Robert Louis Stevenson

Recently, an individual has nominated Robert Louis Stevenson, author of such works as "Treasure Island," as a suspect for Jack the Ripper. I must say here and now that Stevenson is a non-starter as a Ripper suspect. I will now post up a timeline of his whereabouts in the months of June 1888 - July 1889. He was sailing on his yacht with his mother, wife, and stepson. They travelled to Fiji, Marquesas, Hawaii, and Samoa. Don't you think that his wife, or mother or stepson would have noticed his departure in a dinghy to London to slay 7 prostitutes?

Timeline:

June 20, 1888 - Robert Louis Stevenson is now in San Francisco making preparations for his voyage to the south seas.
From Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wednesday June 20, 1888

July 6, 1888 - Robert Louis Stevenson is in San Francisco making engagements for a seven-months' yacht cruise on the South Seas.
From The Anglo-American Times, July 6, 1888, page 15

July 7, 1888 - Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, with his wife, his mother, and Mr. Lloyd Osborne, have sailed from San Francisco in Dr. Merritt's Casco, the largest yacht in those waters. The voyage will last seven months, and will include visits to the Marquesas islands, Otaheito and Honolulu. Mr. Stevenson will continue his literary work during the cruise, and will seek new sources of inspiration in the lands and seas he visits.
From The Galveston Daily News, Saturday July 7, 1888, page 4

July 17, 1888 - Robert Louis Stevenson is sailing the South sea with his wife and mother, on a seven-months' voyage to the Marquesas, Fiji and Hawaiian islands. His pen will be busy during the whole trip.
From The Agitator, Wellsboro, Tuesday July 17, 1888

August 14, 1888 - Robert Louis Stevenson is cruising about in the southern seas greatly improved in health.
From Evening Gazette, Tuesday August 14, 1888, Page 2

August 25, 1888 - Robert Louis Stevenson is still cruising about in the South seas. He is in better health than he was. In fact, his appetite has improved so much that his yacht was obliged recently to stop at the Sandwich Islands.
From Biddeford Daily Journal, Saturday Evening, August 25, 1888

September 25, 1888 - According to a bit of gossip in the New York Sun, Robert Louis Stevenson's voyage on the South Seas goes to show some of the possibilities of American enterprise nowadays. The whole trip was got up by the scheming brain of a manager of newspaper syndicates. Mr. Stevenson hires the yacht, well equipped, thoroughly seaworthy, and supplied with all the modern luxuries, and sails away on a voyage of interest and novelty. Meanwhile all bills are paid by the man who manages the newspaper syndicate. When Mr. Stevenson returns he will pass over to him the manuscript embodying the novelist's reflections and discoveries on the voyage, and the sale of this manuscript in America, England and Australia will more than reimburse the syndicate manager. Times have changed since Milton sent "Paradise Lost" begging among the publishers. [Foreign paper.]
From Hawaiian Gazette, Tuesday September 25, 1888, Page 5

October 4, 1888 - News comes from the South Seas to the effect that Robert Louis Stevenson is in much better health than when he left this country.
From Evening Gazette, Thursday October 4, 1888, Page 2

October 28, 1888 - Robert Louis Stevenson's literary agent announces that he has sold the series of letters that Mr. Stevenson is writing among the islands of the South Pacific to an American newspaper for $10,000.
From The Saint Paul Daily Globe, Sunday Morning, October 28, 1888, Page 4

November 14, 1888 - Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, according to latest accounts, finds himself very much improved under the influence of mountain air. He is now keeping house in the Adirondacks on the shores of the Suranac Lake. The house is small and primitive in style of architecture, all the rooms opening into the sitting-room, there being no hall. Mr. Stevenson is accompanied by his wife, his mother, and his stepson. One of the best things about this mountain home is its distance from the busy world. The perfect rest and seclusion of the place are just what Mr. Stevenson needed.
From Logansport Journal, Wednesday November 14, 1888, Page 7

November 15, 1888 - A letter dated August 20 has been received from Robert Louis Stevenson. He was then sailing about among the Marquesas Islands.
From The Daily Light, Thursday November 15, 1888

January 8, 1889 - THE YACHT NYANZA.
A Pretty Vessel Mistaken for the Casco - Captain Dewar, R.A., and Party - Will Stay a Short Time.
Monday week at 2:30 o'clock p.m. the yacht Casco, with Robert Louis Stevenson and party, was reported to be three miles off. An ADVERTISER reporter going off to meet the expected visitor about two hours later met Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Strong being rowed homeward, who gave the information that the arrival was not the Casco but the Nyanza.
From Hawaiian Gazette, Tuesday January 8, 1889, Page 3

January 18, 1889 - Robert Louis Stevenson will step foot on American soil again in a fortnight at San Francisco. He will go direct to New York, arriving there about February 1, and set himself immediately to literary work.
From The Galveston Daily News, Friday January 18, 1889

March 12, 1889 - Robert Louis Stevenson's Comment.
LONDON, March 12. - Robert Louis Stevenson, the novelist, writes from Hawaii, commenting vigorously upon the high-handed action of the Germans in Samoa. By what process, he asks, did Consul Knappe become the Bismarck of Polynesia, and what is the spell over the English and American cabinets that Consuls Blacklock and Connaught remain unsupported.
From The Evening Bulletin, Maysville, Tuesday March 12, 1889

March 17, 1889 - ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON complains that he found the South Sea Islanders too amiable and cultivated to furnish him material for a piratical novel. Possibly the Islanders whom Mr. Stevenson met have not yet been thrown into intimate relations with the highly civilized white men.
From The Daily Tribune, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, March 17, 1889

April 3, 1889 - Robert Louis Stevenson, the novelist, whose ill health necessitating his long yachting cruise was said to have been due to excessive indulgence in cigarettes, is reported to have overcome his desire for tobacco in that baneful form and to be much improved physically in consequence. It is also known that F. Marion Crawford, the author, was also a victim to that habit, which, however, he successfully overcame.
From Newark Daily Advocate, Wednesday April 3, 1889

July 10, 1889 - Robert Louis Stevenson will remain another year in the South seas, as he is not strong enough to return to his South of England home at Bournemouth.
From The Evening Gazette, Wednesday July 10, 1889

July 26, 1889 - Robert Louis Stevenson's mother, who was with her son in the South seas, reports him as in greatly improved health and about starting on another year's cruise.
From The Daily Light, Friday July 26, 1889

Full details on Stevenson's Casco cruise can be found at this link:

http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/casco-cruise

STEVENSON POEM HERE FROM TAHITI.
Three Natives Bring Unpublished Verse and Letter to South Sea Island Governor.

ARRIVE WITH AUTO DEVICE.
Hope to Market Non-Skidding Invention - Visitors Under Protection of Stevenson Society.

The Stevenson Society of New York yesterday took under its protection three natives of Tahiti who arrived here a few days ago with an unpublished poem of Robert Louis Stevenson and a differential-locking mechanism for automotive vehicles.
The literary relic is a "Thank You" poem of two stanzas which Stevenson indited in September, 1888, on his yacht Casko to Francois Donat in acknowledgment of the hospitality of Donat, who was the Governor of the Island of Fakarava in the Low Archipelago in the South Seas. The three men of Tahiti also brought with them a brief letter of gratitude which Stevenson wrote to Donat at the same time.
The manner in which these Stevenson documents came to light is a shock to the ordinary conception of this South Sea Island as a place of workless days, romantic nights, continuous full moons, tawny belles, the hula-hula dance, the ukelele and similar ideas imported from Greenwich Village.
The Stevenson documents come to light accidentally because they are curiously linked with more practical documents, the automotive patents of the Tahiti inventor. The inventor has worked for years in the biggest garage in Tahiti and is now the chief electrician of the light and power plant at Papeete, the only light and power plant in the South Seas.

Invention From Tahiti.

The three men decided to make a trip to this country in the hope of interesting a manufacturer in their non-slipping and non-skidding device, as the gift of the Tahiti to the automotive industry of the world. One of the three is the son-in-law of Stevenson's friend, ex-Governor Donat, who is still living. Before the ship left Tahiti, the elder Donat gave the Stevensoniana to his son-in-law, saying, as he was quoted yesterday:

"There may be friends of Stevenson or societies of admirers of Stevenson that may help you if you will show these letters."

The three men showed the documents, written in ink by Stevenson, to persons in San Francisco, Washington, New York and elsewhere, but did not arouse any interest until yesterday. The two stanzas are as follows:

Threefold, my Donat, threefold dear thy gifts;
Dear, firstly, being welcome in themselves;
Next, for remembrance of enchanted isles;
And last and most, my Donat, being thine.

Blank verse, I know, in Gallic ears
A mighty senseless sound appears.
Ah, Donat, I lack space and time
To put thy kindness into rhyme.

On one corner is written "Fakarava, Low Archipelago, Sept., 1888." A note in the corner adds, "To my good friend, M. Donat, on the occasion of his many gifts."
The French letter was as follows:

A bord de la guelette Casco, 10 Sept. 1888

a M. Donat,

Chez Monsieur: Je ne sais en verite, comment vous remercier de vos largesses. On dit que Fakarava est un pauvre pays; eh bien, quand on a vu ces beaux radis, on a danse de joie. Je vous prendrai, si vous voulez bien moi-meme, vers onze-heures et demi-midi; ou bien, si je rentre plus tot, je viendrai vous toucher moi di cela en passant le parte de la residence. C'est a midi, si Dieu est bon, que nous nous mettrons a table.

Translation of letter:

On board the Casco,

to Mr. Donat,

Dear Sir: I really do not know how to thank you for your generosity. It is said that Fakarava is a poor country, well, when we saw these beautiful radishes, we danced for joy. I will take you, myself if you wish, about eleven and a half-hour this afternoon, or, if I go earlier, I will come. You touch me in passing this part of the residence. It is noon, so if God is good, we will get a table.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

Mrs. Field Identifies Writing.

The handwriting was identified yesterday by Mrs. Salisbury Field, the step-daughter of Robert Louis Stevenson. She was formerly Mrs. Isobel Strong and plays a considerable part in the history of Stevenson, having been for many years his amanuensis at Vailima, Samoa, in the writer's latter days. She is a sister of Lloyd Osbourne, biographer of Stevenson, and his collaborator in some works. She is the mother of Austin Strong, the author of "The Seventh Heaven." She and her son, who lived at Samoa until he was 17, held a great chatting and gossiping bee with their former fellow South Sea Islanders.
One of the three is Emile Martin, proprietor of the only light and power plant in the South Pacific. He is the son-in-law of Stevenson's entertainer at Fakarava thirty-four years ago. Martin is also a trader and capitalist and is the leader of the expedition to this country. The inventor is his chief electrician, Mauarii F. Hintze. The third is Branscomb Chave, a young man, nephew of the inventor. He is here to see how he likes the United States.
Martin now makes electricity for the 5,000 inhabitants of Papeete by burning oil, and he made the trip chiefly to purchase hydroelectric machinery in San Francisco to illuminate the town by means of water power. He combined this plan with the enterprise of marketing the patent of his employee.
Robert H. Davis of the Munsey publications, who is President of the Stevenson Society, was notified, so that the members of the society could be stirred up about the South Sea visitors. The men of Tahiti were induced to stay over four or five days, and will probably visit the Stevenson shrine in the house at Saranac Lake where he lived for a time. The two bits of Stevensonia may be added to the collection of Stevenson relics at this place.
The automobile invention is one to rescue an automobile from a hole or other difficulties which causes wheels to "race." The invention shuts off power from the wheel which is spinning in a hole or in the air and concentrates the power on the other wheel, which can then get a firmer grip on the ground and get the automobile out of its difficulties.

Source: The New York Times, December 8, 1922

Here are various photos of Stevenson and party taken in Tahiti in 1888-1889:

http://rlsphotos.pbworks.com/w/page/5542477/1888-1889

The following account relates Robert Louis Stevenson's defence of a slandered priest named Father Damien:

FATHER DAMIEN.
Calumny Castigated.

[FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.]
LONDON, May 17.

Through the columns of the Scots Observer of the last two Saturdays, Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson administers a tremendous castigation to Dr. Hyde, of Sydney, the reverend detractor and calumniator of Father Damien. This Christian clergyman (?), you may remember, spread a number of scandalous reports about the deceased hero and martyr, the least important being that Damien was rough, uncultured, and dirty in his personal habits; and the most infamous, that the priest caught leprosy in consequence of immoral relations with a Kanaka woman. Mr. Stevenson's method of treating this ghastly legend is typical of the entire two articles.

Many, he says, have visited Molokai before me; they seem not to have heard the rumour. When I was there I heard many shocking tales, for my informants were men speaking with the plainness of the laity; and I heard plenty of complaints of Damien. Why was this never mentioned? And how came it to you in the retirement of your clerical parlour?

But I must not even seem to deceive you. This scandal, when I read it in your letter, was not new to me. I had heard it once before; and I must tell you how. There came to Samoa a man from Honolulu, he, in a public-house on the beach, volunteered the statement that Damien had "contracted the disease from having connection with the female lepers;" and I find a joy in telling you how the report was welcomed in a public-house. A man sprang to his feet; I am not at liberty to give his name, but from what I heard I doubt if you would care to have him to dinner in Beretania street." You miserable little _______," (here is a word I dare not print, it would so shock your ears). "You miserable little _______," he cried, "if the story were a thousand times true, can't you see you are a million times a lower _______ for daring to repeat it?" I wish it could be told of you that when the report reached you in your house, perhaps after family worship, you had found in your soul enough holy anger to receive it with the same expressions; aye, even with that one which I dare not print; it would not need to have been blotted away, like Uncle Toby's oath, by the tears of the recording angel; it would have been counted to you for your brightest righteousness. But you have deliberately chosen the part of the man from Honolulu, and you have played it with improvements of your own. The man from Honolulu - miserable, leering creature - communicated the tale to a rude knot of beach-combing drinkers in a public-house, where (I will so far agree with your temperance opinions) man is not always at his noblest; and the man from Honolulu had himself been drinking - drinking, we may charitably fancy, to excess. It was to your "Dear Brother, the Rev. H.B. Gage," that you chose to communicate the sickening story; and the blue ribbon which adorns your portly bosom forbids me to allow you the extenuating plea that you were drunk when it was done. Your "dear brother" - a brother indeed - made haste to deliver up your letter (as a means of grace, perhaps) to the religious papers; where, after many months, I found and read and wondered at it; and whence I have now reproduced it for the wonder of others. And you and your dear brother have, by this cycle of operations, built up a contrast very edifying to examine in detail. The man whom you would not care to have to dinner, on the one side; on the other, the Rev. Dr. Hyde and the Rev. H.B. Gage: the Apia bar-room, the Honolulu manse.

But I fear you scarce appreciate how you appear to your fellow-men; and to bring it home to you, I will suppose your story to be true. I will suppose - and God forgive me for supposing it - that Damien faltered and stumbled in his narrow path of duty; I will suppose that, in the horror of his isolation, perhaps in the fever of incipient disease, he, who was doing so much more than he had sworn, failed in the letter of his priestly oath - he, who was so much a better man than either you or me, who did what we have never dreamed of daring - he, too, tasted of our common frailty. "O, Iago, the pity of it!" The least tender should be moved to tears; the most incredulous to prayer. And all that you could do was to pen your letter to the Reverend H.B. Gage!

Mr. Stevenson also gives the following interesting extracts from his own diaries on the subject of Damien. They were made, of course, at Honolulu: -

A. "Damien is dead, and already somewhat ungratefully remembered in the field of his labours and sufferings. 'He was a good man, but very officious,' says one. Another tells me 'he had fallen (as other priests so easily do) into something of the ways and habits of thought of a Kanaka; but he had the wit to recognise the fact, and the good sense to laugh at [over] it.' A plain man it seems he was; I cannot find he was a popular."

B. "After Ragsdale's death" [Ragsdale was a famous Luna, or overseer, of the unruly settlement] "there followed a brief term of office by Father Damien which served only to publish the weakness of that noble man. He was rough in his ways, and he had no control. Authority was relaxed; Damien's life was threatened, and he was soon eager to resign."

C. "Of Damien I begin to have an idea. He seems to have been a man of the peasant class, certainly of the peasant type: shrewd, ignorant and bigoted, yet with an open mind and capable of receiving and digesting a reproof, if it were bluntly administered; superbly generous in the least thing as well as in the greatest, and as ready to give his last shirt (although not without human grumbling) as he had been to sacrifice his life; essentially indiscreet and officious, which made him a troublesome colleague: domineering in all his ways, which made him incurably unpopular with the Kanakas, but yet destitute of real authority, so that his boys laughed at him and he must carry out his wishes by the means of bribes. He learned to have a mania for doctoring; and set the Kanakas against the remedies of his regular rivals: perhaps (if anything matter at all in the treatment of such a disease) the worst thing that he did, and certainly the easiest. The best and worst of the man appear very plainly in his dealings with Mr. Chapman's money; he had originally laid it out" [intended to lay it out] "entirely for the benefit of Catholics, and even so not wisely; but after a long, plain talk, he admitted his error fully and revised the list. The sad state of the boys' home is in part the result of his lack of control; in part, of his own slovenly ways and false ideas of hygiene. Brother officials used to call it "Damien's Chinatown." "Well," they would say, "your Chinatown keeps growing." And he would laugh with perfect good-nature, and adhere to his errors with perfect obstinacy. So much I have gathered of truth about this plain, noble human brother as father of ours; his imperfections are the traits of his face, by which we know him for our fellow; his martyrdom and his example nothing can lessen or annul; and only a person here on the spot can properly appreciate their greatness."

I have set down these private passages, as you perceive, without correction; thanks to you, the public has them in their bluntness. They are almost a list of the man's faults; for it is rather these that I was seeking; with his virtues, with the heroic profile of his life, I and the world were already sufficiently acquainted. I was besides a little suspicious of Catholic testimony; in no ill sense, but merely because Damien's admirers and disciples were the least likely to be critical. I know you will be more suspicious still; and the facts set down above were one and all collected from the lips of Protestants who had opposed the father in his life. Yet I am strangely deceived, or they build up the image of a man, with all his weaknesses, essentially heroic, and alive with rugged honesty, generosity and mirth.

Source: Star, Issue 6890, 27 June 1890, Page 3

Father Damien's Memory.
(per S.S. Tarawera at the Bluff.)

SYDNEY, May 28.

Some time after the death of Father Damien, of Molokai, the Rev. Dr. Hyde addressed a letter to the Rev. H.G. Gage, which was published by a section of the press, asserting that Father Damien was totally unworthy of any laudation, and describing him as a man coarse, dirty, headstrong, and bigoted. The letter went on to insinuate that Father Damien had contracted the leprosy from which he died through immoral conduct. Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, the celebrated novelist, has published a letter in defence of Father Damien which is perhaps one of the most artistic and brilliant literary efforts of Mr. Stevenson. His defence of the man he esteemed is most powerful. He first premises that after having read Dr. Hyde's letter he felt himself inspired to reply. He contrasts Father Damien and Dr. Hyde much to the disadvantage of the latter. He then gives an insight to the home of lepers which he visited, and next at some length, portrays the character of Father Damien. In effect Mr. Stevenson acknowledges that Damien was not free from all frailties of the human mind, but asserts that he had noble and divine attributes which raised him far beyond the level of his fellow creatures. Mr. Stevenson's letter is addressed to Dr. Hyde, and he says that the two men were once acquainted, and had eaten together, but that one act would sever them for ever. He describes Dr. Hyde as "the devil's advocate," and in one portion says: - "For if the world at all remember you on the day that Damien of Molokai shall be named a saint, it will be by virtue of one work - your letter addressed to Rev. H.B. Gage." The letter will undoubtedly cause an unusual sensation, and in a private letter to the Star Mr. Stevenson guarantees all expenses in the event of a libel action, which is probable.

Source: Fielding Star, Volume XI, Issue 149, 10 June 1890, Page 2

A Novelist on Tour.
[BY TELEGRAPH.]

[UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.]
AUCKLAND, 21st April.

The eminent novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mrs. Stevenson, were passengers by the Janet Nicoll, which arrived from Sydney, and after a stay here of a day they left again by that vessel for Suwarrow Island. Mr. Stevenson is in delicate health, and on that account was unable to visit Sir George Grey, a pleasure he had eagerly looked forward to; but he sent Sir George his regards, with a copy of one of his books, and also of a pamphlet which Mr. Stevenson is about to publish, defending the late Father Damien from a recent attack made upon the character of the great leper priest. Sir George Grey, who is at present also indisposed, replied by sending Mr. Stevenson his sympathy and good wishes, with copies of several of his best known works, his photograph, and several rare pamphlets relating to the dialects of Polynesia. From Suwarrow Island Mr. Stevenson intends to proceed to the Marshall Group and to the Line Islands. A house is building for him in Samoa, where he intends to spend a great part of his life.

Source: Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 93, 22 April 1890, Page 2

FATHER DAMIEN'S PROTESTANT CHAMPION.

Shortly after the death of the "Apostle of the Lepers" at Molokai a cruel and heartless slander on the dead priest's memory appeared in the Presbyterian newspaper published in Sydney in the form of a letter addressed by the Rev. C.M. Hyde from Honolulu, to "his dear brother," the Rev. H.B. Gage. At the time his Eminence Cardinal Moran took up the slander and eloquently defended the hero priest's memory on the testimonies of Protestant officials and clergymen who had visited the scene of Father Damien's labours and had recorded their admiration in glowing words. Dr. Hyde's letter in February last came under the notice of Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, the distinguished novelist - and himself a Presbyterian, by the way - who was sojourning in Sydney after visiting the leper settlement at Molokai. So wrought upon was Mr. Stevenson by the epistle referred to that he immediately penned an open letter to Dr. Hyde as a reply to the aspersions cast upon the character of Father Damien. In order to ensure a wide circulation for his disinterested and chivalrous defence of the "dead saint," Mr. Stevenson, we (Sydney Freeman's Journal) believe, sent copies of his letter to the principal papers in England and America, and also to several Australian papers. The letter, which is published for the first time in Australia, is doubtless appearing just now also at the other side of the world. Our space prevents us giving Mr. Stevenson's slashing letter in full, but its style and aim may be judged from the following extracts.

Sydney, February 25, 1890.

"Sir, - It may probably occur to you that we have met, and visited, and conversed, on my side with interest. You may remember that you have done me several courtesies for which I was prepared to be grateful. But their are duties which come before gratitude, and offences which justly divide friends - far more acquaintances. Your letter to the Reverend H.B. Gage is a document which, in my sight - if you had filled me with bread when I was starving, if you had sat up to nurse my father when he lay a dying - would yet absolve me from the bonds of gratitude. You know enough, doubtless, of the process of canonization to be aware that a hundred years after the death of Damien there will appear a man charged with the painful office of devil's advocate. After that noble brother of mine, and of all frail clay, shall have lain a century at rest, one shall accuse one defend him. The circumstance is unusual that the devil's advocate should be a volunteer, should be a member of a sect immediately rival, and should make haste to take upon himself his ugly office ere the bones are cold; unusual, and of a taste which I shall leave my readers free to qualify, unusual, and to me inspiring. If I have at all learned the trade of using words to convey truth and to arouse emotion you have at last furnished me with a subject. I shall proceed to criticise your utterance from several points of view, divine and human, in the course of which I shall attempt to draw again, and with more specification, the character of the dead saint whom it has pleased you to vilify. So much being done, I shall say farewell to you for ever.
You belong, sir, to a sect - I believe my sect - and that in which my ancestors laboured, which has enjoyed, and partly failed to utilise, an exceptional advantage in the island of Hawaii. It may be news to you that the houses of missionaries are a cause of mocking on the streets of Honolulu. It will, at least be news to you that when I returned your civil visit the driver of my cab commented on the size, the taste, and the comfort of your home.
You have never visited the scene of Damien's life and death. If you had, and had recalled it, and looked about your pleasant rooms, even your pen would perhaps have been stayed. But, sir, when we have failed, and another has succeeded; when we have stood by, and another has stepped in; when we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions, and a plain, uncouth peasant steps into the battle, under the eyes of God, and succours the afflicted and consoles the dying, and is himself afflicted in his turn, and dies upon the field of honour, the battle cannot be retrieved as your unhappy irritation has suggested. It is a lost battle, and lost for ever. One thing remained to you in your defeat - some rags of common honour - and those you have made haste to cast away. Common honour, not the honour of having done anything right, but the honour of not having done aught conspicuously foul; the honour of the inert - that was what remained to you. Your Church and Damien's were in Hawaii upon a rivalry to do well - to help, to edify, and to set divine examples. You having (in one huge instance) failed, and Damien succeeded, I marvel it should not have occurred to you that you were doomed to silence; that you have been outstripped in that high rivalry and sat inglorious in the midst of your well-being in your pleasant room; and Damien, crowned with glories and horrors, toiling and rotting in that pig-stye of his under the cliffs at Kalawao. You, the elect, who would not, were the last man on earth to collect and propagate gossip on the volunteer who would and did. I imagine you to be one of those persons who talk with cheerfulness of that place which oxen and wain ropes could not drag you to behold. You, who do not even know the situation on the map, probably denounce sensational descriptions, stretching your limbs the while in your pleasant parlour on Beretania-street. When I was pulled ashore there one early morning there sat with me in the boat two Sisters, bidding farewell (in humble imitation of Damien) to the lights and joys of human life. One of these wept silently; I could not withhold myself from joining her. Had you been there it is my belief that nature would have triumphed even in you. I do not think that I am a man more than usually timid; but I never recall the days and nights I spent on that island promontory (eight days and seven nights) without heartfelt thankfulness that I am somewhere else. I find in my diary that I speak of my stay as "a grinding experience." I have once jotted in the margin "harrowing is the word." And observe: That which I saw and suffered from was a settlement purged, bettered, beautified; a new village built, the hospital and the bishop's home excellently arranged; the Sisters, doctor, and missionaries all indefatigable in their noble looks. It was a different place when Damien came there, and made his renunciation, and slept the first night under a tree amidst his rotting brethren, alone with pestilence, and looking forward, with what courage and with what pitiful sinkings of dread God only knows, to a lifetime of dressing sores and stumps.
"Damien was coarse." You say so. It is very possible. You make us sorry for the lepers, who had only a coarse old peasant for their friend and father. But you, who were so refined, why were you not there to cheer them with the lights of culture? Or may I remind you that we have some reasons to doubt if John the Baptist were genteel; and, in the case of Peter, on whose career you doubtless dwell approvingly in the pulpit, there is no doubt at all that he was a "coarse, headstrong" fisherman. Yet even in Protestant Bibles Peter is called saint.
"Damien was dirty."
He was. Think of the poor lepers annoyed with this dirty comrade. But the clean Dr. Hyde was at his food in a fine house.
"Damien was headstrong."
I believe you are right again, and I thank God for his strong head and heart.
I have now come far enough to meet you on a common ground of fact, and I tell you that, to a mind not prejudiced by jealousy, all the reforms of the lazaretto, and even those which he most vigorously opposed, are properly the work of Damien. They are the evidence of his success; they are what his heroism provoked for the reluctant and the careless. It was his part, by one striking act of martyrdom to direct all men's eyes on that distressful country. At a blow, and with the price of his life, he made the place illustrious and public. And that, if you will consider largely, was the one reform needful, pregnant of all that should succeed. It brought money, it brought (best individual addition to them all) the Sisters, it brought supervision, for public opinion and public interest landed with the man at Kalawao. If ever any man brought reforms, and died to bring them, it was he.
"Damien was not a pure man." How do you know that? Is this the nature of the conversation in that house in Beretania-street which the cabman envied driving past? Racy details of the misconduct of the poor peasant priest, toiling under the cliffs of Molokai. Many have visited the station before me. They seem not to have heard the rumour. But I must not even seem to deceive you.
This scandal, when I read it in your letter, was not new to me. I had heard it once before, and I must tell you how. There came to Samoa a man from Honolulu. He, in a public-house upon the beach volunteered the statement, and I find a joy in telling you how the report was welcomed in a public-house. A man sprang to his feet, I am not at liberty to give his name, but from what I heard, I doubt if you would care to have him to dinner in Beretania-street. "You miserable little _________" (here is a word I dare not print, it would so shock your ears). "You miserable little ______," he cried, "if the story were a thousand times true, don't you see you are a million times a lower __________ for daring to repeat it?" The man from Honolulu - miserable, leering creature - communicated the tale to a rude knot of beach-combing drinkers in a public-house, where (I will so far agree with your temperance opinions) man is not always at his noblest; and the man from Honolulu had himself been drinking - drinking, we may charitably fancy, to excess. It was to your "Dear Brother, the Rev. H.B. Gage," that you chose to communicate the sickening story; and the blue ribbon which adorns your portly bosom forbids me to allow you the extenuating plea that you were drunk when it was done. Is it growing at all clear to you what a picture you have drawn of your own heart? I will try yet once again to make it clearer. You had a father. Suppose this tale were about him, and some informant brought it to you, proof in hand. I am not making too high an estimate of your emotional nature, when I suppose you would regret the circumstance - that you would feel the tale of frailty the more keenly, since it shamed the author of your days, and that the last thing you would do would be to publish it in the religious Press. Well, the man who tried to do what Damien did is my father, and the father of the man in the Apia bar, and the father of all who love goodness; and he was your father, too, if God had given you the grace to see it.

Source: New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 8, 20 June 1890, Page 5

FAMOUS OPEN LETTER.
"R.L.S." Wrote It In Sydney.

BY BRIAN STEIN.

Just fifty years ago there died a priest, Joseph de Veuster, better known as Father Damien - the leper martyr of Molokai Island in the Hawaiian Islands. The events which followed his death are closely associated with Sydney, for it was in a room at the Union Club, in Bligh Street, that Robert Louis Stevenson sat down and penned his famous "open letter" to the Rev. Dr. Hyde, of Honolulu, taking up the cudgels on behalf of the dead priest upon whose moral character the reverend doctor had cast grave aspersions.

FATHER DAMIEN was born on January 3, 1841, at Tremeloo, several miles from Louvain, in Belgium. His brother had entered the Church, and shortly before he was to be ordained Damien expressed the desire to become a priest; but the authorities decided that, owing to his lack of knowledge of either Latin or Greek, this would be impossible. Eventually, however, Damien was permitted to prepare for his priesthood.

Just about that time, the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary were organising a party of missionaries to be sent to the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the Sandwich Islands. Damien's brother, who was among those chosen, was struck down by illness shortly before the departure of the mission, and Damien pleaded to be allowed to take his place, and finally was accepted.
In 1873 the small group of missionaries arrived at Honolulu, Oahu. A short time later Damien was ordained, and given an outlying district to work in. He soon saw close at hand the death and destruction wrought by the scourge of leprosy, and there began to form in his mind a desire to do something for the unfortunate sufferers.

Like Animals.

Much has been written of the manner in which he obtained the sanction of his Bishop to go to the lazaret on Molokai Island. Some writers say he never received permission at all. While another version is that, while a church was being ordained on Maui Island, Damien contrived to speak with his Bishop and tell him of his desire. Suffice to say that he left the same day on a cattle boat bound for the lazaret of lepers - Molokai.
Arriving there Damien saw men and women living like animals, but at first he could do nothing. Gradually he obtained the confidence of a few, and brought about many beneficial changes in the little settlement. Water was piped from the mountains and buildings were reconstructed. Just how pitiable the conditions must have been before the advent of Damien was evinced by Steveson many years later, when he described his eight days and seven nights on the island.
He tells how he was pulled ashore in a boat in the early hours of the morning with two sisters, who were to labour in the settlement. One was weeping, and Stevenson said: "I could not withhold myself from joining her...It is not the fear of possible infection. That seems a little thing when compared with the pain, the pity, and disgust of the visitor's surroundings, and the atmosphere of affliction, disease, and physical disgrace in which he breathes. I do not think I am a man more than usually timid; but I never recall the days and nights I spent upon that island promontory without heartfelt thankfulness that I am somewhere else. I find in my diary that I speak of my stay as a 'grinding experience.' I have once jotted in the margin, "harrowing is the word."
But even as he describes "the abominable deformations" in "the horror of a nightmare," Stevenson pointed out that what he saw was a purged settlement - with a new village, a hospital, and a Bishop-home, with missionaries and sisters sharing the burden of work.

Damien laboured single-handed for many years as the magistrate, teacher, carpenter, gardener, cook, and even gravedigger. He was later joined by another priest, but in 1885 the dread malady appeared in him, and after much suffering he died on April 15, 1889. When his sacrifice became known help was forthcoming from every part where civilised people lived. Much praise was lavished on the dead hero, particularly through the columns of newspapers all over the world.

Hyde's Letter.

Early in February the following year, Robert Louis Stevenson arrived in Sydney from his life of wandering among the islands of the Pacific. He was very ill - a cold had caused severe hemorrhage, and the author was ordered to bed immediately. For several days he was prisoner in his room at the Union Club, in Bligh Street.
He recovered slowly, and on the evening of Febuary 24 dined with some friends, and the conversation drifted along until it caught on the name of Father Damien. One of those present asked the author if he had seen an article in a Sydney Journal referring rather critically to the dead priest's work. Interested, Stevenson said he had not, and was shown a copy of the Sydney "Presbyterian," dated October 26, 1889. The following letter from Dr. Hyde, of Honolulu, addressed to Rev. H.B. Gage was published on one of its pages:

Honolulu
August 2, 1889

"Rev. H.B. Gage,

"Dear Brother, In answer to your inquiries about Father Damien I can only reply that we who knew the man are surprised at the extravagant newspaper laudation, as if he was a most saintly philanthropist. The simple truth is, he was a coarse, dirty man, headstrong and bigoted. He was not sent to Molokai, but went there without orders; did not stay at the leper settlement (before he became one himself), but circulated freely over the whole island (less than half the island is devoted to the lepers), and he often came to Honolulu. He had no hand in the reforms and improvements inaugurated, which were the work of our Board of Health, as occasion required and means were provided. He was not pure in his relations with women, and the leprosy of which he died should be attributed to his vices and carelessness. Others have done much for the lepers, our own ministers, the Government physicians, and so forth, but never with the Catholic idea of meriting eternal life.

Yours etc., -
C.M. Hyde"

Those who watched R.L.S. read, saw his growing agitation until finally, his face pale with anger, he brushed back his chair as he leaped to his feet. He must reply at once, he declared. He must smash the traducer of the dead man for whom he had conceived an ardent admiration; and so the following morning saw him hard at work in his room composing a reply to Dr. Hyde's letter.

Stinging Rebuke.

Practically unaltered from the first hurriedly written draft the letter was completed that morning and posted to London and New York, as well as the principal Australian newspapers. It was published in Sydney, and aroused much comment. Stevenson was never more vitriolic, more ironical, or more bitter than in his condemnation of Dr. Hyde's accusations. He attacked Hyde from both the divine and human point of view, dissecting the letter piece by piece - subjecting each to the most exhaustive comment. Dr. Hyde was of the same denomination as Stevenson, and both had met in Honolulu, but neither friendship nor denominational kinship stayed the latter's pen.
Hyde said Damien was "coarse." Stevenson replied: "It is very possible. You make us sorry for the lepers, who had only a coarse old peasant for their friend and father, but you, who were so refined, why were you not there to cheer them with the lights of culture?
Hyde had described Damien as "dirty." Stevenson admitted this. "He was. Think of the poor lepers annoyed with this dirty comrade! But the clean Dr. Hyde was at his food in a fine house."
And so Stevenson lashed Dr. Hyde. It was when dealing with that section of Hyde's letter which said Damien "was not pure in his relations with women" that the eminent author applied his most scathing criticism. He told of a man - "a miserable leering creature" - who had recently come to Samoa from Honolulu, and in a public-house volunteered the statement that Damien had contracted the disease from his association with the female lepers.
"I find a joy in telling you how the report was welcomed in a public-house," declared Stevenson. "A man sprang to his feet, I am not at liberty to give his name, but from what I hear I doubt if you would care to have him to dinner in Beretania Street. "You miserable little _______, there is a word I dare not print. It would so shock your ears. "You miserable little _______," he cried, "if the story were a thousand times true, can't you see you are a million times a lower ______ for daring to repeat it?"
Stevenson conceded that the man from Honolulu may have been drunk, and so might be excused, but went on with biting sarcasm. "It was to your 'Dear Brother,' the Reverend H.B. Gage, that you chose to communicate the sickening story, and the blue ribbon which adorns your portly bosom forbids me to allow you the extenuating plea that you were drunk when it was done."
Stevenson predicted that the world would not forget the name of Hyde on the day when Damien be named Saint, but that would be by virtue of but one work - the letter to the Rev. H.B. Gage!

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A hitherto unpublished photograph of ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (left), his wife, and his stepson, LLOYD OSBOURNE.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 30, December 1939, page 7

It will turn out probably, as THE GRAPHIC has said, that the Whitechapel murderer is another case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and it will not be astonishing if the book inspired the crimes, innocent of all desire of that kind as Mr. Stevenson is. Of course the fiend is crazy - that has been a foregone conclusion all along.

Source: The New York Daily Graphic, Thursday November 22, 1888, Page 154