Letter from Hattie to Edward, June 22, 1885

Letter from Hattie to Edward, June 22, 1885

Travel; Steamboats; Boats and boating; Painting

Harriet writes to her brother Edward about the paintings she is sending him and their father. The paintings depict the boats that are used for the transportation of people and goods in China. Some of them, Harriet feels, are very inadequate when compared to US boats, but they are getting more advanced. Others are quite impressive. She writes that many people are away from Canton recently, so she feels like she has lots of space.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

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

Unpublished

1885-06-22

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_378

Canton China
June 22nd 1885
My dear Edward,
This is mail day
in both directions, we expect
the home mail this afternoon
and the mail leaves for
America tomorrow morning.
I feel as though I want to
get the letters before writing but
as there will not be much
time after the steamer comes
in know that I had better
make a beginning now. I
am sending you by this mail
two little paintings of Chinese
boats. I sent two to Father
a few weeks since which I
hope found there way to
Seville. One of these that I

now send is a very good
representation of the Tientsin
junks as they are called
because they used to make
the journeys or voyage clear
up to Tientsin in North China.
They are such clumsy
unmanageable looking craft
it seems surprising that they
could ever have been fit to
go out on the ocean but they
are said to be quite seaworthy.
Now however I suppose they
are quite superseded by the
"fire-boats" as the Chinese call
the steamers. You will see
the great [u] eyes [/u] painted on
the bows of the vessel. They
all have them for as the
Chinese say "no can see
how can walkee." The

foreign steamers running between
here and Hong Kong also have
an improved representation of
the human eye painted on
each side in conformity to
Chinese ideas of what is
necessary for successful
navigation. This is of course
an immaterial matter but
the Steamboat Company has
made another concession
which seems very wrong.
On each of these magnificent
steamers clear at the front is
mounted a miserable little
wonder idol under whose
protection the vessel is
supposed to be by the Chinese
passengers. It seemed
so shocking to me when
I first saw it

The other painting is that of a
passage boat These boats take
the place in China of our
railroad trains and steamers
at home. There are regular
lines from Canton to all the
large cities in the interior.
For Fatshan twelve miles
distant I think a boat leaves
every hour during the day.
They often look as we pass
them as though they are
crowded to suffocation
Some of the missionaries travel
in them occasionally but it
is not a very comfortable
way of journeying as the
[?cubies?] are never high enough
for anyone to stand in.
Well I have nearly filled
my sheet about the boats

[Continued vertically on the first page]
so I wil say good-bye for this time. Our
boarder has
gone to Macau
and an neighbor
Miss Stein
who lives in
Mr Henry's
home has
gone to live
at Mr White's
for a few
weeks so
we have
this part of
Canton to
ourselves just
now.
Your aff sister
Hattie.



中国广州
1885 年 6 月 22 日
我亲爱的爱德华，
今天是双向邮寄日，
我们预计今天下午寄回国内邮件，
明天早上寄往美国。
我觉得我想在写信之前先拿到信，
但因为轮船进来后不会有太多时间了，
我知道我最好现在就开始。
我通过这封邮件寄给你两幅中国小船的小画。
几个星期后，
我寄了两封信给父亲，
我希望能从那里找到去塞维利亚的路。
我现在寄来的其中一个很好地代表了天津帆船，
因为它们曾经使前往华北天津的旅程或航程畅通无阻。
它们是如此笨拙、难以驾驭的工艺，
令人惊讶的是它们本来可以适合出海，
但据说它们非常适航。
然而，
现在我想它们已经完全被中国人称之为轮船的“救火船”所取代。
你会看到船头上画着大大的眼睛。
他们都有他们，
因为中国人说“不知道怎么会走路”。
来往于香港和香港之间的外国轮船也在每一面都画有改进的人眼图案，
以符合中国成功航行所必需的理念。
这当然是无关紧要的事情，
但汽船公司又做出了另一个让步，
这似乎是非常错误的。
在这些宏伟的轮船中，
每艘清晰的前部都安装着一个可怜的小奇迹偶像，
这艘船应该由中国乘客保护。
第一眼看到就觉得很震撼 另一幅画是过客船 这些船在中国代替了我们国内的火车和轮船。
从广州到内陆所有大城市都有定期线路。
对于十二英里外的法特山，
我认为白天每隔一小时就有一艘船离开。
当我们经过它们时，
它们通常看起来好像拥挤到窒息有些传教士偶尔会在其中旅行，
但这不是一种非常舒适的旅行方式，
因为小房间永远不会高到足以让任何人站立。
好吧，
我几乎装满了我关于船的单子 [在第一页垂直续] 所以这次我要说再见了。
我们的寄宿生去了澳门，
住在亨利先生家中的一位邻居斯坦小姐已经在怀特先生家住了几个星期，
所以我们现在才拥有广州的这一部分。
你的妹妹，
海蒂。

Letter