Letter from Hattie to Mother, July 28, 1881

Letter from Hattie to Mother, July 28, 1881

Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881; Garfield, Lucretia Rudolph, 1832-1918; Presidents--Assassination--United States; Death; Kerr, J. G. (John Glasgow), 1824-1901; Abnormalities, Human;

Harriet writes to her mother about wanting to hear from Mattie about their parent's health, as well as hoping to hear about the condition of President Garfield, whose recent assassination attempt she heard of via telegram. She tells her mother that Henry heard the president only has a 1/10 chance of recovering and hopes also for the recovery of First Lady Garfield who has fallen ill from the shock. Harriet updates her mother on the Kerr family, saying that Mrs. Kerr has returned and Hattie (not Harriet, for clarification) told her that Hattie's mother will not live very long. Lastly, she tells of a child who came to Dr. Kerr's hospital with a massive head full of fluid who died after a few days.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

Unpublished

1881-07-28

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

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eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_254

Canton China
July 28th 1881.
My dear Mother -
Your letter of May
23d came by the last mail
I do hope you will not be
troubled with Erysipelas this
summer I am waiting
rather impatiently to get
Mattie's letters from home
and know how you and
Father seem to her. I
expect she will be just as
I was in too much of a
hurry to write much about
anything. This seems to be
a very busy world tha we
live in it makes one glad
to remember that there
"remaineth a [u]rest[/u]"
I wonder if Jesse Crawford
has recovered from his
severe illness . We feel

very anxious to get more
news about the President
there have been no telegrams
since the 5th of July but
I suppose in this case no
news is good news. If he
were worse it would
certainly be telegraphed
What a dreadful thing it
was. One of the Chinese
told Henry that he
heard through a Chinese
paper printed in Hong Kong
that the President is much
worse and that there is only
one chance in ten that
Mrs Garfield will recover.
She was so ill I should
think it must have been
a dreadful shock. Did
it not cause a great
excitement all through the
country? Dr and Mrs

Kerr have not had any
letters from Josie for three mails
It does seem too bad that
missionaries' children should
act so disgracefully. I had
a long letter from Lucy a
few days ago. They are living
in a [u]boat[/u] this summer while
their house is being built. She
is quite well there was miserable
while in Shanghai. I am
afraid I did'nt write very
much about Mrs Kerr's getting
back. it hardly seemed as
though she had been away
I could'nt see that Hattie
had grown at all. Hattie
told me one day that her
mother thinks she will not
live very long - but that is I
believe generally an indication
of long life. I am very
busy this week getting
ready to close school.

I don't know as I ought to
have quite such a long vacation
but I hope it is right. Dr
Kerr says I must go to
Lin Chau. He has talked
of going all day but when
the time comes I imagine
he will back out I do not think
Mrs Kerr cares to go and if so
he will give it up. A child came
to the hospital a few days ago with
such an enormous head The child
was not a year old and its head
measured more than two feet around
Perhaps Mattie has heard Miss
Whilden speak of it it was the
child of one of her Bible
Women. It died after a few
days poor little thing seemed
to suffer exceedingly. It
had a pretty face but its head
was distressing to see-
It was full of water I
suppose. Dr Kerrs new
wards are finished now are
very nice

[Note: Written sideways on page one]
I do not
feel that
my letters
amount to
much for
this mail
but they will
be better than
none + what
they lack
is made up
in love---
Your aff daughter
Hattie-



中国广州，
1881 年 7 月 28 日。
我亲爱的母亲——你 5 月 23 日的信是最后一封寄来的
我真希望今年夏天你不会被丹毒困扰我正在迫不及待地等着从家里收到玛蒂的信，
知道你和父亲的样子给她。
我希望她会像我一样急于写很多东西。
这似乎是一个我们生活在其中的非常忙碌的世界，
让人很高兴想起“还有休息时间”。
我想知道杰西克劳福德是否已经从他的重病中恢复过来。
我们非常渴望得到更多关于总统的消息，
自 7 月 5 日以来一直没有电报，
但我想在这种情况下，
没有消息就是好消息。
如果他更糟，
那肯定会被电报，
这是多么可怕的事情。
一位中国人告诉亨利，
他从香港印刷的一份中文报纸上听说，
总统的情况要糟糕得多，
加菲尔德夫人康复的机会只有十分之一。
她病得很重，
我想这一定是一次可怕的震惊。
这不是在全国引起了极大的轰动吗？克尔博士和克尔夫人三封邮件都没有收到乔西的任何信 传教士的孩子表现得如此可耻似乎太糟糕了。
几天前，
我收到了露西的一封长信。
今年夏天，
他们在建造房屋时住在一条船上。
她很好，
在上海的时候很痛苦。
恐怕我没有写太多关于克尔夫人回来的文章。
看起来她好像不在了，
我根本看不到海蒂长大了。
有一天，
海蒂告诉我，
她的母亲认为她不会活得很久——但我认为这通常是长寿的象征。
这周我很忙，
准备放学。
我不知道我应该有这么长的假期，
但我希望它是正确的。
克尔博士说我必须去林州。
他整天都在说要去，
但到时候我想他会退出，
我不认为克尔夫人在乎，
如果是这样，
他会放弃的。
几天前，
一个孩子来医院，
头那么大。
那个孩子还不到一岁，
头围超过两英尺。
也许玛蒂听过维尔登小姐说过，
那是她的一个圣经女仆的孩子.几天后它就死了，
可怜的小东西似乎受到了极大的痛苦。
它有一张漂亮的脸，
但它的头看起来很痛苦——我想它装满了水。
克尔博士的新病房现在已经完工了非常好[注：写在第一页上]我觉得我的信对于这封邮件来说并不多，
但它们总比没有好和他们缺少的东西是用爱弥补的——
-你的女儿，
海蒂-

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