Letter from Mattie

Letter from Mattie

Snakes; Singing; Fraud

Mattie writes about singing hymns with the congregation and an upcoming gathering of 52 Americans. There was an incident a couple of nights before with Lucy where she mistook the sound of a cat for a snake in the house, which scared everyone. She also writes about some Americans that had been overcharging Chinese boat passengers that were going to be put on trial in San Francisco. There is some information missing before the letter is finished and Mattie signs with a kiss for E.

Kerr, Martha Noyes

Loose, The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection

Unpublished

Unknown

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_595

Unless this is carefully done the
lamp will slip out Our chan
dalier did not behave its best
but we got on very well with
these exceptions. We sing There's
Music in the Air, Sleep in the
valley, and Oh praise God in his
Holiness. I was promoted to
singing Alto for the first time in
my life and though I did not get
a chance to sing a solo as Henry
did at Hayesville {He played his I
believe} I was obliged to [u] sing [/u] [u] in [/u]
on the first place { [u] piece [/u] I mean}
did not make a very prominent
part of mine. I about gave
up trying any more but finally
though I would not give up that
way so finished up according to
arrangement. Well we have not
very great critics here so it does not
matter so very much. We had
the [u] bad [/u] [u] cold [/u] by 4 gentlemen.
Well today have a sort of used
up feeling but guess another
night of sleep will straighten up
things. I must tell you of a
little fright we had the other

night We were all sound asleep
when Lucy was waked up by
a noise in her room which we
finally concluded was a snake
crawling in at the window What
put that into her head is more
then I know but she became
frightened and called loudly
to Hattie We were utterly oblivious
to anything on this mundane sphere
but after she had repeated
it four successive times Henry
heard her and came to our door
and at last roused us. We found
there were no matches in our room
so had to get Aqui out of bed to
light up as we did not like to
venture among snakes in the
dark but after due preparation
went to the rescue. Lucy was
in bed and her first words wre
Girls I think there is a snake
in the room but the snake
proved to have appeared in the
form of a cat who walked down
stairs with the utmost composure
entirely unconscious of having
done anyone any harm. I could
not but think of our experience

with Rover though this was not
as funny. The servants were
very much alarmed thinking a
thief had entered the house.
Last Saturday we received an
invitation from one of the for-
eign merchants to take dinner at
his house on the Fourth of July
Of course the company will be
wholly American and I feel sure we
shall enjoy it. I think there are
52 invited guests so you see we
will have a little piece of Amer-
ica over here. This gentleman
wanted us to get some music for
the occasion and if it is not some
thing patriotic it will not be
our fault.
We heard tonight of a trick
some of the foreigners have been
playing on some of the poor Chinese
told them that the American
people did not want them over
there and would send any of their
people home for $10, which is true
but made them believe the pas-
sage over was $70, but they could

procure them a passage for
$45, $40 is the regular fare so they
gained five dollars on the operation.
Some of the officers of the Alaska
have been cashiered on account
of getting hold of the fare of some
of these emigrants by some un-
fair means and not reporting
to the company. They have been
taken back to San Francisco
for trial. The thing was suspected
by the managers and a spy came
on the last trip on purpose to
catch the miscreants. I am glad
to hear that you have David Bates
engaged to sell machines that is
if he does as well as I think he
will. I shall want to know how
he gets on with the business.
I hope you are not having
as warm weather as we though
it is not as bad as I expected
yet will not speak for the future
Some of the missionaries have
[?pinkas?] in their dining rooms
but we get on by supplying
ourselves with a fan on such
occasions, that is when the eating

[Continued vertically on the first page]
comes in Tomorrow we shall have our mail. It is
so agrivating to send this in the morning and have the
letters the same afternoon. God night pleasant dreams
Henry had a long one about you the other night which
he proposes to tell you. {A kiss is done up here} for E--
Your loving sister
Mattie



除非仔细完成，
否则灯会滑落 我们的枝形吊灯表现不佳，
但除了这些例外情况，
我们相处得很好。
我们唱空气中的音乐，
山谷中的睡眠，
哦，
赞美上帝的圣洁。
我有生以来第一次被提拔到唱中音，
虽然我没有机会像亨利在海斯维尔唱的那样独唱{他演奏了我相信} mean} 并没有成为我的一个非常突出的部分。
我几乎放弃了尝试，
但最后虽然我不会放弃，
所以按照安排完成了。
好吧，
我们这里没有很好的批评者，
所以这并不重要。
我们得了 4 位绅​​士的重感冒。
好吧，
今天有一种疲惫的感觉，
但猜想再睡一晚就会把事情理顺。
我必须告诉你那天晚上我们有点害怕 当露西被她房间里的声音吵醒时，
我们都睡得很熟，
我们最终断定是一条蛇从窗户爬进来我知道，
但她吓坏了，
大声呼唤海蒂。
我们对这个世俗领域的任何事情完全视而不见，
但在她连续重复了四次之后，
亨利听到了她的声音，
来到我们家门口，
终于把我们吵醒了。
我们发现我们的房间里没有火柴，
所以不得不让 Aqui 起床点亮，
因为我们不喜欢在黑暗中冒险在蛇之间冒险，
但经过适当的准备后去救援。
露西在床上，
她的第一句话是女孩，
我认为房间里有一条蛇，
但事实证明，
这条蛇是以一只猫的形式出现的，
它以最大的镇静从楼梯上走下来，
完全不知道对任何人造成任何伤害。
我不得不想起我们与 Rover 的经历，
尽管这并不有趣。
仆人们非常惊恐，
以为小偷进了屋子。
上周六，
我们收到了一位外国商人的邀请，
请他在 7 月 4 日到他家吃饭。
当然，
这家公司将完全是美国的，
我相信我们一定会喜欢的。
我想有 52 位受邀嘉宾，
所以你看，
我们将在这里拥有一小块美国。
这位先生希望我们为这个场合准备一些音乐，
如果这不是爱国的事情，
那也不是我们的错。
今晚我们听说一些外国人一直在对一些可怜的中国人玩一个把戏，
告诉他们美国人民不希望他们在那里，
会以 10 美元的价格将他们的任何人送回家，
这是真的，
但让他们相信通行费是 70 美元，
但他们可以以 45 美元的价格为他们购买通行证，
40 美元是正常票价，
因此他们在手术中获得了 5 美元。
阿拉斯加的一些官员由于以不公平的方式掌握了其中一些移民的票价并且没有向公司报告，
因此被解职。
他们已被带回旧金山接受审判。
经理们怀疑这件事，
并在最后一次旅行中特意来了一个间谍来抓捕歹徒。
我很高兴听到您聘请 David Bates 销售机器，
前提是他做得和我认为的一样好。
我想知道他是怎么做生意的。
我希望你没有像我们一样温暖的天气虽然它没有我预期的那么糟糕但不会代表未来有些传教士在他们的餐厅里有粉红色但我们在这种场合为自己提供了一个风扇，
就是当吃[在第一页上垂直续]来的时候，
明天我们就会收到我们的邮件。
早上发这个，
下午就收到信，
真是太烦人了。
天哪夜的美梦亨利前天晚上做了一个关于你的长长的梦，
他打算告诉你。
{我在给E亲一口} - 你亲爱的妹妹 Mattie

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