Coffee, tobacco, pipes, extra
clothing, knives, toys, books, pictures, working implements and
materials, have all been possessed by them in happier days; and
though packages of such things have been sent by the charitable for
distribution by Father Damiens, it is not possible for island
benevolence fully to meet an emergency and needs so disproportionate
to the population and resources of the kingdom. Besides the two
Catholic churches, there are a Protestant chapel, with a pastor,
himself a leper, who is a regularly ordained minister of the
Hawaiian Board, and two school-houses, where the twenty-two children
of the settlement receive instruction in Hawaiian from a leper
teacher. There is a store, too, where those who are assisted by
their friends can purchase small luxuries, which are sold at just
such an advance on cost as is sufficient to clear the expense of
freight. The taste for ornament has not died out in either sex, and
women are to be seen in Kalawao, hideous and bloated beyond
description, decorated with leis of flowers, and looking for
admiration out of their glazed and goggle eyes.
King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani have paid a visit to the
settlement, and were received with hearty alohas, and the music of a
leper band.
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