Letter from Henry to Em, January 12, 1875

Letter from Henry to Em, January 12, 1875

Death; Fire; Steamboats; Marine accidents; Arson; Fire engines; Stealing

Henry writes to his sister Emily about the fire that burnt the Japan. The ship was almost at the end of its journey when the fire started in the coal bunkers. Just about all the Americans and Europeans got away, but 300 Chinese were lost. Henry recounts that the school building burnt to the ground last week. In the confusion of the fire, some things from their house were pilfered.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

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

Unpublished

1875-01-12

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_688

Canton Jan 12th 1875
My dear sister Em,
This letter will have
to be filled up with telling you
"all about the fires". We got letters
from you last week but the mail
before that we lost all our letters
by the burning of the Japan. It
was one of the finest vessels on
the line. They were expecting her
in Hong Kong at 8-o-clock [--A M--]
in the morning of the night when
she was burnt. She was thus only
about 100 miles from her journey's
end. The fire took place about 1/2 past
11 and is supposed to have come
from spontaneous combustion in
the coal bunkers. [--et--] Every effort was
made to extinguish it. Every body
seems to have done their duty well
but all was of no avail and before
1-0-clock all who could get away
had left the ship. All but 3 or 4 of the
Americans or Europeans on board escaped
but more than 300 Chinese were lost.

Day before yesterday we
had a fire a little nearer home.
The boarding school house with all
it contained is now a pile of ruin
The walls are mostly standing but the
[--rest--] rest is all burned up. It took
place last Sabbath just after we
had all gone over to meeting. I
had not been gone much if any
more than twenty minutes when some
one came over to say that our
premises were on fire. It was
only a few steps away and I
ran over. The school building was
all a dense mass of black smoke
and blowing over the house so
that when I went in I could
hardly see through the house. I
expected then that every thing
would go and only thought of
saving a few of our things by
having them carried to the new
chapel. The flames in a few min-
utes were bursting from every
[--thing in--] windows in the school house

We began to clear the house as
rapidly as possible. Just then a
fire engine appeared and then
another and another and by their
prompt and energetic action suc-
ceeded in saving the house. There
was an immense crowd gathered
but the Chinese police were on
hand and kept very good order
so that we did not lose a
great many things. The Chinese
generally manage to pilfer a
good deal during the confusion
of a fire and I wonder there
are not more things missing
than there are. Some things are
gone which we were very sorry
to lose. The nice motto in
[?fern?] "God bless our home" sent
to me by Sarah and hanging over
the mantle is gone, also a pretty
vase of Mattie's given her by her
scholars in Cleveland I think and
Hattie lost two silver napkin rings
one of which was the pretty one
sent by her by Sarah. Lucy lost her

striped shawl black & white which
I presume you remember.
The women & girls lost
everything they had in the school house.
Clothing, books, every thing in that house
was burned and the scholars are
all scattered gone back to their homes.
If there was anything that Hattie al-
most idolized it was her school and
now it is all gone. Dr & Mrs Ellinwood
when here were very much pleased
with it and said it waas the best
planned & managed of any they had
seen. We suppose in fact we
have scarcely a doubt that the building
was set on fire but we shall
probably not be able to find out who
did it.
I presume the others will
tell you about this more fully and I will
stop as we are all very busy to-day.
Clara wrote to me some time since
asking whether I would not write a sermon
on the text "And while he blessed them he
was parted from them" &c &c. [--I then--] Tell her I
think it a very nice text but think I will
wait until I come home to write on it so
that she may hear it when I preach it the
first time. There is another reason too. Hattie &
I are now hoping to take Jerusalem on our way
homeward so I want to wait until [--I have--] my
own feet have stood upon the mount of Olives &
[Written vertically on the fourth page]
trod the road to Bethany. Much love to all Your aff Bro, Henry.



广州 1875 年 1 月 12 日
我亲爱的姐姐艾姆，
这封信将有
充满告诉你
“所有关于火灾”。我们收到了信件
上周从你那里寄来的，但邮件
在那之前我们丢了所有的信
通过日本的焚烧。它
是上最好的船只之一
线。他们期待着她
八点在香港
在深夜的早晨
她被烧死了。她就这样只
距离她的旅程大约 100 英里
结尾。火灾发生在大约 1/2 过去
11 应该来了
从自燃
煤仓。每一次努力都是
使之熄灭。每一个身体
似乎很好地履行了职责
但一切都无济于事
1-0-时钟所有可以逃脱的人
已经离开了船。除了 3 或 4 个
船上的美国人或欧洲人逃脱
但有300多名中国人失踪了。

前天我们
在离家近一点的地方生了火。
寄宿学校的房子
它现在是一堆废墟
墙壁大多是站立的，但
其余的都被烧毁了。花了
把最后一个安息日放在我们之后
都去开会了。我
如果有的话，还没有离开太多
超过二十分钟，当一些
一个过来说我们的
处所着火。它是
只有几步之遥，我
跑了过来。教学楼是
都是一团浓密的黑烟
然后吹过房子
当我进去的时候，我可以
几乎看不透房子。我
那时期望每件事
会去，只是想到
保存我们的一些东西
让他们带到新的
教堂。几分钟内，火焰从每一个
校舍的窗户

我们开始清理房子
尽快。就在这时一个
消防车出现然后
另一个和另一个，由他们的
迅速而积极的行动成功地挽救了这座房子。那里
是一大群人聚集在一起
但是中国警察在
手并保持很好的秩序
这样我们就不会失去一个
很多东西。中国人
通常设法窃取
混乱期间的好交易
着火了，我想知道那里
是不是更多的东西不见了
比有。有些事情是
走了，我们很抱歉
失去。美好的座右铭
“上帝保佑我们的家”发送
莎拉给我的，挂在上面
披风没了，还蛮漂亮的
玛蒂送给她的花瓶
我认为克利夫兰的学者
海蒂丢了两个银餐巾环
其中一个是漂亮的
莎拉寄给她的。露西失去了她

条纹披肩黑白其中
我想你记得。
失去的妇女和女孩
他们在校舍里拥有的一切。
衣服，书，房子里的所有东西
被烧了，学者们
都散了，各自回了家。
如果海蒂有什么——
最崇拜的是她的学校和
现在一切都过去了。艾林伍德医生和夫人
当这里非常高兴时
用它说这是最好的
计划和管理他们拥有的任何东西
见过。我们假设事实上我们
毫无疑问，这座建筑
被放火了，但我们会
可能无法找出谁
做到了。
我想其他人会
更全面地告诉你，我会
停下来，因为我们今天都很忙。
克拉拉在一段时间后给我写信
问我会不会写一篇讲道
关于文本“当他祝福他们时，他
与他们分开”等。告诉她我
认为这是一个很好的文字，但我想我会的
等我回家再写
当我宣讲它时她可能会听到
第一次。还有另一个原因。海蒂&
我现在希望把耶路撒冷带到我们的路上
回家，所以我想等到我的
自己的脚站在橄榄山上，
[垂直写在第四页]
踏上了通往伯大尼的道路。非常爱你所有的兄弟，亨利。

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