Letter from Hattie to Edward, February 20, 1868
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Hattie to Edward, February 20, 1868
Subject
Weight; Travel; Sick; Physician and patient; Mail steamers
Description
In a letter to her 'eldest brother,' Edward, Harriet Noyes details her trip to Hong Kong with their brother, Henry. Harriet and Henry travelled to Hong Kong due to Henry's failing health and she is hopeful the change will be beneficial to his well-being.
Creator
Noyes, Harriet Newell
Source
The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #1
Publisher
Unpublished
Date
1868-02-20
Contributor
Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant
Rights
Format
PDF
Language
eng (English)
Type
Text
Identifier
noyes_c_cor_004
Coverage
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Hong Kong China
Feb'y 20th '68
My [u]Dear Brother[/u] Edward,
I hope that
the next steamer will bring us a
letter from our "eldest brother" as the
Chinese and which by the way is a
term of the greatest respect I was
so sorry to hear that you were not
feeling better when they wrote last but
it has been so long since the 1st of
December that we hope and try to feel
that you are much better and stronger
before this time. I hope soon to hear
of your weighing more than 125
pounds. I have been wanting to
get weighed since coming here but
as Henry has not have able to go
with me, + I could not go to the
Custom House alone. I have not been
able yet to ascertain [u]how[/u] fleshy I am
although my looking glass gives me a
very good idea. Henry was looking
very pale and thin when I came
but is beginning to look some better
and is gaining flesh now. I must
tell you just where we are this morning
When we came down to Hong Kong
last week we did not know whether
we would find any place to stay
excepting at the hotel, but Mr Turner
of the London Mission as soon as he
learned that we were here came
on board the steamer and invited
us to come to his house and stay
while in HongKong and we were
glad to accept his kind offer.
We have been here since last Thursday
and expect to stay until day after
tomorrow which will make just a
week. It is a very pleasant family
Mr + Mrs Turner are both such
pleasant + they have three of the
nicest little children I ever saw.
You will want to know just how
Henry is, and I will try to tell you
He is we think improving but very
slowly. Since coming down here
some of the time he has felt rather
worse but on the whole I have no
doubt the change will be beneficial
to him At Canton he has a strong
mattress of Dr Happer's which he
finds very comfortable but the first
night down here he slept on a common
mattress which was very hard and
made him feel much worse for
a time. Since then he has slept
on the spring sofa in the parlor
which he finds very easy It has
been very damp weather since we
came down which if it is neuralgia
as I suppose it is of course accounts
in a measure for his not being quite
so comfortable. He has seen one
of the Doctors here, and he says that
[u]all danger[/u] of anything serious is
now passed and he has only to
get well as fast as he can and tells
him to exercise if it does hurt at first
and eat as much as he wants so
that now I hope we shall find that
he will gain faster. Dr Kerr has
been afraid to have him move
around much and it does make
him feel worse for a time but I
feel sure it is the best thing for him.
The "China' leaves here today for
San Francisco and Mr + Mrs
Jones are going [u]home[/u] in her.
Mrs Jones was quite anxious to take
Henry home with her and I have
no doubt a voyage would do him
good and I would love to think
of his seeing you all again but he
is getting better now and so of course
would not think of it. I hope that
we may labor here a number of
years and then go home and see
you [u]all[/u] once more.
We have just learned that the Colorado
the next steamer that should come
out is not coming and we are
afraid we will be obliged to wait until
April before we hear again from home.
It is so long [u]so long[u] I try not to think
anything about it. If we could only
know that you were all [u]well[/u] but
the last letters brought to us such sad news.
We will write by the English mail but
you may not get it as soon as you
would the other way. Henry wanted
to write a long letter but cannot sit
up to write very well but hopes to be
able to by another mail. He is beginning
to walk around some, and I hope
will gain strength fast. He is taking
wine now which seems to be doing him
a great deal of good. What will
Cyrus say. I am afraid he will think
it rather bad for a missionary. Tell
him that if he will come out and organize
a "Good Templars" lodge here [u]perhaps[/u]
I will join it that is if that would be
any inducement for him to come.
I hope that the cause is still prospering
Wine is used very freely here by nearly
all the residents and indeed HongKong
is the most aristocratic stylish dressy place
I have ever seen. It seems so strange
here in China to find it so but it is not so at
Canton for which I am very glad.
[Note: Letter concludes vertically]
I do not feel as things I had written you much but must write to
some of the rest. Your own loving sister Hattie.
Feb'y 20th '68
My [u]Dear Brother[/u] Edward,
I hope that
the next steamer will bring us a
letter from our "eldest brother" as the
Chinese and which by the way is a
term of the greatest respect I was
so sorry to hear that you were not
feeling better when they wrote last but
it has been so long since the 1st of
December that we hope and try to feel
that you are much better and stronger
before this time. I hope soon to hear
of your weighing more than 125
pounds. I have been wanting to
get weighed since coming here but
as Henry has not have able to go
with me, + I could not go to the
Custom House alone. I have not been
able yet to ascertain [u]how[/u] fleshy I am
although my looking glass gives me a
very good idea. Henry was looking
very pale and thin when I came
but is beginning to look some better
and is gaining flesh now. I must
tell you just where we are this morning
When we came down to Hong Kong
last week we did not know whether
we would find any place to stay
excepting at the hotel, but Mr Turner
of the London Mission as soon as he
learned that we were here came
on board the steamer and invited
us to come to his house and stay
while in HongKong and we were
glad to accept his kind offer.
We have been here since last Thursday
and expect to stay until day after
tomorrow which will make just a
week. It is a very pleasant family
Mr + Mrs Turner are both such
pleasant + they have three of the
nicest little children I ever saw.
You will want to know just how
Henry is, and I will try to tell you
He is we think improving but very
slowly. Since coming down here
some of the time he has felt rather
worse but on the whole I have no
doubt the change will be beneficial
to him At Canton he has a strong
mattress of Dr Happer's which he
finds very comfortable but the first
night down here he slept on a common
mattress which was very hard and
made him feel much worse for
a time. Since then he has slept
on the spring sofa in the parlor
which he finds very easy It has
been very damp weather since we
came down which if it is neuralgia
as I suppose it is of course accounts
in a measure for his not being quite
so comfortable. He has seen one
of the Doctors here, and he says that
[u]all danger[/u] of anything serious is
now passed and he has only to
get well as fast as he can and tells
him to exercise if it does hurt at first
and eat as much as he wants so
that now I hope we shall find that
he will gain faster. Dr Kerr has
been afraid to have him move
around much and it does make
him feel worse for a time but I
feel sure it is the best thing for him.
The "China' leaves here today for
San Francisco and Mr + Mrs
Jones are going [u]home[/u] in her.
Mrs Jones was quite anxious to take
Henry home with her and I have
no doubt a voyage would do him
good and I would love to think
of his seeing you all again but he
is getting better now and so of course
would not think of it. I hope that
we may labor here a number of
years and then go home and see
you [u]all[/u] once more.
We have just learned that the Colorado
the next steamer that should come
out is not coming and we are
afraid we will be obliged to wait until
April before we hear again from home.
It is so long [u]so long[u] I try not to think
anything about it. If we could only
know that you were all [u]well[/u] but
the last letters brought to us such sad news.
We will write by the English mail but
you may not get it as soon as you
would the other way. Henry wanted
to write a long letter but cannot sit
up to write very well but hopes to be
able to by another mail. He is beginning
to walk around some, and I hope
will gain strength fast. He is taking
wine now which seems to be doing him
a great deal of good. What will
Cyrus say. I am afraid he will think
it rather bad for a missionary. Tell
him that if he will come out and organize
a "Good Templars" lodge here [u]perhaps[/u]
I will join it that is if that would be
any inducement for him to come.
I hope that the cause is still prospering
Wine is used very freely here by nearly
all the residents and indeed HongKong
is the most aristocratic stylish dressy place
I have ever seen. It seems so strange
here in China to find it so but it is not so at
Canton for which I am very glad.
[Note: Letter concludes vertically]
I do not feel as things I had written you much but must write to
some of the rest. Your own loving sister Hattie.
中国香港
1868年2月20日
我亲爱的哥哥Edward
我希望
下个轮船能带来
我们“大哥”的信
中国人这样称呼，
是为了表示尊重
真抱歉听说
你最近不舒服了
但距离上次12月1日已经很久了
所以我希望
你收到这封信以前就赶快恢复健康。
希望
你的体重能达到125磅以上。
到中国后
我一直想称体重可是
因为Henry不能陪我
所以我不能自己去
海关办公室。我还不知道
我自己有多胖
但我可以照镜子猜一下。
我刚到这的时候Henry看起来
很消瘦，脸色苍白
可是现在他看起来好多了
长胖了一点。
我想要告诉你我们今早在哪里
我们上周来香港的时候
我们不知道是是否
能找到除了酒店以外
能住的地方，
可是伦敦传教士Turner先生
一听到我们到了
上船就邀请
我们来他家
跟他一起住
我们高兴地接受了他好心的邀请。
我们上个周四就到这来了
打算后天走
正好过了一个星期。
Turner一家人都很好
Turner夫妇都很合意
善良，他们有三个
我见过最有礼貌的小孩。
你应该想知道
Henry最近怎么样，我跟你说
他正在慢慢的恢复。
自从他到香港以来
他的病情更严重了
可是我觉得
换个地方肯定会对他
有好处。在广州
他睡在Happer医生送他的床垫
他感觉很舒服
可是在香港的第一夜他睡在
一张比较硬的床垫
让他身体更不舒服了。
自那时候起
他睡在客厅的弹簧沙发
他很喜欢这个沙发。
自我们来到这里
就经常下雨，所以如果
Henry真有神经痛
那应该是他不舒服的原因。
他看过这里的一位医生，
说他现在的生病
不是特别危险
严重的病已经过了
他正在迅速的恢复、告诉Henry
多锻炼身体、
多吃饭
所以现在应该
能够快点能胖。Kerr医生
不想让他
走太多路
尽管让他感觉更难受，可是
我知道这说对他有好处。
今天一艘叫China的轮船
去旧金山，Jones夫妇就
坐这艘船回家。
Jones太太想
带Henry回家，我知道
坐船旅行肯定对Henry会有帮助
我也想让他
再次见到你们，但是
他现在已经恢复了很多，所以
他就不考虑这件事了。我希望
我们可以在这工作几年
然后回家
看你们。
我们刚听说
下一艘叫Colorado轮船
不来了，
恐怕我们得等
4月才能收到家人写的信。
时间简直太长了
我都不敢想象。我希望
你们都好，可是
上次那封信给我们带来了不好的消息。
我们会通过英国邮局寄信
可能会比正常的慢。
Henry想写
一封长信，
但是不能长时间坐着写信，但
他希望下个轮船来的时候他能够恢复。他已经开始
走路了，我希望他身体
恢复的快一些。他现在
可以喝一点酒了，
对他有那么一点好处。
如果Cyrus听说他喝酒他会觉得
对传教士来说，喝酒不太好。
可能会告诉Henry如果他会出来组织一个
“反对喝酒组织”
我愿意加入
因为我想让他来。
我希望Cyrus成功的戒酒
这里人
尽情地喝酒
香港真是我看见的
最时尚的地方。在中国里
这样的地方非常奇怪，可是
我很高兴在广东完全不是这样的。
我感觉没给你写很多信，因为我还得给其他家人写信
你亲爱的妹妹Hattie。
Original Format
Letter
Collection
Citation
Noyes, Harriet Newell, “Letter from Hattie to Edward, February 20, 1868,” Letters from Harriet Noyes: Missionaries and Women's Education in Nineteenth Century China, accessed April 23, 2024, https://noyesletters.org/items/show/4.