Letter from Henry to Edward, September 30, 1886

Letter from Henry to Edward, September 30, 1886

Birthdays; Children; Brothers; Summer; Rice farming; Moving, Household; Beetles; Weddings

Henry writes to Edward to wish him a happy birthday. He compares his sons to Edward and himself playing together. When they were young, they used to think that using a sickle to harvest was far in the past. Henry remarks that because of this, China is still living in the past. Instead of a sickle, rice is harvested with a curved knife. Instead of machinery, they use water oxen to plow. Henry and his family have gotten the authorization to sell their home and move elsewhere from Dr. Ellinwood. There was a wedding between one of the native assistants and one of the girls from the boarding school.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

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

Unpublished

1886-09-30

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_715

Canton Sept 30th 1886
Dear Bro Edward
I think of you this morning
as entering on your 53rd year, or being
just 52 years old. Your day has
not begun yet and so I am in good
time. I think of the many many days
distance of half the world's surface sep-
arated us. Willie & Richard as they
play together make me think frequently
of our younger days. They are almost
always together just as we used to
be although there is more difference in
their ages. Though it is Autumn now
our summer weather is not over yet
but [--whe--] we hope it will be soon.
September is usually sultry and the past
week or two has been so. Some of the
letters from home mentioned your
harvesting your wheat with a self
binder. How different the amount of
work from when we cradled it down

and bound it all up by hand. I
presume you remember as well
as I do that hot summer when
we cradled old Mr Martin's oats &
then we used to think how much
we had the advantage of those of
old time who used to have to cut all
their grain with the sickle China
is still like the olden time. All their
rice is still cut with a curved knife
not as good as the regular sickle.
In fact I do not see how they could
use machinery very well in this part
of the country as the flat ground is
so wet. They sometimes harvest
the fields standing in water several
inches deep. Usually however the
fields are dry. When they plough the
fields it is usually with a very primitive
form of a shovel plow drawn by one
of their water-oxen. I wonder they get
it done as well as they do. After the
grain is harvested it is carried off

the field by men with poles. So much
about farming and I presume you knew
most if not all of what I have written
before. It will perhaps interest you
to know that by the last mail I got
a letter from Dr Ellinwood authorizing us
to sell the premises where we now live &
buy elsewhere. I do not suppose it
will be difficult to sell this house as it
is quite in demand as a business place
for the Chinese. The difficult matter
will be to purchase elsewhere. The Chinese
are getting very reluctant to sell even
at or near Canton where we have
the right by treaty to buy. I hope
some place may be found for we
very much need a larger place for
the school. Besides all the other dis-
advantages of this place for a residence
we are lately much annoyed by a
little black weevil that comes from
the [--neighborhood sh--] neighboring shops
where they sell ground [?paddy?]. This little
black hard shell insect gets an our clothes
and books and into over victuals and is

a great nuisance. We attended day
before yesterday the wedding of one of our
best native assistants Ho-Kwai-Tak. He
was married to one of the girls from the
boarding school and they intend to live
at his station, Lin-Po. We heard by
telegram from Mr Fulton that inflammatory
placards were posted after he & Mr Wisner
got to Kwai-Ping with their boat so I
presume [--their--] there will be opposition to
Mr F. settling down there to live.
I see by the last N Y Observer that the
Evangelical Alliance in the United
States is taking up the Chinese question
quite earnestly, also that the [--[?Qutenative?]--]
Missionary Union that met at the Thousand
Isles have sent a paper to Congress.
I hope the United States will do what
is right & just and then they can
with a better face ask the Chinese to
do the same. My teacher has just come
in and so I will adjourn. Bella &
the children are in usual health only feeling
[--su--] a good deal the heat of the long summer
which is not conducive to strength. The
children however do not mind it very much. The
good home air will do them all good when our term
of work is ended Your Aff Bro
Henry

[Continued vertically on the fourth page]
I [--we--] did not get any letter by last mail from home but will
probably in the course of a few days.

[Continued vertically on the first page]
since I wrote this letter Mother's letter of Aug 6th &
the others have arrived by the English maid.

Letter