Letter from Hattie to Mattie, June 6, 1885

Letter from Hattie to Mattie, June 6, 1885

Mail steamer; Travel; Disease; Sick; Cholera

In this letter to Martha, who is traveling, Harriet begins the letter on the 6th when the Hong Kong steamer has not arrived yet. She continues on the 8th after its arrival. Harriet says she has heard Mattie's health is poor again and urges her to take caution returning to Canton. A few women missionaries are in poor health, although some do not always speak about it. Harriet thinks this may be related to how often they travel. Harriet is worried about the cholera outbreak spreading from the city because they do not have a foreign doctor to treat it.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

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

Unpublished

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

noyes_c_cor_374

Canton China
June 6th 1885.
My dear Mattie -
We are waiting very
impatiently for the steamer
from HongKong as it ought
to bring our home mail.
The Macao steamer came
in some time since but the
tide is very low and the
steamer from HongKong
which is much larger is
without doubt sticking fast
in the mud somewhere
down the river. However
the tide is rising so we hope
it will soon put in an
appearance --- Just here I
left my letter to go down
and teach one of our Sabbath
School teachers her lesson
and now it is Monday
morning June 8th.
The steamer came in
all right and brought the

letters from home written May
2nd. I suppose you are
now travelling somewhere in
the East hope that you
will have a very pleasant
time Mrs Fulton told us
that she received by the last
mail a letter from Mr
Fulton's mother in which she
wrote as I understand it
that she had heard from
you yourself that your
health is [u]now[/u] miserable.
If this is so or if you feel
that there is any probability
that it will be so I think
you should hesitate about
coming back. as you know
how the climate affected
you before. I think however
that with ordinary health
or even with health that is
not very good a person may
do a great deal here as our
work now is. Miss Butler

is far from strong indeed I
think her health is very much
the same that yours was while
in China. She had a very
severe attack of pneumonia
at home which was followed
by a relapse has had
dengue fever more or less
nearly ever since she has
been here and is very much
troubled about sleeping. But
as she goes ahead and
says nothing about it she
passes for an able bodied
missionary and has been
able to do her work and
carry on her studies all
right. I have about come
to the conclusion that to take
a trip up the coast every
summer is about the worst
thing possible in every way.
As Mrs Kerr used to say it
uses up a great deal of strength
in making the journey.

and in visiting and then
it gives an unnecessary and
exaggerated idea of invalidation
both at home and out here.
I think if we can keep our
house at Macao it will answer
the purpose much better and
one can go down there for a
little change without being
supposed to be on the invalid
list. I really think it is very
much in one's own hands whether
they are considered so or not. No
one could be in more miserable health
than Mrs Simmons is all the time
and yet very little is said about
it and it seems all right for her
to be here. Miss Butler gave us
a fright night before last. we
thought perhaps she was going to
have an attack of Cholera. The
cholera is prevailing somewhat
in the city but we hope the
foreigners will not be affected,
so if you see any notice of it

[Note: Letter concludes sideways on page one]
in the papers you must not be alarmed . The Chinese
do not I
suppose know
very well how
to treat it
and they
are always
so slow
about applying
to a foreign
doctor and
this disease
of course
promptness
is everything
With much
love from
Hattie --



中国广州
1885 年 6 月 6 日。
我亲爱的玛蒂——我们非常不耐烦地等待着来自香港的轮船，
因为它应该把我们的家庭邮件送来。
澳门轮船从那以后有一段时间来了，
但潮水很低，
来自香港的轮船更大，
无疑是在河下游某处的泥泞中卡住了。
然而，
潮水正在上涨，
所以我们希望它很快就会出现 --- 就在这里，
我留下了我的信，
去给我们的一位安息日学校老师上课，
现在是 6 月 8 日星期一早上。
轮船顺利地进来了，
把 5 月 2 日写的家里来的信带来了。
我想您现在正在东部某个地方旅行，
希望您过得愉快，
富尔顿夫人告诉我们，
她在上一封邮件中收到了富尔顿先生母亲的一封信，
据我所知，
她在信中写道，
她收到了您的来信你自己，
你的健康现在很糟糕。
如果是这样，
或者如果你觉得有可能会这样，
我认为你应该犹豫是否回来。
你知道以前的气候是如何影响你的。
然而，
我认为，
如果健康状况一般，
甚至健康状况不太好，
一个人可能会像我们现在的工作一样在这里做很多事情。
巴特勒小姐确实远非强壮，
我认为她的健康状况与您在中国时的健康状况非常相似。
她在家中得了一次非常严重的肺炎，
随后又复发，
自从她来到这里以来，
她几乎或多或少地患上了登革热，
并且非常担心睡眠问题。
但是当她继续前进时，
她什么也没说，
她被认为是一个身体健全的传教士，
并且能够很好地完成她的工作和继续她的学业。
我已经得出结论，
每年夏天去海岸旅行是最糟糕的事情。
正如克尔夫人过去常说的那样，
它在旅途中消耗了很多力量。
在访问中，
然后它给出了一个不必要的和夸大的想法，
即在国内和国外都无效。
我想如果我们能把我们的房子留在澳门，
它会更好地满足我们的目的，
一个人可以去那里换一点钱，
而不会被列入无效名单。
我真的认为这在很大程度上取决于自己是否这样认为。
没有人比西蒙斯夫人的健康状况更糟糕了，
但很少有人谈论这件事，
她来这里似乎没问题。
巴特勒小姐前天晚上吓坏了我们。
我们以为她可能会患上霍乱。
霍乱在城市有些流行，
但我们希望外国人不会受到影响，
所以如果你在报纸上看到任何关于它的通知[注：信在第一页横着结束]，
请不要惊慌。
我想中国人不知道如何治疗它，
而且他们总是很慢地向外国医生申请，
这种疾病当然是及时的，
海蒂非常喜欢——

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