bly not often from heat or hunger: and they are not cursed with
the ambitions that make so many of us dissatisfied with our lives.

III. THE LEPER COLONY OF CULION.

It was early Sunday morning when the "Busuanga" dropped anchor in the
harbor of Culion Island, one of the Calamaines group of the Philippines,
and two or three of us were fortunate enough to be invited to land, for
an hour or so, to visit the leper colony that is said to be the largest
in the world.

We were met at the tiny dock by the physician-in-charge, Dr. Clements,
and by him escorted about the colony. This physician, who has spent long
years in these eastern lands, gives the immediate impression of a man of
quiet force, and the work he is doing in this seldom-visited island is
as fine a piece of missionary work, though carried on by the government,
as can probably be found anywhere.

Including the dock a few acres of the island are fenced off, and into
this enclosure the lepers are forbidden to enter; otherwise they have
the run of the island, but are not allowed boats for fear they would be
used as a means of escape.

Within the non-leprous enclosure are located the residences for the
doctors and other officials; the living quarters, kitchens etc. (all of
concrete) for the non-leprous laborers; and various shops and other such
buildings.

At the "dead line" fence between this and the leprous part of the island
a Chinaman has a small store where the lepers can buy various articles
such as may be seen in a small country store. The articles are in plain
sight, but the leper is not allowed to touch anything until he has
decided to take it; he then drops his money into a sterilizing solution
and gets his purchase. A more modern store is being arranged by the
government that will soon displace the _Chino_.

Passing this minute store we entered the gate of the "forbidden city,"
and, though there is no danger from merely breathing the same air with
lepers, it gave us a rather strange sensation to be surrounded by
thirty-four hundred poor wretches who in Biblical times would have been
compelled to cry "Unclean! unclean!" We, of course, did not touch
anything within the colony, though the doctors do not hesitate to touch
even the lepers themselves.

The colony proper is located on a small promontory looking eastward to
the harbor and the Sulu Sea. At the end of this promontory is an old
Spanish fort of stone with its enclosed church. Most of t