Letter from Hattie to Edward, July 8, 1882

Letter from Hattie to Edward, July 8, 1882

Women missionaries; Pediatrics; Leeches; Phlebotomy; Betrothal

Harriet writes to her brother Edward about her and Miss Butler's many similarities, including their taste in food and their dislike of going out. Harriet is worried about a young girl at their school who has health issues. Harriet described the process of her having leeches put on her, prescribed by Dr. Kerr. The female medical students put the leeches on "backward" and they all had a great laugh at that. The leeches were disgusting to Harriet. The mission is being sent new doctors, including Dr. Stubbert who is going to be Dr. Happer's son-in-law, but that is a secret.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #3

Unpublished

1882-07-08

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_289

Canton China
July 8th 1882
My dear Edward
The last mail
brought me a letter from
you and as I have a
little time before dark I
will spend it in answering
it. I am alone just
now Miss Butler very much
against her will having gone
up this afternoon to visit
Lillie Cunningham. She
has been urging her to come
for a long time and so she
thought she would go to-day.
We are just alike about
going out we would neither
of us ever go if we did not
feel obliged to but as it is
it seems as though we
have to go somewhere nearly
every evening. We find a
good many of our tastes are

alike for instance we are
both very fond of [u] beans [/u]
and we have them according
to the orthodox rules on Saturday
and Sunday. We also like
cucumbers and [u] onions [/u] and
[u] [?and?] fish [/u]. The latter we cannot
get here but we have the
cucumbers & onions very often.
We have been having very nice
peaches every day for more
than a month. I suppose
they will not last much
longer, but we have no lack
of nice fruit here the year
round. I have been having rather
an anxious time over one of
the girls in school. If Mattie
is at home she will remember
her [u] "Ki Fa" [/u] the one who once
or twice had hemorrhage
from the lungs. She has
had such a bad time
with her eyes Dr Kerr was
afraid she would lose the
sight of both of them

but we hope now that the
danger is past. We had
rather a funny time to-day
putting on some leeches.
She had some put on at
the hospital a day or two
ago and to-day Dr Kerr
said she ought to have
some more on and he would
send one of the "Doctresses"
over to put them on. She
brought them over in a bottle
and the three medical
students {women} assembled
I came in and asked Miss
Butler if she wanted to
go out and as she did we
made a party of five. I
wonder if [?few?] have ever
seen leeches the head end
is very pointed much more
so than the tail. The
woman who managed

the matter after some difficulty
got two of them on but after a
while we noticed that both had
squirmed around and got
the other end fast as well and
then we had a great time
to decide which end was the
head and which the tail.
One of the women insisted that
they sucked at both ends,
but we finally found out that
she had put them both on by
their [u] tails [/u]. It was very funny
and when one of them got full
she flung them both off her face
and we had a great scrambling
to get out of the way and
get them safely back into
the bottles. They are very
disgusting things especially
when well filled. It is
astonishing to see them swell
up from a little bit of a
thing an just or two long [?mid?]
not as large around as a slate

[continued vertically on the first page]

pencil to be six inches or more in length and as large
around as a
big man's big finger
I think we have some [u] very [/u]
nice [u] Doctresses [/u]
[?coming?] on including
Miss Butler MD
I presume Dr
[?Stubbert?] will come here I
cannot say
that I am
very much
delighted
with the idea.
Lucy Leaman
seemed to think him
very nice, perhaps
we shall all like him
I shouldn't think it would be very [?pleasant?]
to be Dr Happer's son in law. Dont forget this is still a secret. Hattie

中国广州
1882年7月8日
亲爱的Edward
最近的一个邮包给我带来了一封信
/
/
天黑之前，还有一点时间
我将用来回复这封信。
我刚刚自己待着，
只是刚刚Butler小姐做出了自己不喜欢的决定，
她今天下午要去拜访Lillie Cunningham。
/
/
她已经催Butler小姐很长时间了，
/
因此，她今天去。
我们好像已经出门了，
如果我们不是必要的话，
我们是不会出门的，
但是看起来
我们每天晚上都要去个地方。
/
/
我们发现了很多好吃的，

比如都喜欢的豆子
/
而且这是我们按照规矩
周末买的。
我们也爱吃黄瓜和洋葱还有鱼。
/
/
晚一点我们买不了鱼
但是我们总会有黄瓜和洋葱。
我们这个月每天都有新鲜的桃。
/
/
我认为这不会持续太久，
但是今年我们不缺好水果。
/
我更多的时间是对女校担心。
/
如果Mattie在家，
她会记得她的“激化”
有过一次或两次的肺出血。
/
/
她的眼睛很难受，
Kerr医生担心她会失明
/
/

但是我们希望危险期已经过去了。
/
我们今天晚上很有趣
惹上了一些水蛭。
她一两天前还有今天在医院被水蛭叮上了，
/
/
Kerr医生说
她应该还有
他想给“女医生们”送一些，
给她们看看。
她带给她们一瓶，
3个医学生（女生）组装
/
我进来问Butler小姐
她是否想要出去，
她去了，
我们就有了五个人了。
我想知道她们是否见过水蛭
它们的头比尾巴尖很多。
/
/
那个克服了困难的女人

/
拿到了两个
过了一会儿，
我们发现那两个都开始扭来扭去
另一边也很快，
我们觉得决定她的头和尾这个事情很好玩。
/
/
其中一个女人坚信
它们两头都可以吸血，
但是我们最终发现
她把两个都放成了尾。
很好玩的是
当它们吸饱了血的时候，
她猛得把两只从脸上扔了出去，
我们为了保证它们的安全，
立刻抢了回来，
然后放回了瓶子里。
它们是很恶心的东西，
特别是很多聚在一起的时候。
/
它们膨大的时候很难以置信，
从一个小不点儿，
或者还不如一根铅笔长
/

【接第一页纵向书写】

长到6英寸，
长度就像一个大人的手指。
/
我认为我们有很多很好的女医生
/
/
包括Butler小姐
我认为Stubbert会来这。
/
我不能说我对这个提议感到很高兴。
/
/
/
/
看起来Lucy Leaman
认为他很好，
也许我们都会喜欢他。
/
我不应该觉得成为Happer医生女婿很高兴。
不要忘记保住这个秘密。Hattie

Letter