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 wards well ventilated, and, although there
were 210 lepers in the buildings, no unpleasant odours were discernible
above the smell of the disinfectants employed. 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 discovered 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. 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 down 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 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 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 in
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 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 number, who would be assembled there to meet me, of my
work among the lepers. I had a most attentive and sympathetic 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 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 board the 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 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.