Letter from Hattie to Emily, June 22, 1885

Letter from Hattie to Emily, June 22, 1885

Steamboats; Steamboat disasters; Mail steamers; Letter writing

Harriet writes to her sister Em in distress. She had been waiting a long time for the home mail, but it seems the boat has capsized. The river has been in a terrible torrent and when the boat went down, it took with it all its contents as well as two people who were still on board. Almost everyone lost mail (Thomsons, Graves, Simmons, Young, Stein, Lewis, Butler). It had traveled such a long way from America to be lost so close to its destination.

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Unpublished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_379

Canton China
June 22nd 1885
My dear Emily -
I have been waiting
all day in a state of expectancy
for the letters from home which
we know were coming and I
thought they would give me
inspiration for writing this
evening. But instead of
that I am now plunged
in the depths of distress
and disappointment. After
waiting for a long time for
the return of the old man
who goes to the office for the
letters he came back with
his hands empty dripping
wet with the sad story
that our [u]home mail[/u] had

been [u]lost in the river[/u] ,hopelessly,
It seems that after getting
it from the office he went
as usual to the Macao
steamer and the boat in
which he was probably on
account of the [illegible] torrent
to which the river is swollen
now was capsized and
everything thrown into the
river. He hardly knows how
he did escape but some one
helped him out of the water.
There were four of the boat
people and he says two of
them were drowned. It
seems a wonder that he
escaped the river is boiling
and tearing along at
such a rate. You can
imagine how much we

are disappointed to think
that the letters and papers
had come all the way
from America and were
almost in our hands
and then to lose them.
There was all the mail for
Dr Thomson Dr Graves Mr
Simmons Miss Young Miss Stein
Miss Lewis Miss Butler and I
and the wives of the men mentioned
above so you see what a lot
of mourners there are over the
affair. Miss Lewis fortunately
had one letter overlooked
in the distribution at the
Post office and that came
in afterward. Tomorrow
I will send up and see
if Henry has received letters
from home ---- We have

thought so much about this
mail because we had so
long to expect it. We looked
for it Saturday morning then
again Saturday evening.
Sunday there was no steamer
but we knew it was in
HongKong then all day today
we have been thinking about
getting it to-night. But there
is no use in crying over spilt
milk so I suppose we must
try and be resigned to
our fate. hard as it seems.
Six weeks hence you will
receive this and sympathize
with us but by that time
we shall have received
subsequent letters and
the would will have
healed and now having

[Note: Letter concludes sideways on page one]
told you of our sorrow I will say goodbye
with ever so
much love
for all
from
Hattie -



中国广州
1885 年 6 月 22 日
我亲爱的艾米丽——我整天都在期待着家里的来信，
我们知道它们会来，
我想它们会给我今晚写作的灵感。
但相反，
我现在陷入了痛苦和失望的深渊。
等了好久去办公室取信的老人回来后，
他空手而归，
湿漉漉的，
带着我们家的邮件在河里丢失的悲伤故事，
无可救药，
似乎从办公室拿回来后，
他像往常一样去了澳门轮船，
他所在的船可能是因为现在河水泛滥的[难以辨认]激流倾覆，
所有东西都被扔进了河里。
他几乎不知道自己是如何逃脱的，
但有人帮助他脱离了水。
船上有四个人，
他说其中两个人淹死了。
他逃出的河流以这样的速度沸腾和撕裂，
这似乎是一个奇迹。
你可以想象，
一想到这些信件和文件从美国远道而来，
几乎在我们手中，
然后又丢失了，
我们是多么失望。
汤姆森医生 格雷夫斯医生 西蒙斯医生 斯泰因小姐 刘易斯小姐 巴特勒小姐和我以及上面提到的男人的妻子的所有邮件，
所以你看到有很多哀悼者在这件事上。
幸运的是，
刘易斯小姐在邮局的分发中忽略了一封信，
后来又收到了。
明天我会寄上去看看亨利有没有收到家里的信——我们对这封邮件想了很多，
因为我们期待它的时间太长了。
我们周六早上找了它，
然后周六晚上又找了。
周日没有汽船，
但我们知道它在香港，
然后今天一整天我们一直在考虑今晚拿到它。
但是为打翻的牛奶哭是没有用的，
所以我想我们必须尝试接受我们的命运。
看起来很难。
六周后，
您将收到此信并同情我们，
但到那时我们将收到后续信件，
并且遗嘱已经痊愈，
现在 [注：信件在第一页横向结束] 告诉您我们的悲伤，
我将与海蒂对所有人的爱 -

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