Letter from Henry to Mother, April 25, 1873

Letter from Henry to Mother, April 25, 1873

Birthdays; Travel; Rural missions

Henry is writing to his mother on his 37th birthday, reflecting on what it would be like to live to 70 or more. He tells her of a recent trip he went on to San Ui, and another he is about to depart for to the country. They are also expecting new missionaries soon.

Noyes, Henry Varnum

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

Unpublished

1873-04-24

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

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eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_750

Canton April 24th 1873
My dear Mother
I hardly know whose
turn it is for me to write to
at home, but I believe it is
[u] always [/u] the proper thing for
people to write to their mothers
on their birth days and so
you shall have whatever I write
to night. I have thought it
probable that some letters are
being written for me at home
to day. Thirty seven years old
would [--us--] have seemed very old
to me 20 years ago but I
do not know that I am much older
in my feelings than when I left
home. Hattie says I don't look much
older, but I presume you would
perhaps notice some change in
both respects if I were at home
to-night. The last picture we
had of you you seemed to have changed some

I was telling Hattie to day that
by the measure of three score
years and ten I had got
past the middle of life's journey
and was commencing to go
down the hill. She seemed to
think I would live to be
seventy-five at least, and
so had'nt begun to go down
the hill yet. But of course
we know nothing about the
length of our lives, and we
here have been sticking by re-
minded of that to-day. Last
night one of the merchants went
across the river to a birth-day
dinner and came back later
in his little boat & landed but
this morning when the tide was
low was found dead at the
bottom of the river. No one knows
just how it happened but it is
supposed that it being very dark
he went too near the edge of the

river and fell in. The banks are
walled along the foreign settlement
and it was high tide so that
anyone having fallen in could not
get out unless he could get to
a boat. I have made one trip
into the country since I wrote
last to [u] San Ui [/u] a large city
of some 250 000 people. We have
just got a little chapel opened
down there. I hope it will prove
to be a center of light in a
dark place.
Day after to-morrow I
am going off again for a week
and then a few days after I
come back am expecting to
make a long journey to a distance of 200 miles
or more. Shall expect to be gone nearly
if not quite a month. The latter
part of the way is a place to
which I have never been. The
country is said to be very fine.
Mr Selby of the Wesleyan Mission
is going with me & perhaps one or

two others. I expect we shall have
opportunties of preaching to mul-
titudes who have never heard
the gospel before. Mr Uhlman an
agent of the British & Foreign
Bible Society was up in that
region selling bibles last year
and he says he found the
people very quiet. I am an-
ticipating much pleasure in
the trip. The draw back is to
go away and leave Hattie so
long but she has good neighbors
near at hand and then when
I get back I don't think I shall
go away very much more during
the summer months. I suppose we
shall have some new missionaries
this year. Dr Ellinwood wrote in his
last letter that there were two in
the Princeton Seminary whom they ex-
pected to send here. I presume they
will be along in the fall & if they are
married we will have two more ladies
also. I must close. Very much love for
yourself & all the rest from Your aff Son [u] Henry [/u].



广州 1873 年 4 月 24 日
我亲爱的妈妈
我几乎不知道是谁
轮到我写信了
在家里，但我相信它是
总是合适的
人们写信给他们的母亲
在他们的生日等
无论我写什么，你都会拥有
今晚。我想过
可能有些字母是
在家里为我写
今天。三十七岁
会显得很老
20年前对我来说，但我
不知道我年纪大了多少
在我的感觉中比我离开时
家。海蒂说我看起来不怎么样
年纪大了，但我想你会
也许注意到一些变化
如果我在家，这两个方面
今晚。我们最后一张图
有你，你似乎改变了一些

我今天告诉海蒂
三分法
我得到了十多年
走过人生旅途的中途
并开始走
山坡下面。她似乎
我想我会活着
至少七十五，和
所以还没有开始下降
小山呢。但是当然
我们对
我们生命的长度，我们
这里一直坚持
今天想到了这一点。最后的
晚上一个商人去了
过河去生日
晚饭后回来
在他的小船上并降落，但
今天早上涨潮的时候
低被发现死在
河底。没人知道
它是怎么发生的，但它是
假设它很黑
他离边缘太近了

河里掉了进去。河岸是
沿外国定居点围墙
当时是涨潮，所以
任何跌倒的人都不能
出去，除非他能到
一条船。我已经旅行了一趟
自从我写作以来就进入了这个国家
最后到 San Ui 一个大城市
约 250 000 人。我们有
刚开了一个小教堂
在下面。我希望它会证明
成为一个光的中心
暗处。
后天我
我又要休息一周了
然后几天后我
回来我期待
长途跋涉到200英里的距离
或者更多。预计将几乎消失
如果不是一个月。后者
路的一部分是一个地方
我从来没有。这
据说国家非常好。
卫斯理传道会的塞尔比先生
和我一起去，也许是一个或

另外两个。我希望我们会有
向许多从未听过的人讲道的机会
之前的福音。乌尔曼先生
英国和外国的代理人
圣经公会就在其中
去年卖圣经的地区
他说他找到了
人们很安静。我期待很多乐趣
旅行。缺点是
走开，离开海蒂
长，但她有好邻居
近在咫尺，然后当
我回来了，我想我不会
期间走得更远
夏季的几个月。我想我们
会有一些新的传教士
今年。艾林伍德医生在他的
最后一封信，里面有两个
他们希望把他送到这里来的普林斯顿神学院。我想他们
将在秋天出现&如果他们是的话
结婚了，我们还会有两位女士
还。我必须关闭。非常喜欢
你自己和你儿子亨利的所有其他人。

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