to  Calcutta and starting
there a sporting  paper, which, with his name as editor,
would be sure to draw !   My counsel proved so accept-
able that I had only barely time to pack up my boxes
and get them on board the French mail, for which my
husband had taken  tickets.  We arrived at Calcutta,
started our paper, and, in a short time,  settled down
to our work as  journalists.  This came  easy  to my
husband, as he had been connected with the press for
many years, and not  very difficult to me, as  I was
deeply interested in the  success of our venture, and
had  been  accustomed, during  my travels,  to  write
articles for various papers.   My role  on our Sporting
News was that of dramatic and musical critic, as  well
as that of describing events of passing interest,  with a
certain dash of sporting flavour,  from  a lady's point of
view.  The habit of observation which was forced on
me probably sobered down my thoughts a good deal; 
4
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
for I was gradually led to pay more and more atten-
tion to the sadder aspects of human  life, which were
but too common around  me.  In India, I found death
was such an intimate acquaintance that his terrors, in
the case of others, were too often regarded with callous
indifference;  and that the fact of the English residents
being but temporary sojourners made them disinclined
to support permanent charitable  institutions, although
they are extremely  liberal,  at  the time, when  per-
sonally appealed to, in the cause of suffering humanity.
With the view of  counteracting  the apathy  displayed
by the local public  towards its institutions for the good
of the poor, and to furnish  readable "copy " to our paper,
I began a series of  articles called  " Calcutta Charities."
One day while I was  writing, my husband came back
from a visit  to an  old broken-down jockey, who used,
many years  ago, to  ride for him, and who  was then
living in the  Calcutta Almshouse.  He told  me all
he  had seen  in  this institution, and  I became so
interested in  it that I resolved to call and  see its
female inmates. 
CHAPTEE II.
BROTHER JOHN—MR. McGUIRE—GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
  —THE  LEPER  ASYLUM—AN  IRISH  WOMAN—THE
  JEWESS—DAISY  AND  BELLA—A   DEATH  SCENE
  —EURASIAN LEPERS.

I took  with me,  on  the occasion of my visit to the
almshouse, a friend, Brother  John, of the Society of
St. Paul, who was engaged in  the work of the Calcutta
Seamen's Mission, under the  direction of his superior,
the Eeverend Father Hopkins.  I became  acquainted
with Brother John through Father Hopkins, who called
and asked me to sing at one of his weekly concerts for
sailors in Bentinck Street, arranging to send Brother
John  to take  me to  the place  in  a eab.  Father
Hopkins said,  " You must not be shocked  on finding
the brother a rough  sailor, who drops his ' h's' and
is afraid of women, never having been accustomed to 
6
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
ladies' society.  You will  find he has  a good  heart.
The  sailors  all like Brother John."  On the evening
appointed, the brother arrived  with the cab for me.
He was  shown  into  our  drawing-room,  and  was
evidently keeping those refractory " h's" of his  well
under control, for I could not get him to talk  at all,
and thought him rather stupid, as he  sat  nervously
clutching  his hat.  Afterwards, when  he knew me
better, he told me that  he suffered agonies on  that
evening, and begged Father Hopkins not to depute him
to fetch me, but  to send, instead, Brother Paul, who
knew how to behave to ladies.  Poor Brother John
little knew me, if he thought that the mere fact of his
being insufficiently educated would render me heedless
of the many good traits in his fine character !  I liked
him  as soon as  he had overcome his nervousness
enough to permit of his saying,  " I hope you'll  excuse
me if I'm not accustomed to ladies' society.   I'm only
a rough sailor, and I don't know how to speak or what
to say to ladies.   I get along all right with the sailors.
I've never had any education, and I feel the want of it
now badly."  This honest speech of his made  me his
friend at once, and I often went to the sailors' concerts 
MR. MCGUIRE.
7
after that night.   He was one of nature's gentlemen,
who seemed always able to say and do the right thing
instinctively, and  whose quiet, simple manner would
command the respect  of his  fellows.  I  used to like
going with Brother John every week  to visit the  sick
sailors in the Calcutta hospitals.  On such occasions
he  would  provide a good  supply of  plug tobacco
(beloved of Jack) and newspapers.   It was while going
our  weekly round one day that I mentioned my in-
tended visit to the almshouse, and arranged with him
to accompany me.
  When we arrived at the place, we were shown into the
office of  a soldierly-looking man of about sixty years of
age, who was evidently a thorough disciplinarian.  He
was obliging and communicative ;  and told me he had
read with pleasure my articles  on "Calcutta Charities"
in our paper, and heartily endorsed every word I had
written.  He said a great deal more, and before I left the
office showed me his discharge certificate from the Army,
in which he had been a sergeant,  and also his Mutiny
medal.   We went  with him over the male ward of the
almshouse.  I need not  describe the occupants ; poor
things !  They all looked becomingly miserable.  I think 
8
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
 there were  some Eurasians among  them, but the
 majority were  pure Europeans.  Mr. McGuire—for
 that was the superintendent's name—asked us to stay
 and  see them fed, as it was their dinner-hour.  We
 saw stew being doled out of a big  saucepan into small
 bowls and put on a table.  Each bowl was taken by its
 owner to a long, bare table, with forms down each side,
 and the meal, after grace  being said, commenced.  I
 felt uneasy while  watching the poor things eating as
 if they were animals, so made a move to the women's
 quarters.  As we walked up the stairs to the top of the
 building set apart for females, Mr. McGuire called out,
 " Mrs. Smith !" and the matron of the place, a woman
 of about forty, appeared.  I spoke to  her but little.
 She showed  me the women working at a table, mend-
ing or making house linen, and also their rooms.   The
 inmates themselves  took  small notice of me: they
 looked bored and  sad,  evidently  remembering that
visitors who give  them no substantial help, but who
beam on them with  a patronizing smile, are in these
parts as common  as  they are useless.   I felt that I
 should have liked to have spoken to the poor women,
 and to have asked them if I could  help them in little 
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.
9
 presents of tea or  other  things;  but Mr.  McGuire
 seemed to have divined my wish, for he told me they
 live very comfortably,  having everything they could
 reasonably wish for as paupers.  The word " pauper "
 jarred on me, but I said nothing as I gazed sorrowfully
 on them. One old woman, evidently with bad sight, was
 trying to hem a quilt.  She appeared to be working under
 such difficulties on account of her eye-sight that I thought
 a pair of spectacles might be got for her.  However, she
 was a " pauper,"  and paupers  are  not beings to be
 favoured with such luxuries !   I asked if I might read
 to  them once a week, but was  referred to the com-
 mittee of the District Charitable Society for permission,
 which I applied for, but  received  no answer  to my
 letter.  If I had been given the least encouragement,
 or even sanction to  have  done  so, I could have  pro-
 vided these  poor women with many little comforts ;
 but I was not.  Brother  John  said little, but was as
 much struck with the defensive attitude of the officials
 as I was; for he was the first to speak of it on our way
 home.
  I must here explain that Indian institutions, like the
one in question,  are usually presided over by  Govern- 
10
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
ment officials, who have little time to spare from their
routine work for  the  exhibition  of sympathy  and
practical kindness.  The climate, too, greatly militates
against philanthropic  efforts in the cause  of  unpaid
duties.   Hence, the  tendency to  shift the  onus of
superintendence on subordinates, whose actions their
superiors  have to support, or to burden  themselves
with a large amount  of personal attendance.  With
such an  alternative, the choice generally accepted can
easily be  guessed.  As long as  things  go outwardly
smoothly, the subordinate draws  his salary, plays the
vicarious part of big  man, and no doubt  enjoys the
well understood perquisites of such offices.   If a public
expose  takes  place,  the high official gets worried and
questioned about a subject  with which he has failed to
keep himself in touch;  the subordinate  sees with
dismay the chances of his direct and indirect emolu-
ments  being snatched  from his grasp.  Hence, the
entire  staff bitterly resent  any journalistic comments
on  their working that are  not wholly laudatory.  All
such officials, therefore, act on the principle of L'etat,
c'est moi.  "If" say they,  "you  have got anything to
find fault with, report it to me ; but don't write to the 
THE  LEPER ASYLUM.
11
papers."  If the  would-be reformer  acts contrary to
this dictum, he will make such officials his bitterest
enemies.  In such  an ignoble category, men like Dr.
MacLaren, superintendent of the Dehra Dun Asylum,
and Mr. Ackworth  and  Dr. Weir,  of  Bombay, find
no  place ;  for  their object is not to gain  credit for
charitable work they do not perform,  but to relieve and
comfort those under their kindly charge.
  We were about to depart from the almshouse  when
I espied a number of low red-brick buildings enclosed in
a small compound on the opposite side of the  road.  On
inquiring the name  of  the place, I was told it was the
Leper Asylum.  "May I go over  it?" I  asked the
superintendent of the almshouse.   " Yes, if you are
not afraid," he replied;  "I am also superintendent of
the Leper  Asylum; but I may tell  you that I have
never taken a lady over the place before." I looked at
Brother  John,  and asked him if he would prefer to
wait for  us outside, or go into the abode of leprosy.
He said  he would  like to accompany  us;  so we all
went.  I had frequently seen and pitied lepers in the
streets ; but had never before been brought  into com-
munication with them. 
12
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
  The illustration facing this page will give my readers
an idea of the leper, as  he is to be seen in the Indian
public thoroughfares.  We throw the poor things a few
coppers in passing; but,  as there  are  no lepers in
England,  the majority  of us  know little about the
horrible disease from which they suffer,  and are there-
fore  inclined to  regard them as ordinary beggars.  I
had read " Life and Letters of Father Damien,"  and
from that little book, which was lent me by the nuns
of the Lorretto  Convent in Calcutta, I learned some-
thing of  leprosy; just enough perhaps  to  make me
wish to know more and to see for myself what was
the condition of the sufferers.
  We  were taken  into an enclosure bounded by a
high wall, and  containing  three  long, one-storied,
detached  brick buildings, which, I was informed, were
for  the female  lepers,  and that  there were  three
similar buildings on the other side of the compound,
separated by a wall, for the men.   As I walked  up
a few steps which raised the building from the level of
the road,  and entered the  first ward, I was conscious
of a  "faint" smell (which is peculiar to the  disease)
emanating from  it.  We entered a  long room with a 
A  Leper  Beggar.
[p. 12. 
 
AN IRISH WOMAN,
13
stone floor, and rows  of beds ranged down each side.
Lying or sitting on these beds—for there  was not a
vestige of any other  kind  of furniture—were  several
native women, all more  or  less bandaged.   They
looked up at  me  with  a pitifully sad expression on
their faces.   One  woman tore off her bandages  and
exposed a few diseased stumps remaining from what
had once been fingers.  The smell in the  place  was
very bad; the sheets on the beds were discoloured  and
dirty;  the bandages covering the sores of these poor
wretches were filthy.  I would fain have spoken a few
words of comfort to them, for my heart was sad within
me; but knowing very little of the language, I could do
no more than  make a few friendly gestures.  Brother
John told them we should come  again, and we were
just turning to depart when the superintendent said,
" You  haven't seen  Bridget."  On saying  this,  he
lifted a filthy sheet that was tied on to a stick placed
across  an opening  at the further end of the building,
which contained a small room, or alcove, and disclosed
a white woman sleeping !  I was horrified to find  a
European  woman  in  the Leper  Asylum,  and with
nothing more than a dirty sheet dividing her from 
14
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
natives,  The poor old thing, who had  grey hair, was
sleeping so peacefully that I begged the  man  not  to
disturb her.  When we got  outside  I asked  who she
was, and found that she was  an Irishwoman  who had
been an inmate of the asylum for many  years.
  The next  ward  we visited was constructed on
exactly the same lines.  In  this there  were, I think,
seven women.   The superintendent had a deal to say
of a girl called Bella, who, he told us,  had been studying
medicine at the Umritzar Medical Mission when the
disease broke out in her.  Poor Bella  lay on  a  dirty
bed, and smiled feebly as we approached.   Her fingers
and  toes were  in a terrible state.   The  former had
been dressed with something  black that looked like
tar.   She wore no bandages on them,  and there were
great holes in her poor fingers, as though some wild
animal had been  biting  pieces  of  flesh from them.
Bella was a Eurasian, so spoke English.  I could have
cried aloud as I stood gazing helplessly on this young
girl, cut  down  in the very  flower of her youth, and
doomed to spend the remainder of her  days  in this
horrible abode of disease and death.  "Oh, can nothing
be  done  for her?" I asked.  "Nothing," replied the 
          THE JEWESS—DAISY AND BELLA.         15

superintendent; "I  will give her three years to live—
three years  at  the  outside."  I  felt  sorry that my
question  should have called forth such a  reply; for
poor Bella heard it in sad silence.  I longed to comfort
her, but I could think of nothing to say;  it was  all
so horrible.   I determined, however, that as  no woman
regularly  visited the place,  I  would do  so  myself.  I
did  not fear the  disease;  I only felt  wretched  on
seeing  its poor  victims.   I   turned  and   spoke to
another woman in European dress. She was a Polish
Jewess, and was  evidently afflicted with a different
kind of leprosy, for  her skin was the colour of  indigo,
and was  much  puffed and  swollen, though no  open
sores were visible  on her.   She told me that she  was
married and  the mother of a family.   She could in no
way  account for  her  present state.  When leprosy
first showed  itself  on her, her husband cast  her adrift,
and refused to see or help her in  any way.   She  had
-saved a little money  and had been to doctors in Austria
and Germany, and  had tried  all sorts of  pretended
cures, but without success.   " Have you any money
now? " I asked.  "Yes," she replied, "I have a hundred
and fifty rupees [about ten guineas] in the bank; but I 
16        .      MY LEPER FRIENDS.
would sooner starve than touch it.  I am a pauper in
this place ;  but  after death I will be again a lady.   The
money is for my funeral; I will be buried in my own
coffin, as a Jewess."  I asked them if they would like
some books to read, but  they shook their heads sadly,
and  said that their sight was going fast, and reading
hurt their eyes too much.   They tried to speak cheer-
fully ; but it was all terribly sad.   Brother John could
hardly trust himself to speak to poor Bella, while she
herself seemed ready to cry.  I looked at the miserable
bareness of the place, and at the native women squat-
ting about  on the floor,  and inquired if they had no
chairs or washstands, or any more furniture than what
I saw.   They shook their heads.   The Jewess pointed
to a little oil-stove that was  worn  out and  full of
holes, and asked me if I would try to get her a new
one, as  she had  no stove  to boil water for her  tea.
I found that they washed themselves  at a tap in the
enclosure, but  had neither bath-tubs or washstands.
The sheets  on their beds were supposed to be changed
once a week : it was evident from their colour that they
could not have been washed oftener.   I  wish to lay
particular stress on the need there was  of clean bed- 
THE  LEPER ASYLUM.
17
 linen  and  underclothing,  both  from the  offensive
 nature of the disease and from the tropical heat of the
 climate.  In the alcove attached to this ward we found
 another  girl, called Daisy,  whom  the superintendent
 informed me was of Scotch parentage, but  who had
 been suckled as  an infant by a Madrassi nurse, who
 had afterwards turned out to be a leper.  Her features
 were terribly  distorted by the disease.  Her  fingers
 and toes were in much the same state as those of poor
 Bella, and she wore a green shade  over  her eyes.
 There were a couple of wicker chairs in her little room,
 also an accordion, with which the superintendent told
 me she used to accompany herself to songs; that she
 had a sweet voice, and often sang to the other lepers.
 " To whom do these women apply for their wants?" I
 asked.   " To me," said Mr. McGuire.   " I come here
 once a week."   " But is  there no woman to look after
 such things ? "  " No," he said ; " women don't care to
 come to  such places as these."  I passed sorrowfully
 out, telling Daisy and the others  that I would soon
return with fruit, flowers, etc., which  they said they
would  like. They  smiled  sadly,  as though doubting
my word, having had, as I afterwards discovered, many
                        c 
18
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
other promises  of the kind which had not been kept.
Poor  Bella was tortured by flies,  which  surrounded
her open sores in swarms. The  smell, too, of the
disease was so  great  that  I was perforce obliged to
walk with my handkerchief to my face the whole time.
It was  a very  hot- day, and  I felt bitterly  sorry for
these poor sufferers, without fans, lavender water, or
any little comforts whatever.   I would fain  have fled
from this pestilent abode, and yet I lingered, wishing in
my helplessness that I had the power of God behind
me to enable me to say to these poor women, " I will,
be thou clean."   As it was, I could only stand gazing
sadly on them, wondering why God had so afflicted
His creatures.  I walked as one bewildered through
another  ward,  wherein were  nine  miserable  native
women, all more or less terrible to behold.  " Is there
no English doctor to attend to the European women
here?" I asked.  "No,"  replied the superintendent.
" There is a native doctor, at a salary of twenty rupees
a month."  " How many lepers are there? "  " Seventy-
six."  " But you have not half of the lepers in Calcutta
in the asylum?" "Half! Why we only touch the fringe
of leprosy."  "Has Government done  nothing in the 
THE  LEPER ASYLUM.
19
matter ? "  " So far, no, though an inquiry is to be made
some day  with  a view to providing accommodation
for lepers."  " Are they allowed to go in and out of the
asylum when  they like?"  "There  is  no  law  to
prevent them," he replied.  " A leper falls fainting by
the way-side, he is seized by the police, and conveyed
in  a third-class  hackney carriage  to the asylum.   As
soon  as he has had his wounds  dressed, has gained
a little strength, and  finds himself able to do so,  he
walks out into the streets again to beg.  The Europeans
do not go out."
  He then asked us if  we would like to see the men,
and, on our replying that we would, conducted us to the
opposite side of  the grounds, through a door  labelled
" Male Ward," and into three buildings exactly similar
to those we had just quitted.  We walked down  the
first ward,  filled with  poor diseased  specimens  of
humanity, in silence. The heat  and smell  of the place,
and the filthy sheets and flies surrounding these poor
lepers, were a sight that I shall  never, never forget.
One poor, half-naked creature was sitting  in a  corner
trying to adjust a bandage round his legs,  which, with
only one or two  stumps in the place of fingers, was to 
20
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
him  no easy task.  My first impulse was to fix the
dirty rag for him;  but I  suddenly remembered that
contact with this terrible disease might  possibly be
fatal to me, so passed on.   In the next ward, which
was  even in  a dirtier state than  any  that  I  had
previously visited,  the native  lepers  were  crowded
together as  thickly as possible.   A horrible smell
pervaded the  place.  Bits of dirty  stained bandages
hung here and there.  On the floor, curled up on  a
piece of Indian matting, lay the form of  a man  in the
last stage of leprosy. His back was turned to me, and,
although I spoke a word to him, he made  no  sign, no
movement.   I stood and looked at him in his misery.
His  poor  bones were  almost protruding  through his
skin, which  was drawn over his body like parchment.
He groaned  aloud, as if in agony, every  now and then
moistening his parched lips with his tongue.  There
was no friend or attendant near to give him  a  drop of
water.  All  his fellow-sufferers in the wards seemed to
be watching for the end.  I asked if water  could be
given  him,  but was told that he had  better  be  left
to die  in peace.  He was a native, and men of his caste
will not,  I  believe, accept a drink of  water  from  a 
THE LEPER ASYLUM.
2L
 European's hands, or from a European water vessel: I
 know not whether the agonies he was enduring would
 have induced him to break his caste.  Poor wretch, he
 carried our heartfelt sympathy with him on his journey
 into the unknown country, as well as our will to have
 helped him if we could have done so in any way.   He
 died, I was told, a few hours after we left the  asylum.
 About sixpence in coppers  had been  found on him,
 which sum was duly handed over to the authorities,
 who buried him according to the  custom of his race.
   There were three English-speaking Eurasian lepers
 in this ward.  One man enlisted my sympathies on his
 behalf about some property which was confiscated  to
 the  State on the death of his  mother, but  which he
 asserts virtually belonged  to him.  He  had  made a
 struggle to retain possession of it, and had addressed a
 long petition to Lord Dufferin,  who was then  Viceroy
 of India ; but, having failed to prove his legitimacy, was
 informed that nothing could possibly be done for him.
 I found him a refined, well-educated man, very fond of
reading George Eliot's works, and any  well  written
novels.
  The   others   are  two   Eurasian  lads  who  are 
22
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
cousins.   One about 22, the other 10 years of age.  I
felt much sympathy for  the poor child, cut  off from
everyone,  and doomed to spend what  should  be  his
brightest days in this awful place.  He is  a nice-looking
boy, with a bright face, and a sweet, kindly disposition ;
and is devoted to drawing and painting,  which he can
do remarkably well.   He has often since drawn dogs,
cows, and different animals, and laid them out  on  his
bed for me to see  and admire.   Indeed, so well were
some of these  executed  that I  should  have liked to
have shown them to  friends of mine, had it been safe
to have handled them. Leprosy was only just asserting
itself on him; no sores were visible, but his fingers were
doubled up, and  a few ominous spots were on his body.
His cousin is a leper in a more advanced stage, so  one
would be led to infer from this that the disease  has
been transmitted by heredity.   I do not know how he
managed to do his drawing and  painting so well as he
did, for there was  neither a chair or table in the ward,
so he must have used the bed as  a table, and worked
in a kneeling position.
   Brother John and I  drove home from  the leper
asylum in silence, as our  hearts were too full  for 
THE  LEPER ASYLUM.
23
words.  It seemed terrible that men and women should
be living in the very midst of this crowded city as in a
living tomb. Women, too, of my own caste and country,
left alone to die  without a friend in the world.  One
lady, Mrs.  Grant, the matron of an institution  known
as the Military Orphan School, at Kidderpore, had visited
them occasionally; but when I first went  there four
months had elapsed without their seeing her.   This,
I am certain,  was no fault of hers; as she has many
other duties to perform, and the Indian climate seldom
allows one  to continue well for any lengthened period.
The men, poor things ! had had no visitor to practically
help them. Mr.  Hall, the clergyman of the district,
was in the habit of reading prayers in the little  church
attached to the Leper Asylum on certain Sundays;  but
the lepers  did not appreciate mere words.   His wife,
Mrs. Hall,  took to visiting the native leper women after
I had  published articles in our paper,  and after I had
raised a substantial fund  for the cause I had  at  heart ;
but, though she would distribute flowers to the natives,
she always  refrained from giving  any to the  European
and Eurasian women, who would have greatly  appre-
ciated such presents. 
CHAPTEE III.
   THE ACCOUNT I WROTE—BRIDGET—AN OFFICIAL
               VISIT  TO THE LEPERS.

When I arrived  home from the asylum, I went at
once to find my husband, to tell him  all that I had
seen, and  ask him to  help me in doing something for
the lepers.  He was out, unfortunately,  and,  no one
else  being in the house, I  tried to interest  my little
boy  in the fate of the poor leper  child whom I had
just  seen.  His baby brain could  not grasp the full
extent of my meaning;  but he  understood enough to
offer his  scrap-book and promise me his musical-box
and other things, all of  which were duly handed over
to the poor little leper next  day.
  I could do nothing  all day but brood  over  what I
had seen.  In the evening, with the incidents fresh on 
THE ACCOUNT I WROTE.
25
 my mind, I  sat down and wrote an  account  of them
 for our  paper.  This  raised for me the anger of the
 officials  in charge of the place, who had accepted the
 responsibility of caring for  the lepers.   I described
 exactly what I saw and smelt.  If I had not written the
 truth, Brother John, who was with  me, would have
 corrected my  statements when appealed to in  the
 matter, instead of publicly corroborating  them, as he
 afterwards did.  My husband thoroughly entered into,
 and appreciated, my wish to relieve the  sufferers, and
 we presented ourselves next day at the asylum with
 offerings of fruit, flowers, fans, scent, biscuits, jam, clean
 linen for bandages, sheets, underclothing, and as many
 other things as I  could  think of.  These things were
 tearfully  received  by  the  poor  women,  including
 Bridget,  whom  I  now had an opportunity of seeing
 for the first time.  Mr. McGuire was not pleased with
 me.   He said they had all they required, and informed
 me, when  I told  the women  I  should try  and  get
 sufficient money to  allow them a rupee  a week each
 for extra washing, etc.,  that the Jewess had money
 in the bank, and  that my money was not required.
I happened to  know about this money, and  the use 
26
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
for  what it was being kept, so  allowed  his remarks
to pass  in silence.  Bridget was  a  strange and weird
sight when I first saw her.  She wore a short black
petticoat, reaching a little below her knees, and a soiled
cotton  jacket  that  had once  been white.   She had
evidently gone  without a bath  for  a long time, for
her face and neck were  dirty.   Her bare  feet  were
swollen, but there were no leprous sores on her, nor
any distortion of her  fingers  or  toes.  As she stood
towering  above  me,  a tall,  gaunt,  starved-looking
woman, I noticed a wild, restless look  in  her eyes
which appeared to  me to be a sort of challenge.  On
a table  near her were  some old loaves of bread from
which all the  crumb had been eaten, leaving nothing
but the outside crust, that, from want of teeth, she
had been unable to eat.  There was also a little sour
milk in  a bowl.  I inquired and found that her diet was
bread, milk and a little coarse  sugar, and  that she
begged scraps of curry, or dall (lentil)  and rice from the
inmates. It appears that at the Calcutta Leper Asylum
there is a milk diet, on which Bridget was placed, and
which consisted of twenty-two ounces of bread and a
quart of milk daily, and a little sugar, and a meat diet; 
BRIDGET.
27
the latter being sufficient for an adult, but the former
was not.  Bridget  had her choice of the two  diets,
and, as  she was  loth  to sacrifice her milk, which  she
would have to do if she chose the meat  diet, elected
to take the milk diet.  The rules of the place were
not sufficiently elastic to  admit of a milk diet varied
with  meat.  Bridget, therefore, in order to keep body
and soul together,  was obliged  to beg food from  the
other inmates.  She  replied, when  I asked  her why
she had not taken a bath, that there was  no place
in  which  she could bathe.   Outside, there  was  a
brick building that had evidently been constructed for
the use of native  women,  and without  reference to
the requirements of Europeans.   This building  was
divided  into  three small  compartments,  in  each of
which there was a tap for water and a  drain for its
outlet.   There were no doors  of any kind.  I must
here  explain that the tap, rather than the more  con-
venient bathing-tub, was  selected in the interests of
sanitation.  The floor was of stone or concrete,  and
the wall in front, which shut off the bathing com-
partments from  view, was  open at both ends.  My
lady readers  will understand  how  repugnant it  is to 
28
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
the feelings of white women to bathe in a place in
which they are not entirely secure  from observation,
even from that of their own  sex ; a condition which
is  not obtainable  at   the  Calcutta Leper Asylum.
Bridget, having been brought up in Ireland with some
ideas  of decency, would not take  a  bath under these
conditions ; so went without.
  After making  this discovery, I could not rest until
I had written  a letter to Mr. Lambert, the Com-
missioner  of Police, asking  for  an interview.   He
granted my request, and appointed a time for me to
call at his office.  I found him a typical official, the
performance of whose  routine duties allowed him but
little  scope for the exercise of personal sympathy.  I
told him of the state of the Leper Asylum exactly as I
had found it.   He gave  me  little satisfaction, but
ended by remarking that  he and Mr. Justice Prinsep,
who was President of the District Charitable Society,
were going down to the Leper Asylum on the following
morning, and that he  would be glad if I would  then
shew them the dirty sheets described  in my article which
had appeared in our paper.  I was  too much awed by
Mr. Lambert's official manner to point out to him the 
AN  OFFICIAL VISIT.
29
 futility of such a quest; for the most rigid believer in
 the  artlessness  of human  nature would  have known
 that  the  sheets destined  to  meet  the  forthcoming
 scrutiny, after all that had  been written and read about
 their previous  state, would be characterised, as far as
 possible, by scrupulous purity.  However, being in a
 position to  be thankful  for  the  smallest mercy, I
 accepted  Mr. Lambert's offer, and  drove  down to the
 asylum, with my husband, on  the following morning.
 Mr.  Prinsep, who, I believe,  had  never  been to the
 place  before, appeared to  be amused  on seeing me,
 and  was  little  inclined to  treat the inquiry seriously.
 Owing  to my  article, no  doubt,  the  asylum had
 undergone a thorough cleaning;   the  sheets  were
 clean,  and  the place  tidied up.   Mr.  Lambert,
 without  a smile on his face,  turned  to  us and said
 that he  failed  to see any cause for complaint,  and
 that the place  was clean.   At that moment I saw a
 dying leper lying on  a filthy bed, the sheets of which
 were  covered  with  spots  of  blood  and matter.   I
pointed this  out to Mr. Lambert, who asked the man
how often his  sheets were  changed.   " We  have  a
clean sheet  every eight or nine days," replied  the 
30
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
 man in English.  I had given the time as once a week
 in our paper, so it was even longer than I had stated.
 When we got outside,  Mr. Prinsep joined us, and we
 went  to  Bridget's room.  I  asked Mr. Prinsep  if he
 considered 22 ounces of bread, a quart  of thin  milk,
 and 4 ounces  of coarse  sugar a day sufficient for  her ?
 He turned  to me and said he certainly thought it
 plenty.   I could not help looking at  his  portly  and
 well-nourished form,  and comparing  it  with that  of
 the thin, starved-looking old  Irishwoman, standing
 at the door and offering a bowl of well-watered milk
 for his  inspection.
  My readers  may imagine that in the face of so much
 opposition,  I  was  beginning  to lose  heart.   While
these  persons were inspecting  the tank  in which the
lepers' clothes were washed, I went into Daisy's room,
 and gathering the three English-speaking lepers—Bella,
Daisy, and the Jewess—around me, I begged of them to
speak out and tell these gentlemen of  their need of a
female attendant, of washstands, and a place in which
they could bathe in private, as well as  of the bad food
of which  they  had complained to me.  The poor things
said they would, but when the  three stern men stood 
AN OFFICIAL VISIT.
31
before  them, and Mr. Lambert asked, in his severest
police tones, what complaints they had to make, the
miserable  leper  women crouched down on the floor
and  were silent!   What "complaints" dared they
make ?  Did they not know that such men possessed
the  power  of  turning them,  diseased  and  penni-
less  as they were, into the streets at  any moment ?
The  horror  and disgrace of a European leper woman
begging in the streets was  an idea  that they  could
never  have  tolerated—anything  rather  than that.
There is a  certain  amount  of  sympathy accorded  to
native lepers, but Europeans afflicted in like manner are
regarded more as wild beasts than as human beings.
Could they have uttered a word of complaint under the
circumstances ?  Of course not.  To me, as an English-
woman, the  sight of these three leper women, cowering
before  the very  men  who posed before the  world  as
their friends and  benefactors,  was  one that  roused
every feeling within me to rebellion !  However, after
all, I was only regarded as a meddlesome unit, whose
blame or praise was a matter of utter indifference to
persons of position and standing;  though who knows
but that  a merciful God in Heaven, the Father of the 
32
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
fatherless and afflicted, to whom all hearts are opened,
did not see and pass judgment en one and all of us
who stood before Him that day ?  It may have been
this thought which caused me to bridle my tongue and
refrain from giving utterance to strong words.   Any-
how, I did manage to control my feelings sufficiently
to enable me to speak calmly to Mr. Lambert, to point
out to him the bathing-place, and to ask him, as a man
who had  daughters  of his own, if he considered it a
fitting bath-room for European women.   Mr. Lambert,
looking into the bathing-place, saw  a native woman
taking her bath,  and retired in confusion.  I  com-
mented on the unprotected state of the European
women, who were obliged to bathe in this place, which
was exposed in an enclosure where native male dressers,
washermen, cooks and others were in the habit of walk-
ing, and suggested  the  desirability of having a door
placed in  one of  the bathing partitions, which should
be supplied with  a bathing-tub, and reserved for the
use of European women, who  are  unaccustomed to
bathing like natives.  I was informed that such ad-
ditions  were altogether superfluous,  and that  if the
ends  of the outer  wall were rounded  or  curved in, 
AN OFFICIAL VISIT.
33
instead of being straight as they then were, all require-
ments as to the  privacy  and comfort of the bathing
arrangements would  then be met.   This  was done,
but up to the time of writing,  no door or bath-tub
has been provided for the use of  Daisy, Bella, or
the Jewess, who have to  make their daily ablutions
under  the tap as  best they can.  I may mention  that
there were no arrangements at all in this asylum for
giving the patients a warm bath.
D 
CHAPTEE IV.
NEWSPAPER CRITICISM—" TRUTH " AND MR. PRINSEP—
                  "THE QUEEN."

As  I have already mentioned, the remarks  I wrote
about the Calcutta Leper Asylum made the honorary
officials of that institution "mad" at being "shown up"
(which was a necessary consequence of the appearance
of a  true account of that institution) as mere poseurs,
and not as workers, as  they fain  would have appeared
before the Government from whom they received pay,
and  expected preferment.   Being  the  head  of the
institution,  and  never  having  visited  it,  to  my
knowledge, except on the occasion of the official visit I
have described in the  previous  chapter, Mr.  Prinsep
was, of course, my bitterest opponent.  Consequently 
NEWSPAPER  CRITICISM.
35
appeared the following extract in Truth  of the 10th of
July last year :—
  On May 15th reference was made in Truth to a deplorable account
of the Leper Asylum, Calcutta, given by Mrs. Alice Hayes, in a
local paper called Hayes1 Sporting News.   I have now received from
Mr. Justice Prinsep, president of the District Charitable Society,
which has the control of the Asylum in  question, a letter in which
the writer states that the statements in Hayei Sporting News " are
absolutely without foundation, and are merely the careless and iu-
accurate reports of a hysterical, irresponsible woman seeking for
notoriety."  Mr. Justice Prinsep does not deal with the  whole of
the statements specifically, but he states (1) that in only one of  the
9ix buildings "can it be pretended that there is any overcrowding
at all;" (2) " that the medical attendance is appropriate ; "  (3) '* that
a person referred to by Mrs. Hayes  as a  native doctor is  the
'  compounder ;' " and (4) that  he could, if it were worth while,
"similarly refute all Mrs. Hayes's statements."  He also  sends me
a copy of a letter  addressed on  behalf of  the management to the
local press ; but I  find here quite as much admission of the  impeach-
ment as  denial.   I  find further  that  in subsequent articles in
11ayes'Sporting News, Mrs. Hayes adheres to her original statements,
and points out that many of them are unanswered or unanswerable.
It is impossible for me  at  this distance of time  and space to go
further into the matter, but the impression left on my mind is that
Mr. Justice Prinsep's abusive language of Mrs. Hayes is entirely
unjustified, and that this Leper Asylum will probably be all the
better for the light that has been turned on it.
   Mr.  Prinsep, being  a lawyer  (he was  Judge in  the
Calcutta High Court), was well acquainted with the old

legal maxim :  " when  you have got  no case, abuse the

other   side."    Consequently  his  strong  language— 
36
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
however unbecoming it was  in  a  man of  his high
official  position,  and  addressed to  a woman—was
a  convincing  proof that  the  words   I had written
were true.   His  assertion that I made a mistake in the
designation  of  the medical  attendant, proves  how
sorely he was  pressed to find something to refute ; for
the fact of a "  compounder " being lower in  grade than
a "native doctor " made my case  all the stronger.
  I  received not only a kindly pat  on the back from
Mr. Labouchere; but a most sympathetic article under

the  heading, " A Lady's Work  Among the Lepers,"

appeared on the 22nd of the  following November in

The Queen, as  follows :—

  A Calcutta correspondent writes:—"Perhaps your readers may
be interested to hear what a woman has  done for the lepers in the
Calcutta Leper Asylum. Mrs. Alice Hayes, lady correspondent of
a  local weekly  entitled Hayes1 Sporting Neirs, edited  by her
husband Captain  Horace Hayes, lately commenced writing in her
husband's paper a series of articles on Calcutta Charities, visiting
each one  for this  purpose,  amongst them the Calcutta Leper
Asylum.  She found entombed there about seventy lepers—men
and women, and  one or two  children.  Amongst the  inmates are
some Eurasian and European men and  women. The  latter seem,
from Mrs. Hayes'  accounts,  to  be  badly furnished with the
comforts of life.  Two of the  women had been students in some of
our large public schools before the disease showed itself, and were
hidden away here by parents and friends anxious  to put such a 
NEWSPAPER  CRITICISM.
37
 visitation from the world's gaze.  Mrs. Hayes was much touched
 at the sad loneliness of these poor creatures, and describes their
 condition most vividly in the paper before mentioned, inviting the
 help of the public to form a small fund to provide them with small
 creature comforts which the asylum had omitted to supply, such as
 sufficient clothes, sheets, washstands, fruit, jam, illustrated papers,
 &c, and proposing personally  to visit  the  asylum weekly, and
 distribute amongst the afflicted peoplethe small offerings. Her appeal
 has been very generously responded to, and money, clothing,  etc.,
 have been sent to her.  Nobly too, does she, week after week fulfil
 her self-imposed  mission, going among  these poor outcasts, and
 cheering  their loneliness with sprightly talk and news  of the
 outside world, and leaving each  time some memento of her  kindly
 presence.  Leprosy in  our tropical climate assumes its  most
 loathsome aspect, and many  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  Leper
 Asylum are in a  very advanced stage of the disease.  The sight,
 as described by others whom curiosity or pity perhaps has tempted
 there, is enough to appal  any man.  I hardly think a second visit
 is paid, however good the intention of doing so.  Mrs. Hayes, on the
 contrary, as I have said before, has never failed a single Tuesday
 to visit her  poor suffering fellow-creatures.    We  read  with
 admiration of  the deeds of Florence Nightingale,  Sister  Dora,
 Sister Gertrude, and I think  we should add to this list the name of
 our brave young citizen, Mrs.  Alice Hayes,  whose kindness  and
 courage are certainly unequalled in India.*

   I had a great deal of criticism in the Indian papers.
 The Calcutta ones, which  are largely dependent on  the
 support  of the local officials, chiefly backed up  the
 principle that  the king can  do  no  wrong;  while  the
journals that were free from Calcutta official influence,

 as a rule,  took my side.   The  result,  however, was 
38
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
favourable ;  for subscriptions  from all parts of India
eame to our fund, which, since our departure from the
East, has, I am very sorry to say, decreased.  As I can
now no longer personally  stimulate support, I  am
doing the next best thing by writing this book. 
CHAPTEB  V.
EFFORTS  TO  COMFORT—OUR  SUBSCRIPTION  FUND—
                  IMPROVEMENTS.

I managed, after a deal  of trouble, to give each of the
leper women  a small tin-enamelled washstand;  but
much  opposition  was brought to bear on me by the
officials in my efforts to alleviate their  sufferings in
any  way.  Daisy, who  spoke to me about the bath-
room, says she hangs up a towel in front of the door-
way and so secures  privacy in that way;  but it  is a
wretched makeshift at the best.  Seeing that no female
attendant was provided to attend to the personal re-
quirements of these poor women, whose disease renders
them miserably helpless, we thought out a project by
which  a native woman  could be got to wait on them. 
40
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
By this time my article, which, as I explained, had been
written when  the  scene presented to me on my first
visit to the  Leper Asylum was  fresh and vivid in my
recollection,  had been published in our paper and had
been productive of good  results.   Parcels of linen,
books,  soap, tea, and  various things were  sent me,
together with subscriptions amounting to over Rs. 800'.
Out  of this  we sent a cheque for Bs. 192 to the com-
mittee  of the District Charitable  Society, with the
request that  a female  attendant  be  provided for
the female European  and  Eurasian  inmates  of the
Leper  Asylum, at  a salary of Rs. 8 a-month, for two
years.  This money was, I am glad  to  say, accepted
by the committee, and the attendant procured. We
read an account in a  local paper of Dr. Unna's new
medicine for leprosy, which had been highly  recom-
mended by  Dr. Milton, senior surgeon of St.  John's
Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, London, and  at once
forwarded to the  committee of the D. C. S., from our
Leper  Eund, a cheque for Rs. 250, with the request that
the money be  used in procuring the medicine from
England and  giving it a fair  trial  in  the Calcutta
Leper  Asylum, together with a  promise of a  further 
 
"
5* '%%a«.v
Brother  John.
>. 41. 
OUR  SUBSCRIPTION FUND.
41
remittance of Rs. 250 for this object should it be re-
quired.   This  money was,  after  some  discussion,
accepted,  and  an  order for the  medicine  sent  to
England.   I must not  forget to mention that we
pointed  out in our  letter to  the Committee  the
advisability  of having the new medicine tried here by
an English  doctor. I had secured the confidence of
the public, who sympathised with me in my work, and
sent  me various sums of money from time  to time.
Monthly subscriptions to our  Leper Fund amounted
to Rs. 40.   With this sum I was able to spend Rs. 10
weekly  on  comforts  for the white female lepers.  I
gave  the  four  of them a rupee  each, and spent the
remaining six rupees  on jam,  fruit, biscuits,  lavender
water, flowers, etc., always reserving  a few rupees,
which I exchanged into coppers,  and gave each native
leper woman as many as I could afford.   My weekly
visits to the Leper Asylum were always paid in company
with Brother John, who arranged to go with me every
Tuesday,  and who was my most staunch and sincere
helper in this  work.   We had  at first to encounter
much opposition from the  officials; were not allowed
to visit the  asylum without sending for the superin- 
42
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
tendent, nor permitted to give anything to the lepers
without first having our gifts pass through his hands.
I found this arrangement most unpleasant, for among
my gifts to these poor friendless women were things
that are not  generally  allowed to pass through the
hands of a man, and, besides, I often wanted to speak
to the women alone, and the presence  of  the super-
intendent  was  in  no way desirable.   Being  utterly
powerless  to move  the  men on the Committee, who
regarded me  as an  enemy  to  be  thwarted at every
turn, and  held up to scorn and ridicule, I appealed to
the public through  our  paper, with  the result that
several indignant letters  from sympathisers appeared
in the local daily  papers.   This caused a change of
front.   Mrs.  Smith, the matron  at  the  almshouse,
opposite the asylum, was told co attend me in my
visits, and  distribute the gifts  I took to the  lepers.
I noticed, also, that some improvements had  been made
in the  asylum.   Bridget's  room  bad  been  cut  off
entirely from the native ward by a wooden partition;
a bath-room, constructed  of  matting and bamboos,  for
her special use, had been  fitted up in  the small
verandah at the back of  her room.  The food of the 
EFFORTS  TO COMFORT.
43
lepers had also been undergoing a change, and Bridget
was  given a little  curry and rice, in addition to her
bread and milk.   The people who are always ready
to put an entirely false construction on the motives
of others had been busy with their tongues, and had
told  Bridget  and the others that I  had only taken
them up as a  "fad," to drop as quickly when I got
tired of them.  This was  all duly repeated  to me by
the lepers themselves, who had begun to put by  their
weekly rupee  against the time when supplies would
be stopped.   Of course,  I was  hurt  and grieved to
think that people could be  so ungenerous as to say
such things to the  poor lepers,  and  tried to impress
on  Bridget that so long  as I remained in  Calcutta,
with health and strength,  I would let nothing prevent
me from paying my weekly visit to them,  and that
when I was unable  to do so, failing any lady, Brother
John had promised  to  take  up  the  work.   This
satisfied the old woman somewhat. She considered for
a time, and then said, "Yes, I  think you are telling
the truth, because  you have always  kept your pro-
mises.  I asked  Mrs. ---- to  bring me some red
herrings, and she said she would; but  they never came. 
44
. MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
When I asked you, you  brought  them.  Besides,  a
young clergyman  came here  once—only once—and
promised  to send  me  some  picture-books, but he
never sent them;  so you  see we haven't much faith
in people  now: we only  believe them when we  see
them keep  their  promises."  I often used  to find
Daisy, the Jewess, and Bella together in Daisy's little
room, talking of their affliction.   Suffering and sorrow
have bound  at least two of these women together in
the holiest ties of friendship  and love.  One day  I
found them  much  depressed.   I know not  what had
happened: I think there  had  been trouble  with  the
officials.  Whatever it was, they were afraid  to tell me
more than that they had been forbidden to speak about
their feeding and treatment, as I had been publishing
articles  on their  state in our  paper.  When I told
them  that money had been sent to England for  the
newly-recommended  medicine  for  them,  they were
delighted ; asked  me  many  questions as to  what it
was  like,  when it would  arrive, whether I  thought
it would do  them  any good, and many others that  I
was unable to answer.
  To  show  the horrible neglect,  as  far as  medical 
BRIDGET.
45
attention was concerned, that existed in this  Leper
Asylum, I may mention  that the patients  were in
charge  of a native "compounder"  (see Mr. Prinsep's
remark on page 35).  Although Bridget, the old Irish-
woman, was regarded by the officials of the Asylum as
a leper, my husband and I doubted  the  accuracy of
their judgment in this case ; for it seemed impossible
that she could be in such fair health, as she was, had
she been thus afflicted for a dozen or more years, as
they asserted.  Her features were as regular and clean
cut,  as they would be in any woman  of her age;  and
were free, as far as we could see, from  any  tubercles or
nodules  peculiar to leprosy, especially  when it is of
long standing.  There was no distortion of her fingers
or toes  (she generally went about barefoot), and there
was  no  staining  of the skin of the uncovered parts of
her body.  Her feet and lower parts of her legs were
somewhat swollen, which condition might very easily
have been induced by debility brought on by the in-
sufficiency of the food she was allowed, by the effects
of the enervating climate, by want of proper exercise, and
by age.   She suffered from no leprous pains, the  acute-
ness  of  her  senses  were in no way diminished,  and 
46
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
she was affected with no  special lassitude.  The only
symptom which in her was at all  diagnostic (if I may
be pardoned for using  a  medical  term which exactly
conveys my meaning) of leprosy was a  feeling  of
numbness which  she had.  My  husband,  who  is  a
Fellow of the Royal College  of Veterinary Surgeons,
and who has studied the nature of disease both in the
lower animals and in man, tells me that this feeling of
numbness is not peculiar to leprosy, but that it might
have  arisen, in Bridget,  from another and not very
dissimilar disease, which Bridget,  according  to  the
Leper Asylum  officials, had  contracted  many years
ago.  I may also  mention that this poor Irishwoman
was entirely free from the peculiar odour  which Dr.
MacLaren (than whom there is no more experienced
authority)  regards  (see  page  116)  as diagnostic  of
leprosy.   Besides,  Mrs. Grant,  who had  taken  an
interest in Bridget for many years,  told us that Dr.
Kenneth  Stewart,  who was  formerly in practice  in
Calcutta, and who had examined Bridget, had told her
that  the Irishwoman  was not a leper.   As we had
only the unprofessional opinion of the Asylum people
against our contention, and as we thought it horrible 
BRIDGET.
47
that on such slight evidence this poor creature should
be stowed away in a native leper asylum, we applied
and received permission  to have her  examined  by
Dr. Crombie, superintendent of the Calcutta General
Hospital.  This was done,  and  Dr.  Crombie gave it
his opinion that  she  was  a leper,  because  of the
numbness  or ancesthesia (see page  116) from which
she suffered. 
CHAPTER VI.
MISS O'BRIEN—AMATEUR ACTORS—A PERFORMANCE IN
                 AID OF OUR FUND.

All this time I  was doing little or nothing for the
male  lepers.   My  monthly  subscriptions  were not
sufficient to allow of my extending any gifts to them,
much as I should have liked to have done so.  Brother
John undertook  to provide them with  tobacco, but
he could do no more ; for  his salary amounted to but
Rs. 50 (about £3 10s.)  a month,  out of which he had
to keep himself and to feed many hungry sailors who
found their way to his rooms.  The native women, too,
in the other  wards were asking me to bring them
fruit.  Feeling myself cramped from want  of funds, I
took counsel with a dear friend of mine, Miss O'Brien, 
MISS O'BRIEN.
£9
who lived opposite our house, and who had  assisted
me in many ways with my work.   She was the eldest
of a large family, who  were left almost penniless on
the death of their father.  Instead of asking  alms of
friends  and acquaintances,  she opened a school for
young children,  and by  dint  of  hard and  constant
work, managed to support and assist the whole family
until they were able to work for themselves.  Another
sister is  the possessor of a  fine soprano voice, which
was trained in  England  by Signor  Visetti.  She is
now one  of the  most  popular singing-mistresses  in
Calcutta, and is  able to assist her elder sister in keep-
ing their old mother in comfort.  These two admirable
girls became greatly interested  in my work among the
jepers.  The elder one read my articles to the school
children.   Over a hundred scholars were told of Bella
and Daisy in the  Leper Asylum.  They raised a  sub-
scription among themselves, and sent me various small
sums from time to time.  The  school-mistress, being
cleverer than  I am at book-keeping, took charge of
my subscription-book and fund-money, giving me what
I required every week for the lepers.  She would have
liked to  have  accompanied  me on one  of my visits
                         E 
50             MY LEPER FRIENDS.
to the asylum, but her mother forbad  her doing so,
which, considering her position as head  of a large
school, was perhaps wise.   Finding our Leper Fund
getting low, and myself unable to do anything  for the
male lepers, my friends and I put our heads together
one  Sunday  afternoon, and wrote  out  an appeal for
more money, which we had printed and  distributed
round Calcutta.  We also  thought  out a programme
for an entertainment to be given in aid of the Leper
Fund, to which we would all contribute help.  I sug-
gested that  a lady pianiste should  play  a solo,  my
friend should sing something, we would ask a couple of
gentlemen  friends  to  sing  also, the school children
could wind up the first part with the pretty Highland
schottische they had danced in the theatre on their
last  prize distribution  day, and that I would arrange
for the acting of  " Our Bitterest Foe," a pretty little
play for three actors, which would fill the second part
of the programme.  Alas ! the getting  up of any per-
formance is  not  at all so  easy as it seems.  Mrs.
De Montmorency  Smith will not promise to take part
in any concert without  first having had  the  names
of the other performers  submitted for her approval. 
AMATEUR ACTORS.               51
Then Miss  de  Courcy Jones will not perform unless
she can choose her own place on the programme.  The
men,  I must  say,  generally behave  better.  Having
promised  their  help in the  good cause  of  charity,
they do not often worry one  with petty tricks.  Our
proposed  play was a difficult one to cast.  Those of
my readers  who have seen it  performed in England
will remember that  each of the  three  characters
requires a deal of sound, strong acting.  I had helpers
in plenty ; for amateur actors of  a sort are  not scarce
in India; but they were not the  right kind.  Strange
it is that almost every amateur actor is a low-comedy
man!  Our  first rehearsal  was altogether  ridiculous.
The man  who essayed  the  part  of the  dignified
Prussian  General, Von Rosenberg,  considered it the
correct thing to sit in the  presence of a lady with his
feet on a chair !  I had  arranged my drawing-room
as a stage, and had  put each  chair in its place, so, of
course,  could  not allow the General  to upset every-
thing.   When  I told him  of it, he  answered stiffly,
" That he wanted to make the  part  as  natural as
possible, and that men, when taking their  ease, do sit
in that position."   Knowing that a play cannot sue- 
52
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
ceed, if each actor is allowed to adopt what " business "
he  pleases, I told him that  Mr.  John McLean had
taught me his way of playing the piece, and  that I
should prefer  it  done according to his instructions.
My  General removed his feet  from the chair with
an  angry grunt.   I  discovered that he stammered
on  occasions of excitement,  and when he looked  at
me and commenced his first speech, saying, " You are
s-s-s-s-s-s—ad, Mademoiselle?" my  other actor,  who
was to play the part of Henri de  la Fere, and  who
was hstening behind a screen, burst into such a fit of
laughter  that  we  were unable  to proceed for some
time.  On hearing this, the General got up from his
chair and walked up  and down  the stage  in long-
strides, calling out to Henri to come and play the part
himself, if  he could do it better.  He cooled down
after a time and we were able to resume.  When he
came to the lines, " I am a Prussian, Mademoiselle,"
he emphasized the word " Prussian " by banging his
fist down on the table with so much violence, that  I,
who  was  sitting on  the  opposite  side  following
his speeches with the book, was startled and dropped
it.  This provoked repeated  roars of laughter from 
         A PERFORMANCE IN AID OF  OUR FUND.     53
 Henri, which so incensed the General that he refused
 to say another  word.   I did not press him to do so;
 for I saw that his  acting would not pass muster; so
 we partook of afternoon tea and  passed things off
 pleasantly  with some music.  When the  amateurs
 had gone, I decided to abandon my  idea of a play and
 have a concert  only, and to engage the Calcutta Town
 Hall for the occasion.
   I found  I had many kind friends to help me in
 getting up my concert.  Besides the performers, who
 gladly offered their services free of all charge, was  Mr.
 George, a clever artist, who was at that time engaged
 on an illustrated paper called The Empress, and who
 designed the programmes for me;  Messrs.  Thacker,
 Spink and Co., who provided and printed them free of
 charge ; the Great Eastern Hotel Company, who sent
 their workmen with flags and drapery to decorate  the
 Town Hall; and a number of other good people  who
 all helped to make the  evening a success.   The Volun-
 teer band, under Herr Kuhlmey, played  during  the
 interval, and also after  the eoncert. Brother John and
 I  had a hard day's  work before us  in arranging the
s tage and decorating it with flowers and fairy lamps. 
54
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
He procured a quantity of evergreens, and between us
we managed to make the stage  look very well.   He
had a large model of a ship that had been made by the
sailors, and of which he was justly proud, arranged
among the flags and flowers in the centre of the stage
where  the audience could see  and admire it to their
heart's content.  Brother John and my husband took
the tickets and  showed  the people into their seats.
The  concert   was a success in  every way.   Mrs.
Bushby, a silver medalist, and one of the best pianists
in India,  played  the accompaniments.  The soloists
were Miss O'Brien, Miss  Stuart, Mrs.  Tumbull,  Mr.
Eastly, Mr. Hartland, and Father Hopkins, all well-
known amateurs of Calcutta. I recited two pieces,  and
received  a very hearty  greeting from the crowded
audience when  I  went on the stage.   I thought that
after all the hostilities we had encountered in connec-
tion with this leper question, that I should  have  a
small house ; but though none of the officials connected
with the  Leper Asylum  or their friends were  present
at our concert,  so many other people  came that we
had to provide more chairs to meet them all,  and the
Town  Hall was quite full.  I plucked up courage on 
       A PERFORMANCE IN AID OF  OUR FUND.     55

seeing this, and recited in my very best style, gaining a
hearty encore from my audience,  who  seemed to be
thoroughly pleased with what I did.  Miss O'Brien
was, of course, the prima donna of the evening, and all
the other performers  were most successful with their
songs. 
CHAPTER VII.
WHITE LEPERS—DR.  MACLAREN—HEAT AND MISERY.

  Since my first visit to the Asylum two other men
had  been admitted,  both Europeans.  One man  is
English  and was employed  on the  railway.  He
managed with the weekly rupee I was able to give
him, to obtain some  special kind of medicine which,
he says,  is  doing  him  a deal of good.  He showed
me some in a small  tin box.  It looked  like tobacco
leaves and has a peculiar smell.  He  makes it  into
pills and takes several  every  day.   There  are many
hundreds of different  quack  medicines  which  are
advertised as "cures" for leprosy, but I have little
faith  in any of  them.  This English leper is entirely
destitute, and is at the moment  of writing sharing a 
 
Dr.  G.  G. MagLakex
[/>. 57. 
WHITE LEPERS.
57
 common ward with natives.  His sole furniture con-
 sists  of the bed  on which  he lies; not even a chair
 being provided for him to sit on.  He has no wash-
 stand, nor any other furniture.   In the next bed to
 him is a man of French extraction; a very bad case.
 Leprosy has obtained such  a hold of him that I doubt
 whether he  will  live very long.  He  was formerly
 employed  in  the Calcutta water-works and  several
 letters had appeared in the daily papers written  by
 different persons who had  seen him, commenting  on
 the danger of allowing a leper to occupy this position.
 He was discharged  shortly after the appearance of
 these letters,  a pension  being allowed  him for  the
 support  of  his  family.  I  heard  that he had trans-
 mitted the disease to his wife. Notwithstanding that two
 pure Europeans had been admitted into the male ward,
 not the slightest thing has been done towards making
 them comfortable.   How differently Dr. MacLaren
 treats his European patients !  This admirable gentle-
man  started in 1879 a leper  asylum for natives  at
Dehra Dun,  in the  north of India, where he was  in
practice.  This institution has been supported entirely
by voluntary  contributions, and  Dr. MacLaren has 
58
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
devoted as much of his time as possible to trying to
master this horrible  disease with the aid of all  that
medical science can accomplish.  In this year's report
of the Dehra Dun Asylum, we read, " During  this
year a European—the first—has been admitted to the
Asylum.   As,  however, he  does not belong  to  this
district, and was admitted on his own urgent request,
I may here make a short statement regarding  him.
Mr. C. W. J., who is in his forty-sixth year, was at one
time in a good situation in a Government Office ; but
about nineteen  years  ago a blotch appeared  on his
body  which in the course of a few  years  developed
into disfiguring sores.   He visited England on furlough
to get what benefit  he could  from home  treatment.
After staying  and receiving treatment for some  time
he had  to return without having received  the  benefit
which he had so confidently hoped  for.   Shortly  after
that, he  was invalided  out  of  the  Service  with  only
a  gratuity;  but  on  appealing to  Government he
ultimately  succeeded  in  having a pension  granted
him.  In July he first made application for admission;
but as there was nothing in the way of accommoda-
tion  for a  European in  the institution, I could not 
DR. MACLAREN.
59
give him much encouragement.  Ultimately, the local
Government  and  the  Superintendent  of  the Dun,
Mr.  Nujent,  magnanimously  provided  funds  where-
with  suitable  accommodation  and  furniture  was
provided.   A  small cottage,  consisting of a  room,
bedroom,  closet,  and verandah in a  corner  of  the
garden, was  altered,  and given up for his use,  and
Mr.  J.  came here in  October."   My readers  may
learn from this that Dr. MacLaren did consider the
requirements of a European as being entirely separate
and  distinct from those of  natives, and arranged for
suitable accommodation for the one under his charge,
previous to his reception.  In  Calcutta  this  is  not
done, and  up to  the time of writing, Europeans are
herding with  natives  in  a ward  entirely  devoid  of
furniture,   except  a  bed each.  This  is  not  from
necessity or want of funds ;  for the District Charitable
Society is one of the richest in Calcutta.  I may  here
explain  to  those  of my readers who have not lived
abroad that,  however poor  and miserably  afflicted a
European man or woman may be, the one  possession
to which they cling,  and on  wThich they  hang their
last  shred of personal pride when  everything  else 
60
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
in the  world has  left  them, is  their  nationality.
Hence, they bitterly resent in their hearts, even when
they are too stricken  down to give vent to  their
feelings in  words, any attempt to  class them  on a
common footing  with natives.   The same commend-
able  spirit  animated St. Paul  when he  claimed that
he was a Roman.
  At this time the weather in Calcutta was intensely hot.
One Tuesday, as I drove down to the Asylum, my pony,
evidently overcome by the  heat, staggered and seemed
unable to proceed.  Seeing some cabmen bathing their
horses' temples with  wet rags  at a watering place in
the road, I stopped my pony  and got my native groom
to do likewise to him.  It revived him and we reached
safely  at the Asylum without  further  mishap.   On
taking up the  Statesman newspaper next day, I read
that  five tramway horses had died  of sunstroke about
the very time that my  pony became affected by  the
heat.  The lepers at the Asylum were feeling it very
much,  and  the smell of the disease was quite  over-
powering.  I forwarded a gallon of  phenyle for use in
the  Leper  Asylum;  but  Mr.  Lambert  (the  Com-
missioner of Police, who has charge of this institution) 
HEAT AND MISERY.
61
wrote across my note :  " return this to Mrs. Hayes, with
thanks," and the phenyle came back to me.  Although
some months had passed, during which  time these
officials were able to  see for themselves that I was
trying to do my best for the  good of the lepers and
working quietly; still they chose to maintain their hostile
attitude towards me and to do their  utmost to wound
and annoy me in every way.  Even Mr. McGuire must
have felt that I was hardly treated; for, as he returned
my phenyle and put it in the carriage, he showed me Mr.
Lambert's letter,  and assured  me  that he was acting
under orders.  Just then I heard a roar as of a number
of wild animals fighting.   I proceeded to the native
female ward from whence it came,  and  saw a number
of leper women all rushing at the bed on which I had
placed the coppers I had counted  out  for each  of
them, and trying to get possession of the whole, tearing
and going at  each other  like so many tigers.  Mrs.
Smith was able to restore order after  a while ; but the
sight  of  these  loathsome-looking   diseased  women
enveloped in dirty rags  and bandages trying  to hurt
each other for a few coppers, was one that  I shall
never forget.   The heat was overpowering;  things 
62
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
were  all going  wrong;   the phenyle  that  Daisy
had  repeatedly asked  for was  not   allowed  to be
given,  and  I  returned  home  that day  sick  and
wretched. 
CHAPTER VIII.
 NEED  FOR A HOME  FOR  EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN
           LEPERS—OUR PUBLIC MEETING.

 Dr. Wallace,  a  friend  who  came to  lunch,  on
 talking things over with me, proposed that instead of
 labouring away every week  at  the  Government Leper
 Asylum  under many vexatious  restrictions, it  would
 be better  to  try and  open a  Home  for European
 and Eurasian lepers  where they  could find  shelter
 and comfort, and  be  away  from natives similarly
 afflicted.  I entered gladly into the spirit of the propo-
 sition, but felt doubtful  as to whether sufficient money
 would  be forthcoming to carry  on such an institution.
 We did not want it to rest on the shoulders of any one
man or woman;  but desired it to be properly managed 
64
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
by a competent committee appointed for the purpose.
I was in favour of putting the proposed Home in charge
of Sisters of  Charity,  who,  the Reverend  Mother
Matilda  of  the  Loretto  Convent,  told me,  would
come out from  England  if  we  could insure  them
a  home  and food, and  that   they  would  devote
their lives  to this holy cause.    This idea was  not
generally approved  of   by  my  Protestant friends,
who said that Catholics  would be certain to want to
proselytise the persons  under their charge, and that,
although the Sisters would devote their whole time to
the care  of the lepers, my subscriptions would fall off
directly I placed them under any special religious body.
Besides, there exists a  deal  of suspicious  distrust of
Catholics in India, which has  arisen, I think, from
jealousy; for it  is generally, if  reluctantly, conceded
that Catholics manage their public charitable institutions
far better  than  do persons  of  other  denominations.
We decided that it would be best to put Dr. Wallace's
proposal to  the  test of public opinion, and  to call a
 meeting at  the Dalhousie  Institute, which has a hall
 that is used for such purposes.   We  intended  to put
 forward two resolutions at this meeting.    The first 
 

an

A '
i#i
Mill
■1«
*ia
ail|jii
iiistiSJ 
             NEED FOR A LEPER HOME.          65

was to show the need of such a home ; for although the
Government  Asylum gave  shelter  to European and
Eurasian lepers, it placed them under conditions which
few of them, however sorely pressed they might be by
their misery,  would accept.  Dr. Wallace promised to
speak on this point, and to tell the audience, as he had
already informed us, that  he  knew, from  his own
personal experience, of from twenty to thirty of these
hapless ones who were living in  their own  homes
in Calcutta to the danger of their friends and of the
general public.   Besides this  score  or  so  in the
metropolis, there must  be hundreds of European and
Eurasian lepers scattered throughout the length and
breadth of India.  Only a very small proportion of these
cases come before the notice of the  English residents;
for the relations of such  lepers  naturally make every
possible effort to prevent the fact of the existence of the
disease in their family becoming known on account of
the awful ban it would lay on all the other members.
I need hardly say that no one, in his or her senses, would
knowingly marry into a family affected with the here-
ditary taint of leprosy, nor even associate on  intimate
terms with such comparative outcasts.  Owing to the
                         F 
66
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
perverseness of human nature, such instances do some-
times occur.  One was  of a  young gentleman,  good-
looking, well connected, charming in his manners, of
great natural abilities and of irreproachable conduct,
who fell in love with a young lady whose family had a
trace  of native blood in  it,  and laboured under  the
whispered stigma of leprosy.  The y oung gentleman's
relations used every means in their power  to  prevent
their union, and told him distinctly that if it took place
they would know him no more.   Their entreaties and
threats, were in vain; the marriage took place; some
children were born; a fewyears passed happily despite the
alienation of his friends,  and then the effects of the dire
malady broke out in the young wife.   The husband
tried,  with rare heroism, to keep a bright face on  the
sorrow he endeavoured to hide,  and obtained the best
medical advice  in the world, but  all in vain ; for  the
disease went steadily on to its end in its uncheckable
course.  Among  others in  Calcutta, we  knew  one
who regularly  attended church  and  sat  beside  his
fellow worshippers; a second  went to meetings of the
local  Salvation Army and used to shake hands with
the members of his religious  sect;  a third lived with 
ENGLISH LEPERS.
67
 his parents, brothers and sisters, none  of whom had
 developed  the  malady; a fourth lived  with his  wife
 and family (the woman and children being  apparently
 healthy) and eked out a precarious living by begging.
 We had heard of a planter, who,  while we were  in
 Calcutta, brought a brother of his, that was afflicted
 with  leprosy,  dowm to Calcutta with  the  object  of
 placing him in the Leper Asylum ;  but,  on seeing that
 it was altogether unsuitable  to the requirements  of a
 white man, he took him back with him to his  own
 home.  My husband knew  an officer  in the Indian
 Army, who was  quartered in  the  same station with
 him,  and who  became a leper.  When his condition
 could be no longer concealed, in the event of his going
 out in public, he was virtually made a prisoner of,  in
 his house, by his friends, who  screened him off from
 outside  gaze till he  died.  My  husband also knew  of
 an  equally  sad case  of a gentleman in Government
 employment in India,  who  contracted  leprosy,  and
 whose brother  (his only relation in that country),  as
 soon as he  became aware of the fact, would no longer
 come  to see him or hold any  intercourse  with him.
Although some  of  his  indigo  planting friends, with 
68
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
the kindness of heart which characterises all  Indian
planters, used to visit him from time to time and try
to cheer him up, he had to live and die with only his
Native  servants  near him.  We know of two other
cases of leprosy  among acquaintances of our own in
India; but these are only in their first stages,  and are
not sufficiently advanced to prevent the sufferers from
appearing in public.  I may mention that the  Lancet
of the 18th July of this year (1891) reports a  case of
leprosy at Lisburn  (Ireland) in a man who had con-
tracted the disease at Rangoon (Burma), where  he
had resided ten years.  There have been many other
instances of Europeans contracting the disease abroad.
Any destitute white man who became a leper in India
would have to remain there ; as the Government, very
rightly, would not send him home.
  What we  contended and still  maintain,  is, that
if a hospital were formed near Calcutta, or  at  some
other convenient centre, for the reception of European
and Eurasian lepers, and  if it  afforded a  comfortable
home where medical  comforts and proper medical
attendance  were  obtainable,  the large  majority  of
these poor creatures would  gladly avail themselves of 
              NEED FOR A LEPER HOME.          69

the opportunity of obtaining a  place of rest, of re-
ceiving  medical aid, and of relieving their  friends of
their  burdensome  presence.  I  may  point out  in
passing, that such an asylum should, within reasonable
bounds, be  replete with means of making the lives of
the inmates  as bright as possible.  While enforcing strict
segregation, the patients should have ample room inside
the precincts  of the institution  to walk  about, and to
engage in any harmless amusements suitable to their
condition.   Besides this, they should be regarded as
sick  people,  whose  ailment medicine  and  proper
hygienic treatment  can do  much  to relieve, even if
they cannot, with our present state of knowledge, stay
its course.  In India,  European and Eurasian leper
have  no  such place  to  enter.   If they go  to  the
Calcutta Asylum, they  will be treated as Natives; they
will have  no " medical comforts ;" they will be fed in
a manner  unsuitable to Europeans, or to the require-
ments of  their disease, which demands a liberal regi-
men ; they will not be able to get a warm bath;  nor
will they  have attendants  to wash and dress them, if
they be too weak or helpless to  do so for themselves;
they will have no grounds to walk in; they will have no 
70
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
means of recreation, as might be afforded by a library,
a garden for them to cultivate,  etc.; nor  will they
even have punkahs to cool the air and to keep off the
flies  during the intense heat  of  the  summer;  nor
mosquito nets to render sleep  possible  at night.  In
making  these remarks, I do not want to disparage the
management  of the Calcutta Leper Asylum, which  is
professedly intended only for the reception of Natives ;
but I do, most emphatically, desire to point out the
pressing necessity  of  a  hospital or asylum  for Euro-
pean and Eurasian lepers either near Calcutta or  in
some other convenient centre in India, and of their being
placed in a more comfortable position  than they could
hope to  obtain in their own homes.  The second reso-
lution was for  the  formation  of a committee, and
for  the  discussion of ways and means  to obtain the
necessary funds.
  On the  morning  fixed  for the meeting, we were
delighted to read in all  the local  papers an announce-
ment to the  effect that Government  had decided  to
take over the lepers, and to build separate and suitable
accommodation for European and Eurasian patients.
This notice removed from us the burden of the under- 
OUR PUBLIC MEETING.
71
taking we had proposed to attempt; for it would not
be necessary for us to try and organise a home in the
face  of such an announcement.   However, as we had
called the meeting together, and it was then too late to
postpone it or to explain matters in any other way, we
decided to  allow it to take place, and to simply put
forward our first resolution  showing the  immediate
want of such a home, and to let the matter rest for
the present, pending the action of the Government. A
few  hours  before the meeting took place, my husband
met  one of the members of the committee of the
District  Charitable Society,  who warned him that a
hostile demonstration  had been prepared to nullify the
effect of any  resolutions brought  forward by  him.
This gentleman  informed my husband  that the paid
secretary of the District Charitable Society, whose
father was  the  paid  superintendent  of the Leper
Asylum,  had  sent  round a circular to all whom he
thought would help him, requesting them  to attend
our  meeting and to support the counter  resolutions or
amendments which his  party  would bring forward.
The initiative  in this step was taken  either by the
secretary himself, or  by someone who used him as a 
72
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
willing agent;  for the sanction  of the committee had
not been obtained in taking it,  nor  had it been can-
vassed.   The member of the committee  in  question
expressed his strong sympathy with  us, and regretted
that his official position prevented him from according
us his public support.  On  pointing out the extreme
impropriety of  the hostile action on the part  of  the
secretary of the District Charitable Society, I  may
mention  that  he is  a young Eurasian, whose social
standing and personal qualifications in no way entitled
him to address his  employers,  by  circular,  in  the
manner he did.  Consequently, I conclude, that how-
ever warm and interested his feelings may have been,
he  acted solely and  entirely from secret orders,  the
responsibility  of which, or of  an  inquiry  into his
unauthorised conduct, rested on the President of the
District Charitable Society.
  The meeting came  off, and the only  resolution that
was put forward was one to  recognise the necessity for
a separate Asylum or place for European and Eurasian
lepers, apart from that for the Natives.  My husband,
who moved it,  contended  that  as  Government had
decided to take up  the  work, we could do  no more 
OUR  PUBLIC MEETING.
73
than show our readiness  to help to strengthen the
hands of the Government in every possible way, and to
express our opinion that such an institution was sadly
needed.  He then informed the audience of the private
circular,  and  appealed  to  his hearers if it  was fair
or right for  men to come down to this meeting with
the deliberate  intention  of thwarting a good work, the
object  of which was solely and entirely to mitigate the
sufferings of the most miserable of our fellow citizens.
The opposition came forward  with printed amend-
ments  to controvert arguments our side had not put
forward,  owing to  the fact  that  such arguments were
not required now that Government had announced its
intention to take up the matter.  The fatal itching  of
speechifying was so strong on these gentlemen, that
they did not see the absurdity of combatting unspoken
words.   Notwithstanding  their eloquence  and the
presence of their supporters, their  amendment, when
put to  the vote, was lost. 
CHAPTER  IX.
               HOPE—KATE REILLY.

While anxiously waiting  for the  action of Govern-
ment, we abandoned our idea of starting the proposed
home, and  determined to  devote the money we had
previously collected in providing small comforts for the
inmates of  the Government Leper  Asylum, whom we
continued to  visit every Tuesday, and to minister to
their  small requirements.  Other  lepers, who were
living in Calcutta, outside  of the asylum, heard of our
work in it, and made a practice of coming to our house
for  alms.  We  allowed  two  rupees weekly  to an
Eurasian who was a bad leper, and who tried to keep
his wife and family on what  he could  manage to get
by begging.  He had been an inmate of the Govern-
ment Asylum ; but, as he  found that he received there 
                   KATE  REILLY.                75

little  or  no medical treatment,  he  preferred to live
outside  and to  procure, as far  as  he could afford,
special treatment  from a native doctor in the city.
He told  me he  was getting much better and that he
hoped soon to be cured and able again to work for his
family.   Hope, glorious hope, is ever present with even
the most horribly afflicted of God's creatures.  I have
seen the distorted features of the leper man or woman
brighten as though a light had been suddenly illumined
within them at  the mention of the  word "hope"; a
light  that  even  years  of suffering and disappointment
was unable to  extinguish.
   One of the first  lepers to hear of my visits to the
asylum was a girl, Kate Reilly, who lived in a crowded
quarter of the town, and  who sent for me to go and
see her.    The person  who  came with  the message
looked like a respectably-dressed shopkeeper, quoted
several   texts from Scripture,  by  way,  I  suppose,
of  stimulating   me  into   going   to  her  friend,
and  wound up  by  telling me   of all  that  she
had done  for  her.   When I saw  Kate  afterwards,
she told  me  to  come  again   of  my own accord,
and not oblige her to send Mrs.----, who always charged 
76
MY LEPER FRIENDS'.
her cab hire when she executed any commissions for
her.   I experienced some difficulty in seeing Kate when
I first called.  The address given  me by the  woman
who came to my house  was in a lane  off Chandney
Choke, one of the lowest and most thickly populated
of the slums of  Calcutta.  It is here one may see ex-
posed for sale everything that it is possible to imagine,
from a hammer and nails or a button hook, to a com-
plete  outfit for man or horse.   Side by side with legs
of thin miserable-looking mutton will be seen a set  of
harness, gaudy and cheap ; saddles that make one feel
sorry for the unfortunate horse or pony on whose back
they will be placed ; hats and bonnets  trimmed with
bits  of satin  of  the most showy colours  procurable;
bedsteads, tobacco, sweets, padlocks, old books, and a
thousand and one miscellaneous articles  repose  on the
benches of Chandney  Choke.  Drunken sailors, and
soldiers, in Her  Majesty's uniform, earning an honest
penny by selling the Salvation Army's War Cry, half-
caste loafers, mulattos and  " shady " characters from
every quarter of the globe seem to be always prowling
about there in search of money or adventure.  Knowing
that it would be unsafe for a lady to go alone into any of 
KATE REILLY.
77
these dens, I asked a gentleman friend to accompany
me,  and I  drove  as well as I  could  through the
crowd  till we came to the lane where Kate Reilly
lived.  Here the road was too narrow to drive along, so
we  alighted  from the trap and walked to the house.
There was a number on it, but no door, only an archway.
On  entering  it I was conscious  of the well-remembered
" faint " smell of leprosy; so knew we had  arrived  at
the  right address.   We passed through the archway
into a small yard in which a number  of Eurasian
children were playing.   The  yard  was  enclosed  on
all  sides by houses, which were inhabited  by several
poor families.  Kate Reilly occupied a couple of rooms
on the ground floor of one on the right-hand side.   As
I was  preparing to  make  for this  room, the door of
which  was open, I was  met by  a native {Mussulman)
woman, engaged in cleaning  her cooking utensils.
Without getting up from the ground where she was
squatting, she told me that no such person as the one I
mentioned lived there.   On hearing my voice, Kate
called  out from within in English,  " Oh, yes; I'm
Kate Reilly, I want to see you ! "  The native woman
then said in Hindustanee that the " Miss  Baba, had 
78
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
no clothes  on."   " I can  soon put them on," called
Kate from within.  The woman finding herself beaten,
made a last effort to prevent my seeing her mistress by
running to tell her that a " sahib "  (gentleman)  was
with  me !   This announcement, happily  did  not
prevent  her coming  quickly.  When Kate presented
herself before  me at the  door  of her room,  I  was
horrified on seeing  her.   Her  feet were enveloped
in bandages, her legs were almost  covered with sores,
while an arm that was exposed to view was a mass of
decay and corruption.   She  wore  a  dark petticoat
reaching a little below her knees, a chemise and a red
shawl thrown  over one half of her shoulders, leaving
the bad  arm, which was too sore to be put in contact
with any clothing, bare  as I saw it.   She is  a young-
woman  of about twenty-four years of age, of Irish
parents, and has a sister a nun in a  Catholic convent
in Calcutta.  This sister, she said,  is not permitted by
her religious Order to visit her, or  go into the world ;
so she  is  left entirely at the  mercy  of  the  native
woman,  of whom I  have written.  Kate  told  me
that   she  has  well-connected  relatives, but they
never go near her.  Her  uncle  pays the rent  of  her 
KATE  REILLY.
79
room, but  the rest of her  wants are  supplied by a
charitable lady, who allows her the equivalent of 30s. a
month,  but who is leaving for England at the end of
this year, when she fears  such  money will no longer
continue to be paid her.  She was  greatly  troubled
about this,  and asked  me if I thought someone would
send money when her allowance was stopped.   She
also told me that she was very miserable in the hands
of the native servant,  and had tried hard, but without
success, to get a native Christian woman to attend her;
for if she were to  die she would not like  to be alone
with a  heathen.  She said she would willingly go to
the Government Leper Asylum, if suitable accommoda-
tion  was provided.   She  had been there  some years
before, but was unable to stay in a room with native
lepers.  She asked me if things were changed  now,
and if she could obtain a room to herself, or one in
which only white women were, if she went.  I had to
tell her that she could not,  and, except for the fact
of being entirely alone and at the mercy of her servant,
she was more comfortable in her own little room.  On
asking if I could bring her anything,  she told me she
would like  a mackintosh sheet, for her  sores were so 
80
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
troublesome that  she  could not  sleep in comfort
without one.   She also asked me to visit her as often
as I could, and to bring others who would be  her
friends when I left India, as I was shortly about to do. 
CHAPTER X.
ARCHDEACON MICHELL—DISPOSAL OF OUR FUND—THE
            LEPER CAT—THE IDIOT BOY.

As our stay in Calcutta was drawing to a  close, and
as I was loth  to leave my leper friends  without first
having  succeeded in interesting some influential lady
or gentleman  in them and  their sad state, I wrote
to Archdeacon Michell, and gave him a full account of
my work, and asked him if he would take over my
fund money, and do his best for the lepers after my
departure.  He sent me a kind letter in reply, promis-
ing to comply with  my  request,  and asking me to
appoint a day when he would visit  with me the Leper
Asylum,  and  also Kate  Reilly.   On  the following
Tuesday the Archdeacon and I, accompanied by Mrs.
                        G 
82
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
Grant, my husband and  Brother John, visited the
lepers in the  asylum, and  Kate Reilly, who were all
delighted on seeing so many friendly faces. Kate Reilly
thanked us again and again for coming, and  gave Mrs.
Grant a few small commissions.  She  also asked for a
little underclothing, and endeavoured to impress upon
Archdeacon Michell her immediate want of a Christian
female attendant.   She told me that she had heard of
a native Christian woman who was at  that time living
with a man, who was going away, when  she could
come as  attendant to Kate.  On remarking that this
did not appear to be quite the sort of person  to choose,
poor  Kate said  that there was no  such thing  as
choice in the matter, that  only the  most  degraded
outcasts  would care to  attend to lepers, and that
no  one would consent  to  take up  such work if they
were able  to obtain a livelihood  in  any other  way.
The Reverend  Mr. Michell seemed much  impressed
by  what he  had  seen, and promised  to go and visit
Kate Reilly and the other lepers on future occasions.
We arranged that he  should  take over what money
I  had  left in my leper fund, and  keep  the books,
and that Brother John  would continue to visit the 
   ARCHDEACON MICHELL—DISPOSAL OF OUR FUND.  83

lepers every week as usual, taking with him anything
they might require,  and giving to each European and
Eurasian  leper a rupee, as  I had been in the habit
of doing.  He would hand in the account of all money
expended in this way, to Mr. Michell.   Before leaving
Calcutta I spent  about  £20  of  the  fund money  in
the purchase  of  cotton chemises, wrappers,  night-
gowns,  and handkerchiefs for the women, and shirts
for the men in the Leper  Asylum ; as it is necessary
during  the the intense heat  of  Calcutta to  change
one's underlinen  frequently.  When  I first saw the
lepers, they were  complaining bitterly of the want of
clean linen, and  were  delighted when I was  able to
procure a  good stock of it for them.  Healthy persons,
even  among the  natives who can afford to  do so,
change their linen frequently during the hot weather.
Those who possess no change  of clothing can be seen
washing their  single  suit,  while performing  their
ablutions  at one  of the numerous tanks or bathing
places in the city.   If the intense heat makes bathing
and  a change of clothes  so imperative among  all
persons, rich and poor,  my  readers will at once recog-
nise the necessity of providing those afflicted  with a 
84              MY LEPER FRIENDS.
loathsome evil-smelling disease  like leprosy with  a
liberal quantity of clean linen;  at  least, during  the
hottest months of the year.  I used to pity poor Daisy
and Bella very much in the terrible heat.   Bridget
had no sores, nor did she seem affected at all like those
poor girls; for there was never any bad odour discern-
ible in her little room.   I  may  mention that one of
the peculiarities of leprosy is that those suffering from
it can bear heat  very badly.   Hence, lepers, as a rule,
like to sit in the  shade and to keep out of the direct
rays of the sun.   I  have often heard them  complain
that their blood seemed to be on fire.  The skin of  the
Jewess had changed  to  a strange blue colour, possibly
by  reason of the  medicines she had taken,  but  she
was not  disfigured with loathsome  sores like Daisy
and Bella;  though  she used to  complain of a very
unpleasant smell from her skin   Everything,  even  the
texts  on the  walls  in  the  room where  Daisy was,
seemed  to reek  of leprosy.   Anyone, even with  the
most  blunted feelings,  would shudder on comino- in
contact with  this awful  smell, and could  hardly fail to
suggest the necessity of disinfectants for subduing it.
Bridget,  who was  fond of animals,  though  I  do 
THE LEPER  CAT.
85
 not know  how  she managed  to  feed them,  had  a
 cat given  her  by  Mrs.   Grant.   In due  course,
 this pussy became a mother,  and greatly to Bridget's
 delight, presented her with  a  fine family of tortoise-
 shell kittens.   Mrs. Puss  has,  I believe,  contracted
 leprosy ; for her face is much  disfigured ; her eyesight
 has almost gone, and water was running down from her
 eyes, just  as  I have  noticed  in the case of certain
 lepers.   Brother  John  drew  my  attention  to this
 strange cat, and both of us  agreed that we  had never
 seen anything like it before.  I read, some months after,
 that the doctors engaged on the Leprosy Commission
 in Simla had inoculated  some rabbits with the bacillus
 of  leprosy,  and  that  on  being killed  a short  time
 afterwards leprous tubercles or  nodules had been found
 in  their bodies.  After reading  that rabbits can become
 inoculated with leprosy, I have no doubt that Bridget's
 cat is afflicted with the disease, and, probably, her kittens
 also.  In India it is not safe to stroke cats or dogs, or to
 allow them to sleep in beds with children; for it is
 possible for them to transmit  disease  from place  to
place.   Sorry as I would be to deprive poor Bridget of
any small pleasure, I must say that I do  not  think 
86
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
a cat should  be kept in a leper Asylum; for it is
almost impossible to keep  one  shut  up  or control
her movements  at  all times,  and there is  nothing
to prevent  her, after having been stroked  by lepers,
and  licking  their sores,  from  going  to  a  healthy
person and  being   kissed  and  fondled  by  young
children.
  I drew the attention  of  the public,  through the
medium of our  paper, to a native  idiot  boy,  who,
though not  a leper, had been an inmate of the Calcutta
Leper Asylum for a long time.  It appears, from what
Mr. McGuire told me, that  some years ago, a native
child who was deformed in such a manner as to render
walking or  standing impossible, and who used to  move
along the  ground in a  sitting position, was  found
outside the leper Asylum.  The lepers had fed him and
he, although not a leper, had been allowed to live with
them in the  Asylum.   When I remarked on the
danger of  allowing him  to  live entirely with lepers,
and to  eat   and sleep   with them,  and suggested
his removal, Mr. McGuire informed me that there was
no place  where he, a deformed harmless lunatic, could
be put, and that he had lived with the lepers for many 
, LEPER  INFECTION.
87
years, being doubtless  perfectly happy.  This boy is in
the Calcutta Leper Asylum at the time of writing, and,
so far,  has not  developed  any indications of having
contracted the disease.   Another native,  a very  bad
leper, was turned out of the Asylum into the streets for
misbehaviour.  Here we have a leper covered with sores
expelled from the Asylum by Mr. McGuire, and with,
I presume, full sanction of the Commissioner of police,
for refusing to maintain order within its walls.   In the
Bombay Asylum  there are cells  for refractory subjects;
but  in Calcutta  they are sent  out with their disease
and misery  into the  streets  to mix with   healthy
persons, and to prove a source of danger to all those  with
whom  they  come in contact.   They are not again
entitled  to   even  the  wretched  shelter  and  pro-
tection  afforded  at the Calcutta Leper Asylum.   It
is high time that such  scandals as these were made
known, and  that prompt action be taken by Govern-
ment  for  the segregation  of very bad lepers like the
man of whom I  speak ; for when he called  on me
at my house  to  tell his story, his running sores  were
without bandages,  and  my little  boy  was playing
 quite close to where he was squatting.  Besides, in the 
88
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
crowded Bazaars of Calcutta, he would come into close
contact with a  number of healthy native children,
who go about quite  naked, and  who  might become
inoculated with  this  disease. 
CHAPTER XI.
          THE NUNS OF LORETTO CONVENT.

I am very  glad to say that I received  much  kind
sympathy and  help in my  work from the Nuns of
the  Loretto  Convent.  Although  a member  of the
Church  of England,  I found the  Reverend Mother
Provincial,  Mother  Mechtilda,   Mother  Antonia,
and  the sisters at Loretto  House, took the deepest
interest  in  my   labours  among   the  lepers,   and
used, by their kindly advice  and  monetary assistance,
to encourage  and aid  me  in  every possible  way.
I  first   became   acquainted   with  them   through
sending my little boy to school at their convent in the
hills.    During  the hot  weather,  it  is  found ne-
cessary  to send as  many children  as their parents
can  afford  to  pay for,  away  out of  the  heat of 
90
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
Calcutta, to the cooler  climate of Darjeeling or  any
adjacent  hill station,  where  the  little  ones remain
till the temperature becomes sufficiently cool for them
to return to their studies in the plains.  I sent my
boy  one season to Darjeeling with  the nuns,  and
it  was  when  arranging  for his  trip  that I   first
met  my  kind  friends.   I  used  to  like  going to
them;  for all  was  very  peaceful at Lorretto.  It was
no uncommon sight  to  see  a beggar  seated at the
convent gate eating a meal that the nuns had brought
him; it being their custom never  to  send  a hungry
person away without giving him any food there might
be in the convent.  Poor persons,  knowing  this, used
often to get a meal  from the nuns.   When I  rang
the  bell  I was always certain  of a  warm-hearted
reception;  for one or more of my friends were sure to
be at home, and, being all Irishwomen, my welcome
was cordial and sincere.  Their pretty drawing-room
was in  no  way  richly or grandly furnished; but com-
fort rather than effect was studied  within the convent.
   The  glare of the  sun was shut out, fresh flowers
were always  on the table; while  the  gold  and  silver
 fish  swimming about in a bowl  looked cool and 
THE  NUNS OF LORETTO CONVENT.
91
refreshing.  A number of religious  engravings  and a
quantity of exquisite crewel work, which was done by
the pupils and nuns, gave the room a more homely look
than one usually finds in drawing-rooms abroad.
  The nuns themselves, in their clean white gowns,
devoid of  drapery  or any  ornamentation, are so kind
and womanly that one's  heart goes  out to them at
once.  Before I  had  known the  dear  old Mother
Provincial an hour, I  found myself telling her of all
my woes  and troubles, and, encouraged by her kind-
ness, I felt better able, after  such  visits, to do battle
with the world ; for there is nothing so comforting
as the genuine sympathy of one woman with another.
She  would  give  me  an  encouraging tap  on  the
shoulder, and say, " Go on, dear ; continue  to do your
best  for those poor lepers, and we will pray for you ;
 all the nuns will pray for the success of such a work
 as yours.  It is so nice to see the  young thoughtfully
 working  for the  sorely afflicted."   Mother Provincial
 not only  encouraged me with words, but she got up a
 subscription among the  nuns and sent  me a sum of
 money for my  leper  fund.   She  did all this  in her
 quiet, sweet way, knowing that I professed a different 
92
MY leper friends.
creed to that of her own ;  but she waived all prejudice,
because she thought  I  was doing a  good work.  I
have nothing but the  pleasantest and most grateful
recollections of the nuns ;  for I invariably found them
the same kind  friends, through good and evil report,
all the time I was in Calcutta.  They must have heard
and read enough deprecatory remarks about me to have
turned them entirely against me,had not they thoroughly
believed in my sincerity;  for interested persons, who
did not  believe that anyone would work in an honest
cause when actuated  only by motives of justice—
we  won't  say  charity—wrote  their  views about me
in the  local papers, in which  they tried to hold me
up  to   derision.   However,  the   public, knowing
that I  personally had  nothing to  gain,  and that
I could find no  possible pleasure in  going into the
haunts  of disease, other  than that  of  aiding those
who could  in no  way  help  themselves,  gave me
their  support, and money was  sent  me  from time
to time to spend  on comforts for the lepers.  I think
I have to thank the nuns for a great deal of the money
that came to me; for these ladies possess unbounded
influence among  a large number  of right-thinking 
THE  NUNS OF LORETTO CONVENT.        93
persons, and  they used it on behalf of the lepers, so
that many rupees were sent to me through them.
  One day I caused no little  surprise and amusement
by asking Mother  Mechtilda to come and  take  after-
noon tea with me.   It was from her I. learnt that they
never leave the convent  except to go to another, nor
do  they  walk in the public streets.  I ventured to
say that it  was  a pity such good  women  should
shut  themselves  up  when they  might  be  doing
work in the world among the poor and sick.  " We
are  not,"  they replied,  " permitted by  our  Order
to  go  out; we  teach the young.  There are nuns,
sisters of charity, the Little  Sisters of the Poor, and
many other Orders, whose work takes them into the
world.  We teach  and help to clothe poor children."
  While telling me  this, a bell rang, and the Mother,
asking me to excuse her, knelt down in the room
where we were  sitting, and  prayed for a few minutes,
after which we resumed  our conversation.  I should
have liked to have  asked her what bell  it was that
summoned her  to prayer, but did not like to discuss
such a solemn subject as this would  be  to her.  They
never sent me  away without a nice bouquet of fresh 
94
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
flowers, which would be picked from the garden while
I waited.  This pretty token was  generally accom-
panied  by a hearty "God bless you" as I turned  to
leave the  convent.   They were  not  so exclusively
devoted  to serious subjects  as to forget the  bodily
wants of their visitors.   On hot days a refreshing glass
of iced lemonade and biscuits were always ready, and
one's requirements often anticipated with kindly fore-
thought before they were made known.  I am sorry to
say that I was hurried away from Calcutta by telegram
before I could pay a farewell visit  to my kind friends.
I feel sure I have no more sincere well-wishers in this
work than the nuns of Loretto  Convent, the memory
of whose kind words and actions shall always be grate-
fully treasured up in my heart. 
CHAPTER XII.
MEDICINE—NO WARM BATHS—AN UGLY LOOKING-GLASS—
  CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE  LEPER ASYLUM—THE LEPER
  BOY—MR. BAILEY.

At  the Leper Asylum things were  not looking bright.
Dr. Unna's medicine, which had arrived from London,
had not  been getting a fair  trial.   The  European
doctor under whose supervision it was  given, having
himself no  faith in  any of the prescribed cures for
leprosy, had not placed his patients under a regular
course of treatment.   He was a doctor  in practice in
Calcutta,  and we cannot blame him for refusing to
personally superintend the treatment of lepers.  A
practitioner  who was known to go  regularly among
lepers would find people chary of consulting him about
ordinary  ailments, and his practice would suffer in 
96
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
consequence.  The lepers had the medicine ; he would
give instructions as to  its application;  but whether
they took it or not was  their  own affair.  An inmate
of the Almshouse, who had been an apothecary,  was
employed in giving out the drugs used by the lepers,
but there was no skilled doctor to superintend or be
present  when  these  medicines  were  administered.
Daisy refused to try Dr. Unna's medicine.   When I
asked her reason for doing so, after being so  anxious
for it to arrive, she told me that  she  would agree to
take the pills, but that a greasy kind of ointment had
to be rubbed over the body, and that, as there was no
warm water procurable in  which she could bathe, she
would wait  till the hot months, when she could take a
bath and wash  off the grease.  This,  I may explain,
happened during what is known as the cold weather,
when the  lepers found it impossible to  take  cold
baths ; so preferred, in the  absence of any warm ones,
to do without.    The attendant who  was  paid from
our fund should have been told, if there had been any
supervision  over  her, to  provide warm baths for her
charges; but  being a low-class native woman,  who
preferred to do as little work as possible for her salary, 
MEDICINE.
97
she, of course, did not care to burden herself with the
extra trouble of procuring  warm water, when  not
compelled to do so.  Besides, it was altogether with-
out precedent that any  " medical comfort," such as
a warm  bath,  should be allowed to any inmate of
the Calcutta Leper Asylum.  The Jewess, who  had
been using  the medicine, had, she said, derived much
benefit from it.   I should have liked to have consulted
some of the officials about this medicine, as Kate Reilly
had asked for some  of it to try ; but, although nearly a
year had elapsed since I first began my visits to the lepers,
these gentlemen chose to maintain their hostile attitude
towards me.  I asked Mr. McGuire whether any of the
ointment could  be  procured  for the use of lepers who
were living  outside of the  Asylum, and he  said  it
could not, so I was  not able to give any to Kate Reilly.
Bridget troubled herself little about the new medicine;
for, happily, there were no sores on her  body,  none of
her  fingers or  toes were distorted,  and she did not
appear to  be suffering from the lassitude that  seemed
to so much  depress the  spirits  of  the other inmates.
She was always ready to burden me with orders for
the  most  ridiculous  things, all of  which she would
                         H 
98              MY LEPER FRIENDS.
have me write down on my tablets in her presence.
On one occasion she wanted  a  doll's house, and was
very angry with  me because I failed to find and take
one of the kind  she fancied.  Another day she asked
for a  looking-glass, as she hadn't seen her face,  she
said, for twenty years !  I took her a little ornamental
thing; but when she looked into it and saw her face,
she got very angry and said she had never seen such
an ugly looking-glass in her life !   I peered into it, and
said that it seemed to be all right, " Yes " she replied
with her rich Irish brogue, " Its all very well for the
young, no matter how ugly they are, youth is always
beautiful.   Its the old people, like me, who want nice
looking-glasses."   Brother John smiled at  the one-
sided  compliment I had  received, and we agreed to
take Vr another glass that would not " make her look
ugly."  As we left the  asylum, we  heard Bridget's
voice  calling "Now, Mr.  Jack  (Brother John), don't
forget to remember the looking-glass ! "  Bridget had
got into a childish way of wanting everything she saw;
so when we used to visit her with things for the other
inmates in the basket, she would  always pry into it and
say, "What's  that?"  "Whose going to get that?" 
BRIDGET.
99
" Why don't you bring me this?"  and so on, till we
were obliged to adopt the plan of going to her room
after we had been the round of the other wards, and
when the basket  was denuded  of all the things but
those that we had brought for her.  One day when I
told  her  I was  going to leave India, she sent Brother
John out of the room, and said in her most coaxing
manner,  " Give me a good character to the new people
who come when  you go, or they won't bring me any-
thing.  Don't tell them that I ask for things belonging
to the others; I say, give me a good character to
them!"  Poor  old Bridget had led such a  hard life
that I suppose it had become natural  to her to think
of herself before anyone.  She  was very peculiar at
times, and her mind  used to wander.  She would then
talk in a strange manner about her young days.  From
what she used to say on those occasions, I learned that
she  had  been  a corset maker, and used to sit " stitch-
ing away night and day, stitching away."  Sometimes
she  would  repeat these words  over and over  again,
and  appear  entirely  oblivious  of our presence ; then,
after talking disjointedly for a few minutes, she would
gaze on some flowers I had brought, and say suddenly: 
100
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
"Faded old roses, why don't you bring me fresh flowers?"
I would  endeavour to.explain that the  long drive in
the heat from my house down to the asylum had made
them droop,  and  tell her, that if she  put them in
water they would revive.  But while  I was speaking
she would be " havering " about something else,  and
not hearing a word of what I was saying.  Sometimes,
if she thought we stayed longer with Daisy or any of
the others than with her, she would get angry and say
some very uncomplimentary things about us all;  but
we used to take it  in good  part, for poor old Bridget
was not quite right in her head.   At times she used to
almost frighten me with  the weird stories of ghosts
and devils whom she said she saw walking about the
place.  She would call me  to her and say, " This place
is full of devils ; there  are  devils everywhere, and dead
bones all  under  this room.   You  don't know what
goes on here at night, and they are all devils ; I scream
and scream and no one comes, because the place is all full
of devils." We used to tell her that it was all imagina-
tion ; but she was never tired of talking to us  about
their depredations.  She was a confirmed  miser,  and
used to put away all the different articles of clothing  I 
THREE LEPER WOMEN.
101
 would bring her from time to time, instead of wearing
 them.   She said she wanted  them  " to  keep."   It
 amused  her to have a gay apron or dressing-gown and
 fold it and put it in a box, in order that she might take
 it out and admire it, when she wanted something pretty
 to look at.
   My readers will have doubtless discovered for them-
 selves that, among the female lepers,  the one I liked
 best  of  all was Daisy.  Bella was a dear girl too, but
 seldom spoke to anyone.  The Jewess was kind and
 nice; but, like Bridget, would  show great disappoint-
 ment if I happened to forget anything she had asked
 for.   Daisy was always the same.  Whatever  I  took
 to her she  re3eived with grateful thanks ; but, above
 all, she liked my regular visits to her.   She had a good
 heart, and  was full of gentle,  affectionate regard for
 Bella, whom she  used to  treat like a younger sister.
 Everything that Daisy said or  did was right in Bella's
eyes.   The two were inseparable.   Daisy, who  used
to generally superintend  Bridget's menage as far as she
 was  able, used often to  tell me of the  old woman s
vagaries, many of which  caused  general  amusement.
The  Jewess, who spoke with a strong  German accent, 
102
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
would  at times mispronounce words  in  a way that
would make Daisy laugh.  On seeing this, she would
get very angry and  sulk  for  a  long time.   I may
mention  that some foreigners, like ourselves, have a
great dislike to be laughed  at, and  often treat what
is  in  reality a  harmless joke  as  a serious insult.
However, Daisy  could  not refrain  from  laughing
merrily at  times  over some of the peculiar mistakes
of the  Jewess, thereby making that  lady so seriously
angry that a lengthened coolness  between them would
be the result.  The Jewess would tell me about these
squabbles, and ask me to speak seriously to  Daisy ;
but, when I did so, Daisy said that without wishing to
give offence or hurt the other's feehngs in any way, she
found it impossible to refrain from laughing when the
Jewess said such  funny things as she often did.   As
Christmas  was  fast approaching, Daisy,  seconded
of course by  Bella, asked me to go and see them  on
Christmas day.   She  tried to speak calmly about  my
departure from India, but  broke down and burst into
tears.  Instead of comforting her, I cried too, and  felt
very sorry  and miserable.  On Christmas  morning I
took with me as many gay and cheery reminders of  the 
      CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE LEPER ASYLUM.     103

season in the way of bonbons and " goodies " as I could
think of.  The male  ward had  been all decorated by
the little leper boy with coloured written inscriptions.
"Glory to God in the Highest" was arranged over
the entrance to their  cheerless abode, and near it, on a
square of pink paper, the words,  " God bless Captain
Hayes, God bless Mrs. Hayes and Brother John." This
remained up on the entrance to the ward for a long
time, till all the decorations were taken down.   Daisy
and the others had not decorated their ward, but they
wished  us all  a "Merry Christmas," and thanked us
again and again for  coming on that day into such a
sorrowful abode as  the  Leper Asylum.  I found it
hard to be cheerful and wish them a " Merry Christmas "
in return.  It  seemed such a mockery to suggest mirth
to them.   The  gay  crackers, with  their tinsel  and
bright colours, looked  out of place  there. Christmas,
with its joy and gladness, seemed to bring no  comfort
to their sad hearts.  I admired the decorations in the
male ward, and accepted a bouquet  of roses from my
young leper friend, whose face  beamed with pleasure
as  he handed  them to  me.   The  flowers  had  been
most carefully arranged by the  child,  who is a real 
104
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
artist, with  a  keen eye for the beautiful,  and I felt
sorry as I threw away his  offering  afterwards, when
out of sight of the Leper Hospital; for I could not take
home anything from that infected place.  Daisy  had
commissioned  Mrs. Smith,  the matron of the Alms-
house, to purchase for me  a small workbox, while
Bella ordered a blotting-pad, both of which Mrs. Smith
was  to  get  and present to  me  in their presence on
Christmas morning.   I never remember in my life
receiving any presents that I was so pleased to get. Mrs.
Smith, Daisy, Bella and myself were all in tears during
their presentation, so there  was  no speech-making  or
eloquence displayed.   I could not even utter a word
of thanks,  but stood  like a  fool crying silently, and
trying to hide my tears by busying myself in taking
the things I had brought out of the basket.  Brother
John,  who  had been  a spectator of the  scene, was
shedding tears, too, I think ; for he had turned his
face away, and was using his handkerchief as if he had
suddenly contracted a bad cold in his head.  I cannot
in any way describe  this  scene  in all its sadness.
Poor Bella and Daisy were such very bad lepers that they
could not have handed the presents to me, even if they 
CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE LEPER  ASYLUM.
105
had tried,  and it  seemed inexpressibly kind of them
to get for me their thoughtfully-selected and useful gifts.
I tried  to say a few cheerful things  about Christmas,
and to  interest  them in the gay crackers, cards, and
various  things I took out of the basket;  but my words
seemed  to fall flat, and a great sadness settled on all of
us.  Daisy and Bella were  sitting together in  silence
while I deposited  my things on their little table; so,
as I could think of nothing cheerful to say, nor was
able to  trust  myself to  speak it, even if I had, I dried
my eyes and  went to Bridget's room.  She had a great
deal to tell  me, and  rattled along  in joyful  glee  at
seeing all the pretty crackers and cards and the bright
colours that  she loved so well.  The Jewess, too, was
very pleased with what we took her, and "wondered
who would  be  so kind to  her when I had gone."   I
found  the men sad and depressed.  Ramey, who was
not  feeling  so  well as usual, seemed  to be much
troubled in his mind about my departure,  and began
speculating where we should all be by next  Christmas.
He had a favour to ask : it was that  I would give him
a photograph  of myself and husband before leaving,
and thanked me  very much for my kindness to him. 
106
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
Then tears  filled his eyes and he broke down utterly,
Little Underwood, the boy who gave me the flowers,
on seeing Ramey, began to cry too, so instead of having
a " merry " Christmas, ours was an extremely sad one.
When I went a short time after that to the asylum to
bid them good-bye, I had made up  my mind to say all
sorts of nice  things to them ; but none of them were
really uttered, for we all cried again. Daisy said, " We
won't say good-bye, but----" whatever she was going
to say was  not said; for she cried and could not go on.
I told them that Brother John would continue to visit
them as usual.  "Yes," said Ramey, "but you have
fought so bravely for  us."  They  were all glad, how-
ever, to receive the news of Brother John's intended
visits,  and I  promised that they should hear from me
from time to time.  I also told them that Archdeacon
Michell had  consented  to  interest himself in their
welfare.  Next day, as I was driving out of my gate, I
was surprised to see little Underwood, who had walked
 all the way  from the Leper Asylum  to  bid me good-
 bye !   He blushed and looked  in a most sheepish
 manner at some drooping flowers he held in his hand,
 as if ashamed to offer them to me.  I could  see he was 
THE  LEPROSY COMMISSION.          107
pleased when I accepted them and thanked him.  The
gratitude of these poor lepers to me for the little I had
been able to do for them was very real and honest, and
will always remain in my mind as a solemn and holy
memory.
  The  doctors  engaged on the Leprosy Commission
have visited the inmates of the Calcutta Asylum, have
had them  photographed, and made  a  number of  in-
quiries into the antecedents  of each leper; but up to
the present nothing has  been done by Government
for  the  proper housing or immediate  relief of these
sufferers.   What I have written has been done in  the
earnest hope that their cause will be taken up by some
kind people, who will  act  promptly  in  establishing
them where they will receive the kindness and care
accorded to sick people.
  Mr.  McGuire,  the superintendent, is a stern disci-
plinarian  and an admirable  man   to deal with  the
number of loafers and bad characters who  infest  the
streets of Calcutta ; but he is not equally well suited to
administer to the requirements of fragile leper women,
who need  kind and gentle treatment under their load
of affliction.   Mrs. Smith,  the matron  of  the alms- 
108
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
house, is a subordinate to Mr. McGuire, and possesses
little or no power in her position. I found her  a good-
hearted woman, who tried in many ways to be kind to
the lepers; but, as she unfortunately does not have the
handling of any money, she cannot order the requisite
changes of underlinen  for  them  or administer to their
wants  as a woman  in  authority  would be able to do.
Mr.  McGuire has to be applied to for everything they
require, an arrangement which, to be  satisfactory, I
need hardly say should  always  be  entrusted to a
woman.
  I was able to obtain a small sum of money from a
charitable  lady for Kate Reilly,  and  handed it over
to Archdeacon Michell, with the request that it might
be spent in providing  her with anything she  may re-
quire, rather than to give it over to the care of the native
servant to dispose of as she  thinks fit.   Brother John
has promised to visit  her often, and  Mrs. Grant will
also  go as frequently as she can to her, as well as to
the Leper  Asylum.  The other  leper pensioners will
receive their money from Archdeacon Michell as usual,
and  I shall try my utmost to keep up the fund;  for it
is a source of much comfort  to these poor lepers to  be 
MR. BAILEY.
109
provided with  little things that  they  are otherwise
unable to obtain.
  I was interested  in reading a short account of the
Calcutta Leper Asylum, in a book called " A Glimpse
at the  Indian  Mission Fields and Leper Asylums,"
written by Mr.  Wellesley Bailey, a Scotch missionary,
who visited the Calcutta Leper  Asylum  in 1886, in
which, speaking of  January 19th,  he says :—" Before
breakfast  spent  an hour and  a-half  in  the Leper
Asylum  and had  a very  interesting interview with
Miss J---- [Daisy].   I  read and  prayed with her,
and she seemed very grateful for the visit, poor thing.
I took some books with me, which had been given me
by a friend in  the  north  of Scotland, and gave them
away to those who  could  speak English.  I only wish
my friend could have seen the delight which her  gifts
produced on that dismal abode,  and it would have
gladdened  her  own heart."   Later  on we  read :—
" January 21st.  After  breakfast  drove over  (a  long
distance) to Belvidere to see the Lieutenant-Governor,
Sir Rivers  Thompson,  who was kind enough to spare
me a few  minutes of  his very valuable  time.  His
Honour received me most kindly, and listened atten- 
110
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
tively to what I had to say.  My object in calling was
to explain to him the over-crow7ded state of the Leper
Asylum, and  to ask him if he would use his influence
to get something done before his term of office expired,
which it is about to do immediately.  He said that the
only way the thing  could be done  was to  get the
District Charitable Society to move  in the matter;
and that if they make an application to him he would
see what could be done. But the time was short and the
formalities which would have to  be gone through were
long, and so nothing could be done." With these words
Mr. Bailey dismisses the Calcutta Leper Asylum from
his book,  and proceeds to  describe his  visit to Dar-
jeeling.   He  does  not  mention Bridget, Bella, or the
Jewess; probably he was unable to  visit  all  the
English-speaking lepers,  or he would have done so.
Anderson  and Phillipe, an Englishman and a French-
man, are lepers who have  recently been admitted  into
the male  ward,  so Mr. Bailey could  not have  met
them in 1886.
  To  use the words of a friend,  I may say that the
thought of "a good  time is  coming"  for those  who
suffer in  this life  is, no  doubt, full of comfort  to 
INDIFFERENCE.
Ill
the afflicted  ones themselves; but  surely  this  same
thought is largely responsible for our indifference to
the sufferings of others.  So long as the slaves of self
are sure  that God will " make it up in  the end," so
long will their selfishness be justified by their belief.
Thus the righteousness of God becomes an excuse for
the uncharity of men. 
CHAPTER XIII.
  LEPERS IN BOMBAY—A LECTURE AT THE  SOROSIS
        CLUB—OUR DEPARTURE FROM INDIA.

In passing through Bombay, just  before our departure
from India, I called  on Mr. Ackworth, the  Municipal
Commissioner, who has the interests of lepers at heart,
and who by dint of much earnest endeavour succeeded
in raising  Rs. 75,000 for the erection of a Leper Home
at Matoonga, near Bombay.   In this institution, which
is admirably conducted in every way, I saw 210 native
male and  female  lepers.  There were no Europeans.
Mr. Ackworth  informed me that  if  European lepers
presented  themselves for admittance at the Home,
separate buildings would be erected for them, and their
comfort studied as  far as possible.   I found all the 
                  LEPERS IN BOMBAY.            113

wards well ventilated, and, although there were 210
lepers in the buildings, no unpleasant odours  were
discernible  above the  smell of the disinfectants em-
ployed.  The  native  women lepers have two female
nurses to attend on them, and there is also a competent
staff  of  men  to  dress and assist  the inmates of the
male ward.   A  regular  staff of  doctors,  under the
supervision of Doctor Weir, attend the lepers, and a
resident  surgeon is always on the spot.  The Matoonga
Asylum  is about  five  miles out  of Bombay, and  is
hidden from the high  road by trees and foliage.   Mr.
Ackworth is having  flowers planted in the  gardens,
with a view of interesting  his patients in gardening as
a  pastime.   The lepers  in this  institution  are not
allowed  to return to their  old occupation  of begging
in the streets.  They are told, on  entering, that they
will never  be allowed to  go out.   Mr.  Ackworth
possesses no legal power of detention over these lepers,
but in order to make them believe otherwise, has dis-
covered  an old municipal  law which  is  sufficiently
elastic to enable  him to use it  in  clearing  the streets
and crowded slums of  Bombay  of  lepers and persons
suffering from an  infectious  or  contagious  disease.
                         I 
114
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
On the occasion of my visit, Dr. Weir and Dr. Charles
accompanied Mr. Ackworth and myself, and we made
the tour of inspection  together.   I  noticed  several
Catholic  rosaries  hanging  up near  the beds of the
lepers and found, on inquiry, that these sufferers were
regularly visited by their priest.  I asked Mr. Ackworth
if  any of our Protestant  clergymen  had visited the
lepers, and   he told  me   that  although  one  had
clamoured to have his name put  on the Committee
of the Institution, and  had  got  this  done; he had
never  visited  its  inmates  or  seemed  to  trouble
himself any  further  about them!  While  we  were
talking, a native leper was  led out  of one of the male
wards  by an  attendant.   He  sunk  dowoi  near the
building in a state of great exhaustion, and called out,
in his own language, some  words which Dr. Weir told
me were to the effect that he was dying, and that he
begged  us to save him.  Poor man! he knew  that
these gentlemen had been kind to him in giving him a
home, in binding up his sores, and  in relieving his
sufferings by all that medical skill could accomplish ;
so  I suppose he  thought that men so mighty as these
sahibs were; could stay the hand of death, if they so 
LEPERS IN BOMBAY.
115
willed.  He had accordingly persuaded one of the ward
boys to lead him into the presence of his benefactors
in order that  they  might  see his misery.   He was
lifted with difficulty back again into the ward and placed
on his bed; for he  had craved what no mortal  man
could possibly give him—life.  The rays of the setting
sun fell on his face, which showed a piteous expression of
misery and  despair.   I turned away and gazed around
at the glorious light of the sun  on the sea in the
distance—a  beautiful blue sea  on  which  numbers
of boats with  their  white  sails unfurled  were gliding
peacefully to and fro—and then on the white tombstones
by  the  hillside   denoting  the  resting   place  of
a few stragglers  who have gone before; when  Mr.
 Ackworth   reminded  me  that the  shadows  were
lengthening, and that we  should have  to start on our
 drive back.  After inspecting the kitchen, surgery and
store-rooms, all of which are models in their way, we
 waved adieu to the  many lepers who had congregated
 to give us their  parting  salaams and  drove away to
 Bombay.  I thought of poor Daisy, Bridget, Bella, the
 Jewess, and of the male lepers huddled together in
 that pestilent Calcutta Asylum, and wished I could have 
116
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
 transferred them to the kindly charge of Mr. Ackworth
 and Dr. Weir.  As we drove along, Dr. Charles told me
 that he was about to sail for London  on the following
 day,  adding that we ought  to try  and  help  Mr.
 Ackworth in  obtaining  funds  for  carrying  on  his
 institution.  Government  allows  Rs.1,000, I think,
 monthly towards defraying expenses, but Mr. Ackworth
 wished to enlarge the buildings, as many more lepers
 were asking for admittance,  and funds  are  needed.
 Dr.  Charles  entered heartily  into  my scheme  of
 providing comforts  for  the European and  Eurasian
 lepers, and gave it as his opinion that our own people
 are terribly neglected m India, where almost everything
 that is done  by public  charity is for  the sole and
 exclusive benefit of Natives.   He promised  to  do  his
 utmost to help  me  and my cause if  he met me  in
 England, as  he considered that it was the duty of every
 Englishman and woman to assist the sick and suffering
 of their own  country wherever and  whenever they
could do so.
  In  Bombay there is  a club exclusively  for ladies
called the " Sorosis," which is  presided over  by Dr. E.
B. Ryder, an American lady with a  kind  heart, a clear 
        A LECTURE AT THE SOROSIS CLUB.       117

head, and a great love for all the members of her own
sex.   She received me most kindly when I called on
her.  She seemed so interested in my work among the
Calcutta lepers, that I sent her a portion  of this book
in.  manuscript to read.  On the  following day she
called to ask  me if I would go to the Sorosis Club
and tell the  ladies,  about twenty in  nmmber,  who
would be assembled  there to meet me,  of my work
among the lepers.  I had  a most attentive and sym-
pathetic  audience   of kind-hearted ladies on  this
occasion, all of whom shed tears when I  told  them of
the grateful kindness of the poor lepers to me, and of
their sad  and lonely life.   One lady took the address
of  Archdeacon Michell, and promised to  try and send
some money for my friends, and so keep in touch with
them.  Dr.  Ryder  said that if  I were to lecture in
England on their behalf, I would get money; and that I
carried my audience with my earnestness in telling my
story.  I  need  hardly say that  I would  be only too
happy  to  take  her hint, if  I could work  it  out
effectively.
   Dr. Ryder and the kind-hearted ladies of the Sorosis
Club, in wishing me good-bye, expressed  a desire that 
118
MY LEPER FRIENDS.
copies of this book should be sent to them as soon as
it was published, and heartily wished me " God speed "
in my work.  It was very soothing to my feelings to
receive kindness and offers of help in work for which
I  had suffered  so many  rebuffs.  When I embarked
on boardthe ss. Calabria, which was to take us home,
I felt that with their kind words in my ears I could sit
down and work at my  book  with  renewed  vigour,
feeling sure that women  as kind and sympathetic as
my Bombay friends, would read it with  interest in
England, and that perhaps something might  be done
for my poor leper friends in  Calcutta.  When we
reached Aden I posted a long letter to  Daisy, telling
her of what I was doing,  and promising to send them
something from London.  I asked her to cause my
letter to be read to Ramey, and the other male lepers,
and promised to keep her posted up from time to time
in anything that might be of interest to them.
  Just as this book is going to press, I have received a
letter from  Mrs.  Grant,  who  tells me that  all the
European and Eurasian inmates of the Calcutta Leper
Asylum are much in the same way as when I left them,
except Ramey, who is very ill, and is not expected to 
OUR DEPARTURE FROM INDIA.        119
live  long.  I  deeply regret to hear that Mrs.  Smith
died suddenly of heart disease.  The  poor lepers lost
a kind friend in her.  Mrs. Grant is working bravely in
this good cause, and has stimulated interest in these
helpless sufferers. 
CHAPTER XIV.
              REMARKS  ON  LEPROSY.
         By Surgeon-Major G. G. MacLaben, M.D.

Leprosy, as is well known, is a disease  prevalent all
over the world, from Norway and Sweden in the north,
to India  and China in the east, and to  Australia and
the Islands of the Southern Seas.
  My own personal experience, however, has been limi-
ted only  to India, where I have had the  disease under
close observation for nearly twenty years.   It would be
out of place to enter into any technical or scientific
description of its nature and progress in a work of this
kind.   All are aware that  a Commission, composed of
five men, most competent to undertake the  investi-
gation of the history of the disease in all its bearings, is
now sitting  in India, and their report, which will be
made public at the end of the year, will doubtless give 
REMARKS ON LEPROSY.
121
information which will be of the utmost value in estab-
lishing  means  for   its  amelioration  and, probably,
ultimate extinction.   My service in India has placed
me in a district where, unfortunately, leprosy is ex-
ceedingly  prevalent  amongst the  native  population,
although not entirely limited to those alone ; for I have
had cases of Europeans also to deal with.  This led
me to take the matter up, more from the hope of re-
lieving suffering than from any other motive, the miser-
able victims being allowed to wander about as simple
beggars, outcasts from their own friends and villages.
They thus transform  themselves, if not into a danger
to their fellow-creatures, at  least into a most objec-
tionable nuisance and eye-sore to the whole community.
To look  upon  the   streets  and roads  of an Indian
Station on Sunday morning (and this was  the manner
these wretched  creatures adopted to enlist the  sym-
pathies of their fellow beings in my own station), lined
with rows of lepers, exhibiting their disgusting sores and
their  maimed and deformed bodies to the public gaze,
was a sight that could not  fail to touch  the hardest
and most  indifferent  heart.   To  prevent  the daily
exhibition of  these  harrowing  scenes,  I  enlisted the 
122
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
sympathy of the general public, and was able, as shown
in the report of the Dehra Dun Leper Asylum, mentioned
elsewhere in this work, to  establish  and  endow a
retreat for all who would take advantage of its com-
forts  and benefits.   I  had no difficulty whatever in
inducing all  the afflicted—old and  young, men and
women—to  take up their quarters  therein.  Before
admission, all  agree to become  permanent residents
and to live apart.  I had studied  with care the benefi-
cial effects of segregation which had been  adopted in
the retreats in Norway and Sweden, with the marked
diminution in the number of cases imported during the
decades succeeding the foundation of these institutions,
and,  acting on this  principle,  the Dehra Dun  Leper
Asylum was opened in 1879, and has been in existence
ever since.  There the sexes are strictly segregated, and
the inmates live and  are cared   for under the most
happy conditions.  Throughout those years I have had
constant opportunity, there, of studying the nature and
progress of the disease.
   Being a firm believer  in the hereditary transmission
 of all ailments—or the tendency to them, both mental
 and physical—I have  traced  direct transmission in  at 
 
 
REMARKS ON LEPROSY,
123
least thirty per  cent, of the cases coming  under my
observation.  The disease is doubtless due, like  most
others, to the presence of a bacillus in the blood, and if
there be not direct  transmission  of this from parent
to child, its effects are undoubtedly hereditary.  These,
however, are points which  I need not  discuss, for they
will be specially considered by the Leprosy Commis-
sioners.  Acting on the strength of my own  convictions
as  to  the transmissibility and communicability  of
leprosy, I  established  the Dehra Dun Asylum on
the principle already noted, and it has answered so far
 admirably ; all  its inmates living as happily as they
 can,  under their unfortunate conditions, and  ending
 their existence  contentedly !  I  have had, of course,
 ample opportunity of studying the nature of the disease,
 and  its effects on the  different  organs of the body,
 and  in  the many  examinations  I have  made, post
 mortem, I can testify that not a single organ  in the
 whole   body is  exempt  from  the  attacks  and  in-
 roads of this dire and loathsome malady.   It invades
 the  brain,  spinal  nerves,  the  eyes, tongue  and
 throat, the lungs, the liver, and  other digestive organs.
 In  addition, as is generally known, it  maims and 
124
MY  LEPER FRIENDS.
deforms the external parts of the body in a manner too
revolting  to  describe.    It  is  painful to witness the
amount of deplorable suffering some of these creatures
endure.  True  it is that many feel but little pain—
one of the forms of the  disease producing anesthesia,
or insensibility of the parts affected; but this is the case
in a few only.  The majority suffer in variously pain-
ful degrees, according to  the organ or part implicated,
and  it  is a  mistake  to think that their sufferings
are little.  Many, in the earlier forms of the ailment,
lose their sense of  sight, smell and taste,  and when
their  lungs  or throat  is attacked   (a common  form),
their agonies are dreadfully distressing  and painful to
behold.   The  inroads  of the  disease  are  slow and
gradual, which  makes  it all the more trying,  and the
painful and lingering death to which most are doomed
is a condition that one dreads to dwell on.
  Added  to  all  this there  is   a  peculiarly   pene-
trating odour  common  to  lepers, whether  they  be
Europeans or  natives  of India,  constantly  emanat-
ing  from  their bodies, which  makes contact,  or
even  close  conversation, with  those  afflicted, most
objectionable.  During my  medical experience of over 
REMARKS  ON LEPROSY.
125
25 years, I have had, of course, to deal with all sorts
of ailments; but the odour evolved from the leper's body
is one so peculiar and " sickening" that I fail to find
words  to exactly describe it.  The effects of a visit to
a leper  asylum, or to  a single individual leper with
whom  I have had to remain in conversation, produces
a sensation quite dissimilar  to  that  resulting  from
personal contact with any  other disease.  A peculiar
sensation is produced in the mouth, and an irresistible
feeling that  one  has inhaled  some  disgusting  and
noxious  material, which clings to the  tongue, the
lining  membrane  of  the  mouth and  fauces.   This
feeling lasts for sometimes fifteen minutes  after my
visit has ended, and is not entirely removed until I
have overcome it  by smoking a pipe  or  cigar.  This
result is  (it certainly is not fancy) one that should be
strongly   impressed on the  general  public,  and  be
accepted as a powerful argument in favour of secluding
all lepers  from  contact, either  directly  or indirectly,
with any body or thing that is likely to prove a means
of communicability.   It may  not be out of place here
to mention that since 1875  I have given the most
careful attention to the treatment of leprosy, tried 
126             MY LEPER FRIENDS.
most conscientiously all the various  drugs that have
been from  time  to time  recommended,  and  used
unsparingly and  for prolonged  periods all  outward
applications that  have been brought to notice,  and
must frankly admit that I have not witnessed the least
permanent benefit from any one  of these.   There are
different forms of the disease described in  books, but
my experience has been that these are simply external
or special manifestations, all resulting from the same
single cause, determined  for the  special locality in the
system of the particular organ attacked.  Once a leper,
always a leper, is the sad outcome of my  many years
close observation, let the treatment be what it may.
It  behoves us,  therefore, as human  beings,  simply
to   do  all in our power, in whatever part of the
world leprosy prevails, to  establish retreats in  which its
victims can be  housed in seclusion, apart from  inter-
 course with the general public, where they can obtain
 proper shelter,  be provided with  suitable  food and
 clothing, and where medical comforts  can be placed
 at their disposal.  All such  institutions should be built
 and conducted on the best sanitary hygienic principles ;
 each being suited to its own special locality and class  of 
REMARKS ON LEPROSY.
127
inmates.  By  these means assuredly will the disease
cease to extend, and thus, in all probability, ultimately
be exterminated.  This happy result had been accom-
plished in instances of other allied diseases, simply from
the adoption of improved sanitary surroundings,  and it
is not  too far to look forward to a like result in the
case of even such  a  loathsome, repulsive, and  vile a
malady as leprosy. 
 
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                                      known  artists.
   " 11 is the very model of what a popular natural history should be."—Knowledge.
   "An amusing work with good illustrations."—Nature.
   "Full of accurate observation, brightly told."—Saturday Review.
   "The results of a close and sympathetic observation."—Athenceum.
   " It has the brevity which is the soul of wit, and a delicacy of allusion which
charms the literary critic."—Academy.
   "The notices of each animal are, as a rule, short, though on some of the
larger mammals—the lion, tiger, pard, boar, &c.—ample and interesting details
are given, including occasional  anecdotes of adventure.  The book  will, no
doubt, be specially useful to the sportsman, and, indeed, has been extended so
as to include all territories  likely to be reached by the sportsman  from India.
Those who desire to obtain some general information, popularly conveyed, on
the subject with which the book deals, will, we believe, find it useful."—The
Times.
  " Has contrived to hit a happy mean between the stiff scientific treatise and
the bosh of what may be called anecdotal zoology."—The Daily News.
11 
THACKER, SPINK & CO.,  CALCUTTA.
        ^1

 GAME,  SHORE,
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     OF  INDIA.
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    121

ILLUSTRATIONS.
           A  VADE  ME-

           CUM FOR  THE

           SPORTSMAN,

EMBRACING ALL  THE

BIRDS A T ALL LIKEL Y TO

BE  MET WITH IN  A

 SHOOTING EXCURSION.
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given, in conjunction with the most
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W. THACKER &> CO., LONDON
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LARGE   GAME   SHOOTING
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of the animals, from the grand gaur, popularly miscalled the bison, downwards,
are extremely clever and spirited."—Times.
13 
LAYS   OF    IND,     By  Aliph  Cheem.
                   COMIC, SATIRICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE
         Poems  EUustrattbe  of  Slnrjlo^noian  %\it.
Illustrated by the Author, Lionel Inglis, R. A. Sterndale, and others.
                Eighth Edition.  Cloth, gilt.  Rs. 7-8.  (10s. 6d.)
  "This :s a remarkably bright little book.   'Aliph Cheem, supposed to be the
nom de plume of an officer in the 18th Hussars, is, after his fashion, an Indian Bon
Gauhier.  In a few of the poems the jokes, turning on  local  names and customs,
are somewhat esoteric ; but, taken throughout, the verses are characterized by high
animal spirits, great cleverness, and most excellent fooling."—The World.
  " Aliph Cheem presents us in this volume with some highly amusing ballads and
songs, which have already in a former edition warmed the hearts and cheered the
lonely hours of many an Anglo-Indian, the pictures being  chiefly those of Indian
life.  There is no mistaking the humour, and at times, indeed, the fun is both ' fast
and furious."  Many portions remind us of the  'Bab Ballads."   One can readily
imagine the merriment created round the camp fire by the recitation of ' The Two
Thumpers,"  which is irresistibly droll.   .  .  .  The edition before us is enlarged,
and contains illustrations by the author, in addition to which it is beautifully printed
and handsomely got up, all which recommendations are sure to make the name of
Aliph Cheem more popular in India than ever."—Liverpool Mercury,
14 
W.  THACKER  &>   CO.,  LONDON
Reviews of " Lays of Ind."
  '' The ' Lays" are not only Anglo-Indian in origin, but out-and-out Anglo-Indian in
subject and colour.   To one who knows something of life at an Indian ' station' they
will be especially amusing.  Their exuberant fun at the same time may well attract the
attention of the  ill-defined individual known as  'the general reader.""—Scotsman.

  " To many An-
glo-Indians     the
lively  verses  of
'Aliph  Cheem'
must be very well
known, while  to
those who have  not
yet   become   ac-
quainted with them
we  can  only  say
read  them on  the
first  opportunity.    "
To those  not  fa-
miliar with Indian
life  they  may  be
specially com-
mended for  the picture  which they give of many of its lighter incidents and con-
ditions, and of several of its ordinary personages.  .  .  .   We have read the volume
with real pleasure, and we have only to add that it is nicely printed and elegantly
finished, and that it has several charming woodcuts, of which some are by the author,
whom Indian gossip, by the way, has identified with Captain Yeldham, of the 18th
Hu-sars."—Bath Chronicle.
  " Satire of the most amusing and inoffensive kind, humour the most genuine, and
pathos the most touching pervade these ' Lays of Ind."...   From Indian friends
we have heard of the popularity these ' Lays' have obtained in the land where they
were written  and we predict for them  a popularity equally great at  home."—
Monthly Homceopathic Review.

  "The  author, although assuming a nom  de plume, is  recognised  as  a dis-
tinguished cavalry officer, possessed of a vivid imagination and a sense of humour
amounting sometimes to rollicking and contagious fun.   Many of his ' Lays'  suggest
recollections of some of the  best pieces in  the ' Ingoldsby Legends,' or in the
•Biglow  Papers' of  Russell Lowell, while revealing a character of their own."
—Capital and Labour. 
THACKER,  SPINK &• CO., CALCUTTA.
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 SKSooo Cuts ant)
NOTES ON THEIR
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NATURAL HISTORY
       AND
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16 
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Fourth Edition, revised to the latest Science of the day, with many new Illustrations.
VETERINARY    NOTES

  FOR   HORSE-OWNERS.
A Handbook of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, written in Popular  Language.
         By  CAPT.   M.  H.  HAYES, F.R.C.V.S.
  The chief new matter in this edition is—articles on Contracted Heels, Donkey's
Foot Disease, Forging or Clicking, Rheumatic Joint Disease, Abscess, Dislocation
of the Shoulder Joint, Inflammation of the Mouth and Tongue, Flatulent Distention
                             of the Stomach, Twist of the Intestines, Relaps-
                             ing  Fever, Cape Horse Sickness, Horse Syphilis,
                             Rabies, Megrims, Staggers, Epilepsy, Sunstroke,
                             Poisoning, Castration  by the Kcraseur,  and
                             Mechanism of the Foot (in Chapter on Shoeing).
                               The  remarks on  Treatment of  Sprain (with
                             special reference  to cotton wool  bandaging),
                             Grease and Cracked Heels, Wounds and their
                             Results, Broken Wind, Roaring,  Rheumatism
                             and Neurotomy have been re-written. The whole
                             work has been revised with the greatest care.
                               " Of the many popular veterinary books which
                             have  come under our notice, this is certainly one
                             of the most scientific and reliable. The description
                             of symptoms and the directions for the applica-
                             tion of remedies are given in perfectly plain terms,
                             which the tyro will find no difficulty in compre-
                             hending ;  and, for the purpose of further smooth-
                             ing his path, a  chapter is given  on veterinary
                             medicines, their actions, uses, and  doses.  This
                             information will be most acceptable to the majority
                             of horse-owners, and may be invaluable in an
                             emergency when no advice better than that of the
                             village cow doctor can be obtained."—The Field.
                               "We do  not  think that  horse-owners  in
                             general are likely to find a more reliable or useful
book for guidance in an emergency. "—The Field.
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17
B 
    Third Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Imperial i6mo.  Rs. 7-8 (10s. 6d).

                  RIDING:
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A GUIDE TO PRACTICAL HORSEMANSHIP.  By CAPT. M. H. HAYES.
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Mount for First Time.
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     By  CAPTAIN  M.   HORACE   HAYES.

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          IN IMPERIAL ibmo.







MY  LEPER  FRIENDS.




           AN ACCOUNT OF




    PERSONAL WORK AMONG LEPERS,



              AND



  THEIR  DAILY LIFE IN  INDIA.






             By  Mrs. HAYES.




                    —:o:—



                   WITH A





             CHAPTER ON LEPROSY



                     BY




                  Surgeon-Major




              G. G. MACLAREN,  M.D.








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A  NEW  AND  ILLUSTRATED  EDITION
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commanded a deserved popularity among Indian readers, is now engaged in his re-
tirement at home in bringing out a new edition, which will be much amplified, and
illustrated by portraits of ladies and gentlemen of the settlement who were local
celebrities a century ago.  Dr. Busteed has devoted himself to research with
indefatigable industry, and fortunately his literary style is as graceful and entertain-
ing as his knowledge is profound and accurate."—Calcutta Englishman.

  " It is a pleasure to reiterate the warm commendation of this instructive and lively
volume  which its  appearance called forth some few years since.   It would be
lamentable if a book so fraught with interest to all Englishmen should be restricted
to Anglo-Indian circles.   A fresh instalment of letters from Warren Hastings to his
wife must be noted as extremely interesting, while the papers on Sir Philip Francis,
Nuncomar, and the romantic  career  of Mrs. Grand,  who  became Princess
Benevento and  the wife of Talleyrand, ought by now to be widely known."—
Saturday Review.

  '' Dr.  Busteed has unearthed some astonishing revelations of what European Life in
India resembled a century back.  Perhaps for the first time has the Black Hole
drama been told in a way fully to bring home to the mind the appalling nature of
the sufferings undergone by our countrymen and countrywomen."—Daily Telegraph.
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 V.—          ,,           3. Duel between Francis and Hastings.
 VI.—          ,,           4. Home and Social Life.
VII.—The First Indian  Newspaper.   VIII.—Madame Grand.
 IX.—Letters from Warren Hastings to his Wife.
 X —Letters from Mrs. Hastings.    XI.—An Old Calcutta Grave.
29 
THE  CULTURE  AND   MANUFACTURE  OF  INDIGO:
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A   TEA   PLANTER'S   LIFE  IN   ASSAM.
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— :o:—
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MANAGERS




ASSISTANTS




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COOLIE DEPOTS




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           ALSO EMBRACES




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              MANUAL   OF
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A   MANUAL    OF    GARDENING

                          FOR


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      By  THOMAS A.  C.  FIRMINGER,   M.A.

THOROUGHLY REVISED AND BROUGHT DOWN TO  THE PRESENT TIME BY

                  J.  H.  JACKSON,

              Editor of" The Indian Agriculturist."

                                       PART I.
                                Operations of Gardening.
                             Chap. I.—Climate—Soils—Manures.
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                              Budding—Pruning and Root Pruning
                              —Conveyance.
                             Chap. IV.—Calendar of Operations.


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37 
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THACKER'S   INDIAN  DIRECTORY,
Embracing the Whole Empire Governed by the Viceroy of India, and
                   also the Native States.
With Complete and Detailed Information of  the Cities of Calcutta, Bombay
                        and Madras.
  WITH ALMANAC, ARMY LIST, AND GENERAL INFORMATION.
                   From the London '' Times. "

  '' The work now ' includes in the Mofussil Directory an account of every district
and principal town in British and Foreign India, and every native State,' thus
forming a complete guide to the whole of our possessions in the East.  The value
of such a work, if it is accurate and trustworthy, is obvious, and almost goes with-
out saying ; and, after putting its pages to the test of a careful scrutiny where our
personal experience enables us to  do so, we are able to pronounce it  apparently
deserving of all commendation.  .  .  .  The alphabetical list of residents
throughout India in  the three great provinces, with their addresses, must be of
great service to those who have business with our Eastern Empire."
            THE   INDIAN

MEDICAL     GAZETTE.
&  lUcoro of fHeoirine, JSutgerg,  ano  Public  l^ealtfj,  ano  of
     General fHeot'cal Entelltgence, Enotan  ano  lEuropean.
               Edited by  K. McLEOD, M.D.
  Published Monthly. Subscriptions Rs. 18 per Annum, including Postage.
  The Indian Medical Gazette has earned for itself a world-wide reputation  1
by its solid contributions to Tropical Medicine and Surgery.  It is the sole
representative medium for recording  the work and experience of the Medical
Profession in India ; and its arrangements with all the leading Medical Journals
in Great Britain and America enable  it not only to diffuse this information
broadcast throughout the world, but also to cull for its Indian readers, from
an unusual variety of sources, all information which has any practical bearing
on medical works in India.
  It is indispensable to every Member of the Medical Profession in India who
wishes to keep himself abreast of medical progress.
39 
i zrsr id :e ix: _
" Amateur Gardener in the Hills."   .....................
Barker.   " Tea Planter in Assam."  .....................
Beddome.  " Ferns of India."    ........................
bramwell.  "Atlas Clinical Medicine."   ..................
Birch.   "Children in India."...........................
Busteed.  " Echoes from Old Calcutta "  ..................
Coldstream.   "Grasses of the Punjab."   ...................
Eha.  "Behind the Bungalow."  ........................
  „  " Tribes on my Frontier."  ........................
Firminger.   " Gardening for India."  By Jackson..........
Forsyth.  " Highlands of Central India."..................
Guide Books.....................................
Gogol.  "The Inspector."   Translated.   By Hart-Davies.......
Gregg.  " Indian  Botany."   ...........................
Hayes.  "Veterinary Notes."    ........................
   „    "Riding." .................................
   „    "Horsewoman."    ...........................
   ,,    " Illustrated Horse-Breaking."  ..................
   ,,    "Soundness and Age."  ........................
   ,,    " Indian Racing."   ...........................
   ,,    "Training and Horse Management."...............
   ,,    "Points  of the Horse."  ........................
   „    " My Leper Friends."   ........................
Humfrey.  "Horse-Breeding."  ........................
Hehir.  "Hygiene of Water."   ........................
"Indian Idyls."....................................
" Indian Cookery." .................................
" Indian Notes—Dogs."..............................
"Indian  ,,    Horses."..............................
"Indian Medical  Gazette."   ...............    Subscription.
King and Pope.   " Gold, Copper, Lead," &c................
Kinloch.  " Large Game."   ...........................
    ,,     " Russian Grammar."........................
King-Harman.  "Reconnoitring.'   .....................
Kipling.  "Plain Tales."    ...........................
    ,,     " Departmental Ditties."  .....................
Le Messurier.  "Game Birds."  ........................
Lyon.   "Medical Jurisprudence."  .....................
"Lays of Ind."  By Aliph Cheem......................
O'Donoghue.  " Riding for Ladies.".....................
" Onoocool Mookerjee, Life of."  ........................
Phillips.  " Our Administration of India."    ...............
Pogson.  "Agriculture for India."  .....................
Reid.  " Indigo Planter."    ...........................
Sterndale.  "Denizens of the Jungle."    ..................
    „      " Mammalia of India."   ....................
    ,,      "Seonee."  .............................
" Tea Gardens of India and Ceylon.".....................
Thacker's Guide Books, various.........................
   ,,      " Indian Directory."   ........................
   „      " Map of India."   ...........................
Tweedie.  " How to Speak Hindustani."..................
Tweed.  "Cow Keeping in India."  .....................
Wilkins.  " Hindu Mythology."........................
Wheeler.  "Tales Indian History." .....................
	Page	
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40 
 
 
 
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