Letter from Hattie to Mother, August 28, 1884

Letter from Hattie to Mother, August 28, 1884

Travel; Hospitality; Widows; Missionaries; Riots

Harriet writes to her mother, inquiring after her visit with Harriet's Aunt Mary and Uncle Wheeler. She just wrote to Edward about the excitement of yesterday. She saw a lady in black and thought to herself that there was a woman who was here to stay. It turns out that the woman was Mrs. McDonald from Bangkok. Harriet discusses the affairs of Mrs. McDonald a couple of years ago when she was staying with the Happers with her sick daughter. She was going to stay with Harriet and Miss Butler but Harriet heard of the proposed riot and told Mrs. McDonald to stay with the Cunninghams in Shameen. In the end, Mrs. McDonald arranged to go back to Hong Kong.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

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

Unpublished

1884-08-28

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_352

Canton China
Aug 28th 1884.
My dear Mother -
Your letter of June
25th came a few days since
I am very glad you have
had such a nice visit from
Aunt Mary and Uncle Wheeler.
I have always felt so very sorry
that I did not make them
a visit while I was at home. And
Henry travelled across the state
of New York so many times and
never stopped there. I have
just written to Edward about
the little excitement of yesterday
and now I will tell you what
was to us a pleasant feature of
the scene. The day before when
the Hong Kong Steamer passed
her I saw a lady in black
and I thought to myself "there
is some one coming here to stay"
That is the last thing we
wanted we are having such a
nice quiet time and getting
our letters written et cetera et cetera.

The next morning sure enough
she came and it proved to be
Mrs McDonald from Bangkok
and her little boy on their way
home. They came up expecting
to stay at Henry's but they are
still in Macao. So they went
over to Mr Cunninghams and
staid there over night. and then
came down here. Verdie Happer
is still her but she does not
stay in their home at night.
I did not much wonder that
they did not care to have Mrs
McDonald there again for only
two years ago she was there with
her daughter who was very ill
for two or three months + Mrs
Happer was almost worn out
taking care of her. And I do not
think they ever received much
thanks for all that they did.
Dr Kerr too who went up twice
a day all that distance when
he was not able never received
hardly a thank you for it

but instead we heard of disagreeable
remarks that they made.
As she is a friend of a certain
person who formerly belonged to
the Bangkok Mission I have
always rather supposed that she
has no friendly feeling towards me.
So you may imagine we were
not overjoyed at the prospect of
having her to entertain for the next
two weeks. Miss Butler if possible
felt more unwilling than I.
But there seemed to be no help
for it. When we heard the
rumors of the riot however I thought
it would be much better for her to
go back to Shameen to Mr Cunningham
at once and [u]told her so[/u]. It
seemed as though if we were obliged
to leave the premises here - there
would be enough of us ladies
there Miss Butler Miss Stein
+ myself , without having any
visitors to look after. The little
boy was quite frightened +
I was very anxious to have
them go away. I told her if
things should come out badly

we would no doubt also be obliged
to go up to Shameen otherwise the
weekly prayer meeting would be
at our home in the evening and
she could ^come back then and remain.
She came back in the evening
but had already arranged to go
back to Hong Kong this morning
which we were [u]delighted[/u] to hear.
I was sorry for her disappointment
in not finding a place to stay
comfortably but we could not
want her to be here for two
weeks. And Canton just now
is not a good place for
strangers. Most of our "[u]things[/u]"
are in Macao that is clothing
bedding table-cloths silver et cetera -
so we are not in very good [?trim?] for
visitors besides we are far too
lazy and busy to want to take
the time to entertain any visitors.
In fact "we do not wish for
any visitors. I wish we could
always be as nice and quiet
here in Canton as "in war time"
I will write none before the
mail goes so much for to-day
Your aff daughter Hattie

中国广东
1884年8月28日。
我亲爱的母亲，
您6月25日写的信刚来，
/
我很开心Mary阿姨和Wheeler叔叔拜访了你们。
/
/
很抱歉我在家的时候没有看到他们。
/
尽管Henry路过纽约好几次，
/
他从来都没拜访他们。
我刚给Edward写信解释我们最近这里的混乱。
/
但相反，
/
我想告诉您发生了一件令人愉快的事情。
/
香港轮船经过的前一天，
/
我看到一位身着黑衣的外国女士
/
我心想，“那一定是有人来这里拜访”。
我们真的不想让任何人来参观，
因为我们自己一直在度过一段美好的安静时光。
/

第二天早上，
我们了解到我们怀疑是真的。
McDonald太太和他的儿子
他们在从曼谷回家的路上经过广州。
他们本想留在Henry的家里，
/
但他还在澳门。
所以她们去Cunningham家住，
然后来这里。
Verdie Happer 还在这里，
但是她不睡在他自己家。
/
我不怪他们不想再一次照顾他们。 
两年前，
/
他们让McDonald太太和她生病的女儿住在她们家，
/
Happer太太照顾McDonald太太的女儿都累坏了。
/
我认为McDonald一家并没有对他们表示感恩，
/
/
Kerr医生
他每天长途跋涉两次，
从未收到任何感谢，
事实上，

我们听说McDonald太太批评了他
/
因为她是一位曼谷传教士的朋友，
/
我猜她永远不会对我友好。
/
/
所以你可能会猜到，
/
我们对接下来两周不得不让她住在我们家的想法不太满意。
/
Butler 小姐比我更害怕她的来访
/
但是没有办法。
/
我们一听到关于骚乱的谣言时，
/
我们说她最好去沙面去Cunningham家，
我们告诉她去那里。
/
如果骚乱恶化，
我们不得不逃离房子，
我们也不想照顾她。
小男孩看起来很害怕，
所以我想让他们快点离开。
/
我告诉McDonald太太，
如果情况变得更糟，

他们无论如何都要去沙面。
如果她不去沙面，
/
她就得来我们家每周一次的祷告会并留在那里。
/
她晚上回来，
/
说她已经安排好早上去香港。
我们很高兴听到她要离开。
/
很抱歉她找不到舒适的住宿地点，
但我们不想让她住 2 周。
/
另外，
广州现在也不是陌生人的好地方。
/
我们把大部分东西搬到了澳门，
/
例如，衣服、床上用品、桌布、银器等，
/
我们不能很好地接待游客。
/
事实上，
我们希望我们不会接待任何访客。
/
我希望广州在战时永远像现在这样安静祥和。
/
这就是我在邮件离开之前要写的全部内容。
您的女儿Hattie

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