Letter from Hattie to Edward, January 9, 1874

Letter from Hattie to Edward, January 9, 1874

Letters; Organ and piano music; Organ (Musical instrument); Hymns; Presbyterian church buildings

Harriet tells her brother Edward that everyone is writing lots of letters today, and she wants to write six. She tells him about what music they are using from the books sent over with Mattie. The organ that she plays on is not in good condition but they are hoping for a new one. The new organ could go to the church or the school, but Harriet leans toward putting it in the church.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #1

Unpublished

1874-01-09

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_110

Lett Canton China.
Jany 9th 1874.
My dear Edward
My first letters this
year shall be to the dear ones
at home and I am
going to write to you all
before beginning a letter to
any one else, Even at the
risk of writing the same thing
to different ones. Mattie is
scratching away on a letter
to Sarah your pen seems
to be doing good service .
Lucy is sending by this mail
100 pages and Matt says
she will have over 70 so if
"you ones" over there in
America are not enlightened
with regard to "China and
the Chinese". I would like
to know whose fault it
will be. It seems nice to

have so much help in carrying
on the letter writing. My unanswered
letters are a burden on my spirits.
I want to write six tonight and
then I shall still have
twenty five unanswered.
The music books Matties brought
us from you are very
acceptable many thanks for
them. Henry strange as
it may appear for a
missionary was Especially
pleased with the book of
"Party-Dances". I usually
cover it up with some book
of church music to presume
the [u]respectable[/u] appearance
of our music stand.
We have not had time to
play much out of it yet
The other day at meeting
I was very much in the
position of the good brother.
Who said "Friends I'm wrong
Long Metre I've got and Common

Metre it is. We were using the
Wesleyan Hymn Book in which
the metres are marked very
differently from our book and
I carelessly selected Meribah
C.P.M. for a Long Metre hymn
six lines. I did not notice my
mistake until we begun to sing
and then it was [u]too late to stop[/u]
so went ahead and by chopping
up a few of the long notes at the
end of the third and sixth
line made the tune hold out
but the performance was
slightly amusing to some of
us. I have quite a trial
sometimes sabbath eve the
instrument we have to
use in such a poor one
sometimes it puts me
all out of sorts. We are
expecting the school organ
out now very soon. It was
shipped on board the
[?Adelia Casleton?] which is

now expected in Hongkong.
They have sent such a nice
one that I expect it will be
quite too good for the school
and will probably find its
place in the new chapel of the
1st Pres Church of Canton,
if that building ever makes
its appearance amongst us.
Henry and I had set our
hearts on getting a nice organ
for the church outselves but present
appearances look as though
whatever we can give will have
to go into the building and
in that case I expect you
will give your consent to
have the "coming organ" do
duty in the church instead
of school. I expect the girls
will be a little disappointed for I
have told them about the
nice organ that is coming
but we have a little one that
does duty there + although it is very
short winded I expect it will
[Note: Written sideways in the margin of page four]
survive some time. Your aff sister Hattie.



让广州中国。
1874 年 1 月 9 日。
亲爱的爱德华，
我今年的第一封信将寄给家里的亲人，
我将在给其他任何人写信之前先给大家写信，
即使冒着给不同的人写相同东西的风险.玛蒂正在写给莎拉的信，
你的笔似乎很好用。
露西正在通过这封邮件发送 100 页，
而马特说她将有 70 多页，
所以如果美国那边的“你们”对“中国和中国人”不了解的话。
我想知道这是谁的错。
在写信的过程中能得到这么多帮助似乎很好。
我的未回信是我精神上的负担。
我今晚想写六个，
然后我还有二十五个没有答案。
Matties 给我们带来的音乐书籍非常受欢迎，
非常感谢他们。
亨利对于传教士来说可能显得很奇怪，
他对“派对舞”一书特别满意。
我通常用一些教堂音乐书来掩盖它，
以推测我们乐谱架的体面外观。
我们还没有时间玩太多。
前几天见面时，
我非常处于好兄弟的位置。
谁说“朋友们我错了我的长米和普通米。
我们使用的是卫斯理赞美诗书，
其中米的标记与我们的书非常不同，
我不小心选择了 Meribah C.P.M. 作为长米赞美诗六直到我们开始唱歌时我才注意到我的错误，
然后停下来为时已晚，
所以继续前进，
通过在第三和第六行末尾切掉一些长音符使曲调保持不变，
但对我们中的一些人来说，
表演有点有趣。
我有时会在安息日前夕尝试过这种乐器，
我们不得不在如此可怜的人身上使用这种乐器，
有时它会让我浑身不自在。
我们期待学校的管风琴现在很快就会出来。
它是Adelia Casleton 寄到了现在预计在香港的船。
他们寄了这么好的一个，
我希望它对学校来说太好了，
可能会在广州第一长老会的新教堂找到它的位置，
如果那座建筑出现在我们中间。
亨利和我已经下定决心要自己为教堂买一个漂亮的管风琴，
但目前的情况看起来好像我们可以提供的任何东西都必须进入大楼，
在这种情况下，
我希望你会同意拥有“即将到来的管风琴” “在教堂而不是学校尽职。
我预计女孩们会有点失望，
因为我已经告诉她们即将到来的好管风琴，
但我们有一个在那里工作的小管风琴，
虽然它很短，
但我希望它会
[注：横向写在页边空白处第四页]
生存一段时间。
你的妹妹，
海蒂。

Letter