Letter from Henry to Clara, August 20, 1884

Letter from Henry to Clara, August 20, 1884

Dwellings; Grapes; Railroad stations; Swiming; International relations

Henry writes to Clara having learned that a grapevine now grows across their house. He is glad that Mary is heading east and that Blaine has been nominated for president. He hears that a railroad will interrupt their farm but thinks they might be compensated for it. He relates that Willie and Richard Varnum have gone "sea bathing," and that he will return to Canton unless a war develops. Mr. Fulton in Hong Kong thinks the schools should close. Henry believes the French will first take Foochow and notes they have already occupied Kee-lung. Henry sent a paper he wrote for the Mission Conference to the "Evangelist" and "The Herald Presbyters" called "The Chinese in Christian lands."

Noyes, Henry Varnum

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

Unpublished

1884-08-20

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_794

Sino-French War, 1884-1885
1884 United States Presidential Election

[Note: +c transcribed as etc]
Macao Aug 20th 1884
Dear sister Clara
Your letter reached me
somewhat more than a week ago at
this place. You speak of being in the
East Chamber and seeing Edward +
"Sam" preparing to make way "through
the [u]grape leaves[/u] at the window," so
I suppose that now there is a
grape vine climbing over the East
End of the house. I think [--it--] that is
a very good arrangement. It would
not be bad to sit beside a
window writing letters and be
able ,now and then, to reach out
of the window and gEt a bunch of
grapes-- Am glad Mary is going
(by this time has had) to have a trip to
the East-- They seem to have nomina-
ted Blaine with tremendous enthusiasm
He is an able man I suppose and
I hope will make a good president.
By next mail I will hope to
hear an account of "the surprise"
of Father's birth day. I [--fe--] hope
the railroad will not spoil the
West End of the farm. I suppose

they will have the station at the
crossing which would then be
at the back End of the farm. If
they spoil that part of the farm perhaps
they will pay a good price for
building lots around the station.
One of the recent letters from
home gave me a very good
idea of the fencing around the
house, back-yard etc. I should
think it quite an improvement
I wonder [?he?] never arranged that
way of getting in north of the house
before [--illegible--] It would have saved
the horses many a hard pull
with heavy loads.
I presume I wrote by the
last lEtter that we were having a
good chance for sea-bathing here
which we all enjoy - The children
do not seem at all afraid -
Willie is almost able to float and
Richard Varnum is not far behind -
He Kicks about [?lively?] with my hand
under [--this--] head to keep it out
of the water. It has been a
very cool moth for August .
We expect to go back to Canton

the first of September, unless war
operations should become so serious
as to make it unadvisable which
I do not think is probable .We
thought two months ago that everything
had been settled so favorably that
it is quite a turn in affairs to
feel that we are perhaps on the
eve of actual war.
Mr Fulton who was in
Hongkong got quite stirred up by
the war news and went to
Canton last Monday. He wrote
to Mr White, who is now here,
that he thought the chapel work and
schools had better close and the
assistants and teachers all go to
their homes. We sent word to
him at once to let ^Every thing[--s--] so
right on as usual. There does
not seem any use in stopping
work till actual war operations
make it necessary. Precautionary
measures have been taken for the
protEction of foreigners, [--that I--] of
such a nature that I do not
know as they would be in any

[Note: Written sideways in left margin of page three]
Thanks for sending me Mr Chamberlains address at Adelbert College
I enjoyed reading it -

special danger even in Canton
should be attacked by the French.
I think however it is the
general opinion that the point
of attack will probably be somewhere
else. So far Foochow seems to be
the place where the French ships of
war are mostly stations and
the place threatened. That however,
is no proof that the real attack
will be made there-- They may
any day steam away to some
other port. We are not yet
without hope that matters may be
arranged though there is nothing
outward to indicate this at present.
France requires a heavy indemnity
and China utterly refuses to pay it.
The French have already bombarded
and taken Kee-lung on the North Coast
of Formosa an act of war certainly and
yet neither party have formally made a
declaration of war The papers seem
to think the only hope of settlement is by
the mediation of some of the other
foreign powers.
I will just mention that a paper I
[--sent--] prepared for the last Mission's Conference
being sent by this mail to some of
the papers [illegible] the [u]Evangelist[/u], The Herald
+ Presbyters + one or two more commented
[Note: Written sideways on page four]
With other [illegible] it . It remains to be seen, whether they will publish it
the subject is "The Chinese in Christian lands," Love to all Your Aff Bro -Henry-



[注：+c 转录为 etc]
1884年8月20日澳门
亲爱的克拉拉姐姐
你的信给我了
一个多星期前
这个地方。你说在
东厅和看到爱德华和
“山姆”准备让路“通过
葡萄叶在窗边，”所以
我想现在有一个
葡萄藤爬过东方
房子的尽头。我认为那是
一个很好的安排。它会
坐在旁边也不错
窗口写信和被
能够时不时地伸出援手
的窗口和得到一堆
葡萄——很高兴玛丽要去
（此时已经有）去一趟
东方——他们似乎以极大的热情提名了布莱恩
我想他是个能干的人
我希望能成为一个好总统。
通过下一封邮件，我希望
听到关于“惊喜”的描述
父亲的生日。我希望
铁路不会破坏
农场的西端。我想

他们将在
过境将是
在农场的后端。如果
他们可能破坏了农场的那一部分
他们会付出高昂的代价
在车站周围建造地段。
最近的一封信
家给了我一个很好的
周围围栏的想法
房子，后院等。我应该
认为这是一个很大的进步
我想知道他从来没有安排过
进入房子北边的方法
在 [--illegible--] 之前它会保存
马匹很辛苦
重载。
我想我写的
我们收到的最后一封信
在这里海水浴的好机会
我们都喜欢 - 孩子们
看起来一点也不害怕——
威利几乎可以漂浮并且
理查德·瓦纳姆（Richard Varnum）也不甘落后——
他用我的手活泼地踢着
在头部下方以防止它出现
的水。这是一个
八月非常酷的飞蛾。
我们希望回到广州

九月一日，除非战争
操作应该变得如此严重
以使其不可取
我不认为是可能的。我们
两个月前以为一切
已经得到了如此有利的解决，以至于
事情发生了很大的转变
觉得我们也许在
实际战争前夕。
富尔顿先生
香港被激怒了
战争新闻，去了
广州上周一。他写了
致现在在这里的怀特先生，
他认为教堂的工作和
学校最好关闭并且
助教和老师都去
他们的家。我们发消息给
他立刻让一切都如此
像往常一样。有
停止似乎没有任何用处
工作到实际的战争行动
使其成为必要。预防性的
已采取措施
保护外国人，
这样的性质，我不
知道他们会在任何

[注：写在第三页左边距]
感谢您向我发送张伯伦先生在阿德尔伯特学院的地址
我喜欢读它——

即使在广州也特别危险
应该受到法国人的攻击。
但我认为它是
一般认为这一点
攻击可能会在某个地方
别的。到目前为止，福州似乎是
法国船只停靠的地方
战争主要是车站和
这个地方受到威胁。然而，
不能证明真正的攻击
将在那里制造——他们可能
任何一天都流向一些
其他港口。我们还没有
没有希望，事情可能会
虽然什么都没有安排
目前向外表明这一点。
法国要求巨额赔偿
中国完全拒绝支付。
法国人已经轰炸了
并在北海岸带走了奇隆
福尔摩沙的战争行为肯定和
但双方均未正式提出
宣战文件似乎
认为解决的唯一希望是
其他一些人的调解
外国势力。
我只想提一下我的一篇论文
为上一次代表团会议做准备
通过这封邮件发送给一些
传教士、先驱报的文件[无法辨认]
长老会和一两个以上的人发表了评论
[注：第四页横着写]
与其他[无法辨认]它。他们是否会发布还有待观察
主题是“基督教土地上的中国人”，爱你所有的兄弟 -Henry-

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