A LEPER HUSBAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3666, 30 October 1912, Page 9

A LEPER HUSBAND.

PATHETIC AMERICAN- CASE

The nows that his wife has filed a suit for divorce fills to overflowing the cup of bitterness for John Early, the leper. For the last five years Early lias been living an isolated life on the Government reservation at Washington. appealing at intervals from the decision that he is an incurable leper, and each time receiving an adverse reply. The announcement that his wife wants to be released gives a touch of tragedy to the heart-crush-ing sorrow which has been this man’s portion for half a decade. Airs Early, whose devotion to her leper husband has been the cause of national comment, seeks her freedom ‘•for tho children’s sake” from the man who is “dead to the world.” Airs Early alleges “extreme cruelty,” and the basis of it is that Early knew when he fled across the continent to tho Pacific Coast in the effort to escape from the medical authorities that he was afflicted Avith the dread disease from which there is no relief but death, and that lie concealed the truth from her. Airs Earlv always believed that her husband was a “clean man,” and she insisted on sharing the Government reservation with him until she rvas convinced that he was a leper. They lived in a double house, with no door between, and met in the presence of the guard, avlio saw that thev ivere never closer together than 10 feet. In the evenings Mrs Early and her children, in one house, would play and sing to the lonely man on the other side of the wall, who sat and listened. (