Letter from Hattie to Clara, May 21, 1880

Letter from Hattie to Clara, May 21, 1880

Birthdays; School buildings; Arranged marriage; Betrothal; Marriage--China; Marriage--China--History; Gifts

Harriet wishes Clara a happy thirtieth birthday and says that she hopes they will be able to celebrate their birthdays together again. The construction of the school building is going well and they like the builder. One of their students is getting married to a man from California, and Harriet thinks she is too young and does not want to. She comments that Chinese marriages work out as well as they do in the US. Henry is performing the ceremony in the old school building. Harriet has a bookmark for Clara's birthday.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #2

Unpublished

1880-05-21

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_214

Canton China
May 21st 1880
My dear Clara,
Your birthday has
come again and we are writing
this evening to send you
every good wish for this new
year of your life. This is
the fourth birthday since
the one that we spent together
just after we reached home
our first Sabbath at home,
the third since I came
back to China. The
years are passing very quickly.
It seems strange to think
that you are "thirty years
old to-day". I presume you
do not feel much older,
with your added burden
of years. I am almost
forty but I do not know
as I feel any older as the

years go by. I hope that
bye and bye we may spend
our birthdays together again.
If our Mission had the
same rule as the Wesleyan
six years for the second
term, it would soon be
time for me to go home
again. I am getting
into the last half of my
third year since coming
back. We have had a
very comfortable spring thus
far only two or three days
of really hot weather as
yet and it is almost
the Last of May now.
The workmen are getting
on very fast with the
building are laying the
floor of the second storey
now. It does seem so nice
to see it going up and
think that we are going

to have it at last. We
like the builder so well
he seems so pleasant and
willing and anxious to do the
best he can. The next
thing we shall want will
be a chapel for the Second
church, the congregation
is getting much too large for
the Hospital Chapel.
To-day M and I have
been to visit Fung Kin one
of our girls who is soon to
marry an assistant who
has just returned from
California. She did not
look at all happy in the
anticipation of marrying a
man whom she has
never seen. She seems
such a child only sixteen
and we felt so sorry for
her. We hope she
may come back to help teach

in the school when the
new building is finished.
She is a very earnest
Christian. We hope it will
make a happy match,
the young man seems
to expect to be good to her.
I dont know but the
Chinese marriages as a
rule turn out about as well
as many of those where
people select for themselves.
I do not think on the whole
however that their way is
any improvement on ours.
This couple are to be
married in the chapel
of our old school building
and Henry is to perform
the marriage ceremony
next Monday. Then
they are to have a
room in the building
to live in afterwards.

[Note: Written vertically on the first page]
Mattie commenced a letter to you on your birthday
but has not finished it.
I have a
book mark
for your
birthday
but have
no ribbon
for the back
of it yet.
Did I
thank you
for the
pretty
birthday
card
you
sent me
With ever
so much
love from
Your aff
sister
[u]Hattie[/u]

Letter