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 overpowering. I forwarded a gallon of phenyle for use in the Leper Asylum; but Mr. Lambert (the Commissioner of Police, who has charge of this institution) 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 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 proposition, 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 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 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 hereditary taint of leprosy, nor even associate on intimate terms with such comparative outcasts. Owing to the perverseness of human nature, such instances do sometimes 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 young 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 few years 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 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, down 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 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 contracted 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.

Female Lepers.
[p. 65.]

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 the opportunity of obtaining a place of rest, of receiving 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 lepers 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 requirements of their disease, which demands a liberal regimen; 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 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 European 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 resolution 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 announcement 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 undertaking 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 willing agent; for the sanction of the committee had not been obtained in taking it, nor had it been canvassed. 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 however 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 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 amendments 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 Government, 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 Government Asylum; but, as he found that he received there 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.