Letter from Hattie to Em, August 20, 1885

Letter from Hattie to Em, August 20, 1885

Letter writing; Women missionaries; Singing; Physicians

Harriet writes to Emily that she is expecting letters from home. She hopes to hear when Martha will start for China. They closed the boarding school as planned and had a nice celebration full of singing and Chinese musicians. She taught them to sing "White as snow." There are fewer missionaries in Canton this summer, Dr. McCandless has been there most of the time. Dr. Thomas has come to visit from Macau and has brought with him George Dornin (Dornin and Avis Powliss has a younger brother Joseph Oscar). Mrs. Thomas has been taking care of Dornin as well as three babies. Harriet wishes they could get a place in Lien Chau.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

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

Unpublished

1885-08-20

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_382

Canton China
Aug 20th 1885
My dear Em,
I hoped that we
would have our home
letters before writing again
but they are not due in
Hong Kong until tomorrow.
I am hoping to hear
something definite by
the next mail about the
time when Martha
will start for China
Mrs Perkins wrote that
she expected to come
with the Henrys but we
are equally in the dark
with regard to their plans.
Some time since they
wrote that they intended
to come back by way
of Europe. I wonder
if this will

reach you before M
leaves. When she starts
back you can think
it will not be long until
I will come home and
then Henry and his
family. I presume
we will not be likely
to make the voyage
together next time.
We closed the Boarding
School as we had
planned on Aug 11th.
We invited only a few
but everything went
off very nicely. We had
we thought very good
singing for Chinese musicians
My music scholar
played the Java March
with much [u] energy [/u].
We had a duet. The

first attempt I have
ever made to teach
any of them to sing
alto. They sung
"White than snow" the
arrangement that
commences "One drop of
the blood" and did it
very well indeed.
We have had so few
of the missionaries in Canton
this summer. Dr McCandless
has been the only man
in our mission on the
ground most of the time
since he has been here.
Dr Thomson has come
up from Macau but will
go down again this
week. He brought George
Dornin with him
George Dornin and Avis
Powliss have a little
brother "Joseph Oscar."

Mrs Thomson had such
a time taking care of
George Dornin I do not
know what she will do
with three babies for George
is little more than a baby
now. We feel so sorry for
Dr Thomson, he seems
to have a pretty hard
time with the care of
his hospital and family
of I should say his
[u] family [/u] and the hospital.
I wish they could get
a place in Lien Chau,
but it seems quite difficult
to get into the interior. If
we had a few [u] Pauls [/u] I
presume there would be little
difficultly but when each
man has a family of four
or five and all the servants
& "impediments" involved
it is a different matter.

[Continued vertically on the last page]
With love for all from Hattie

中国广州
1885年8月20日
我亲爱的Em
我希望我们在写信之前能收到家的信，
/
但家的信要到明天才能到达香港。
/
/
我希望你告诉我Martha什么时候去中国。
/
/
/
/
Perkins太太说她打算
跟着Henry夫妇回中国，
但我们不知道他们的计划是什么。
/
/
不久前他们写信给我们说他们计划在回程的路上经过欧洲。
/
/
不知道你会不会在Martha离开前收到这封信。
/

/
一旦她离开，
/
你可以认为我很快就会回家，
/
然后Henry和他的家人也不会很长时间回家。
/
Henry和我下次可能不会一起去旅行了。
/
/
我们于 8 月 11 日在寄宿学校停课。
/
/
只有少数人参加了学期结束仪式，
但非常好。
中国音乐家唱歌，
非常悦耳。
/
我的音乐系学生精力充沛地演奏了 《Java March》
/
/
然后我们唱了二重唱。

这是我第一次尝试教任何人唱中音。
/
/
然后同学们唱起了《比雪还白》，
/
那首乐曲以《一滴血》的旋律开头。
/
他们唱得很好。
/
今年夏天，
广州的传教士很少。
现在McCandless 医生是长老会唯一一个男传教士
/
/
自从他到达以来，
他一直是唯一一个始终如一地工作的人。
Thomson医生
他从澳门回来，
但下周他会回去。
他带来他的儿子George Dornin，
他和Alvis Powliss 有个小弟
/
他叫 Joseph Oscar。
/

Thompson太太很难照顾George Dorin。
/
/
不知道她会怎么照顾三个宝宝，
/
现在，
George只是比婴儿大一点。
/
我们都很心疼Thomson医生，
/
他很难管理医院和家人，
/
但我认为管理他的家庭比管理医院更难。
/
我希望他们可以去连州休息一下，
但现在去那里非常不容易。
/
我觉得单身男传教士多的话会容易很多，
/
但是每个家庭有五六个人再加上仆人的时候就比较困难了。
/
/
/
/

爱你们，
Hattie

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