Letter from Hattie Noyes to "dear Friends," April 1, 1875
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Hattie Noyes to "dear Friends," April 1, 1875
Subject
Arson; Fires; Education--China; Missions--Study and teaching; Sabbath schools
Description
In this letter, Harriet reminds people of the schoolhouse being burnt down. She was able to visit some students that were very happy to see her. Women visit their house and find the structure fascinating. Sabbath school is starting up again and some of the women promised to attend. She specifically writes of a little girl named Atai who is a favorite and skilled student.
Creator
Noyes, Harriet Newell
Source
The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #2
Publisher
Unpublished
Date
1875-04-01
Contributor
Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant
Rights
Format
PDF
Language
eng (English)
Type
Text
Identifier
noyes_c_cor_141
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Seville Sabbath School -
Canton China
April 1st 1875
My dear Friends
It has been sometime
since I have written to you
and perhaps you would like
to hear something more about
little Atai. You will have
heard I suppose about our nice
school-house being burnt up a
few weeks since. WE all felt
very sad to think that the
school must be broken up and
all our dear little scholars
sent away to their homes . But
the workmen are busy at work
making a new school-house
for us and in two months more
it will be finished and we
shall be glad to get our little
flock gathered together again.
I have not seen Atai for
several weeks she is now living
with her grand-mother who
seems a very nice pleasant
old lady. A few weeks since I
went to visit them and they
all seemed very glad to see
me and pleased to hear me
sing and read to them.
Then they brought me tea
and cakes, fruit, and candy
all on tiny little plates about
as large as the top of a tea-cup.
They wished me to come
back again very soon but they
live so far away that I have
not had time to go to see them
since Just here I was
interrupted by a number of
women who came to visit and
see the house for our houses are
quite a curiosity to these Chinese
women and they take the
greatest delight in going about
from one room to another often
making remarks that you
would laugh to hear . These
women there were mine I think
in all came with one of the
Bible Woman who has been
visiting them for some time -
Three of them say that they
wish very much to become Christian
and they promised to come to
meeting next Sabbath. Two
men came with them who
wanted to hear about the true
God and Henry is now talking
with them. Next Sabbath we
are going to commence our Sabbath
School again we have not had
any since the School building
was burned. WE hope there will
be a large number of scholars
Last year there were fifty
but we hope and Expect there
will be twice as many this
year. HEnry has a Boy's
Day school which is near
Enough for the scholars to
come from that and there
are twenty six boys that will
come from there. I wish you
could see our Sabbath School
although it would sound
very strange to you to hear
us all talking and singing
in Chinese you could think
that we are talking and
singing about the same thing
that you do in your
sabbath school and our
Heavenly Father understands us
just as well -
I will send you little
Atai's report for the last your
and you will see from it
that she is a very good scholar.
I will send you too one
of her writing books which
perhaps you will like to
see. The characters that
are marked with red ink
are the ones that are well
written and when the
scholars get twenty such
marks they have one credit
mark so you see Atai had
written well four thousand six
hundred characters She is a
very good writer for such a
little girl can write better than
some of the larger girls. I have
not much time to write this
afternoon so I will not try
to write a long letter. but
bid you good-bye for this
time. Yours affly
Hattie Noyes.
Canton China
April 1st 1875
My dear Friends
It has been sometime
since I have written to you
and perhaps you would like
to hear something more about
little Atai. You will have
heard I suppose about our nice
school-house being burnt up a
few weeks since. WE all felt
very sad to think that the
school must be broken up and
all our dear little scholars
sent away to their homes . But
the workmen are busy at work
making a new school-house
for us and in two months more
it will be finished and we
shall be glad to get our little
flock gathered together again.
I have not seen Atai for
several weeks she is now living
with her grand-mother who
seems a very nice pleasant
old lady. A few weeks since I
went to visit them and they
all seemed very glad to see
me and pleased to hear me
sing and read to them.
Then they brought me tea
and cakes, fruit, and candy
all on tiny little plates about
as large as the top of a tea-cup.
They wished me to come
back again very soon but they
live so far away that I have
not had time to go to see them
since Just here I was
interrupted by a number of
women who came to visit and
see the house for our houses are
quite a curiosity to these Chinese
women and they take the
greatest delight in going about
from one room to another often
making remarks that you
would laugh to hear . These
women there were mine I think
in all came with one of the
Bible Woman who has been
visiting them for some time -
Three of them say that they
wish very much to become Christian
and they promised to come to
meeting next Sabbath. Two
men came with them who
wanted to hear about the true
God and Henry is now talking
with them. Next Sabbath we
are going to commence our Sabbath
School again we have not had
any since the School building
was burned. WE hope there will
be a large number of scholars
Last year there were fifty
but we hope and Expect there
will be twice as many this
year. HEnry has a Boy's
Day school which is near
Enough for the scholars to
come from that and there
are twenty six boys that will
come from there. I wish you
could see our Sabbath School
although it would sound
very strange to you to hear
us all talking and singing
in Chinese you could think
that we are talking and
singing about the same thing
that you do in your
sabbath school and our
Heavenly Father understands us
just as well -
I will send you little
Atai's report for the last your
and you will see from it
that she is a very good scholar.
I will send you too one
of her writing books which
perhaps you will like to
see. The characters that
are marked with red ink
are the ones that are well
written and when the
scholars get twenty such
marks they have one credit
mark so you see Atai had
written well four thousand six
hundred characters She is a
very good writer for such a
little girl can write better than
some of the larger girls. I have
not much time to write this
afternoon so I will not try
to write a long letter. but
bid you good-bye for this
time. Yours affly
Hattie Noyes.
Seville 主日学校
中国广东
1875年4月1日
我亲爱的朋友们
离我上次给你们写信
已经有一段时间了
而且也许你们很想知道关于Atai的一些事。
我猜你们已经听说
就在几周前
我们很漂亮的学校被烧毁。
我们为此感到很伤心
一想到学校被毁掉
而且可爱的学生们都被送回家了。
但是工人还在忙于工作
在给我们建一座新的学校
而且两个月后
会完成更多
我们就可以重新聚在一起了。
我已经几周没有见到Atai了
她现在和她的祖母住在一起
她祖母是个和蔼可亲的老奶奶。
几周前，
我去拜访他们
他们看起来很高兴见到我
也很喜欢听我给他们唱歌、读书。
然后他们给我买了茶
和蛋糕，水果和糖果
这些东西全都放在小盘子里
就跟顶端的茶杯那么大。
他们希望我能早一点回去
但是他们住的地方理我太远了
以至于我没有时间去他们那
就在这时
我被来访的几个女人打断了
她们这些中国女人看这房子
显得很好奇
她们特别开心地在各个房间溜达
并且说说话
以至于你们听了想笑。
她们是我的女人
我认为所有来的人都是跟一个
圣经女人来的
还来过好几次
三个人说
她们特别希望加入基督教
而且她们保证下一个安息日会来。
和她们来的还有两个男人
他们想听关于真神的事
Henry在给他们讲。
下一个安息日，
我们准备去再一次开启
自从教学楼烧毁，我们就没有打理的
主日学校。
我们希望有大量的学生
去年有50个
但是我们希望
今年学生数量可以翻番。
Henry有个男子走读学校
离我们学校足够近
有26个男孩去他那上学。
我希望
你们可以看看我们的主日学校
即使它听起来很陌生
我们说和唱都是用中文进行
你们可以想到
我们说和唱的内容
和你们在主日学校是一样的
而且我们神圣的主也会理解
最后，我会给你们寄一些Atai的报告
你们会从那里看出来的
她是个很好的学者。
我也会给你们寄一本她写
你们应该喜欢看的书。
用红色比标注的文字
是写到好的
当学生们得到20个这样的标记时
他们会得到一学分
因此你看到Atai写了4600个字。
她是个很好的手写者
对于这么小的女孩来说
写的字比年龄大一点的女孩都要好。
我今天下午没有很多时间去写了
所有我不会写长信。
但是这一次就先这样。
你们的Hattie Noyes
Original Format
Letter
Collection
Citation
Noyes, Harriet Newell, “Letter from Hattie Noyes to "dear Friends," April 1, 1875,” Letters from Harriet Noyes: Missionaries and Women's Education in Nineteenth Century China, accessed April 19, 2024, https://noyesletters.org/items/show/197.