Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Olive Schreiner BC16/Box1/Fold5/1898/22
Archive	University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	1 September 1898
Address From	The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Address To
Who To	Betty Molteno
Other Versions	Rive 1987: 335-6

The manuscript of this letter by Olive Schreiner belongs to the Archive referenced above; its ownership of the original should be acknowledged by referencing the letter as indicated: Copyright transcription: © Olive Schreiner Letters Project. This transcription can be freely used as long as copyright is acknowledged and it is referenced using the following citation: ‘Olive Schreiner to Betty Molteno, 1 September 1898, UCT Manuscripts & Archives, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

Legend
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. The date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. The name of the addressee is indicated by salutation and content. Schreiner was resident in Kimberley from early August 1894 to November 1898.

1:  Dear Friend
2: 
3:  I saw Dick Solomon last night, & he tells me your brother has failed
4:  in Tembu-land. It was a terrible blow to us all. We none of us
5:  expected it. Cron & Solomon however seem to keep up their spirits
6:  better under it than I do. I mean it seems to have shaken my faith in
7:  the native vote. Where there is still a heavy pure Dutch constituence
8:  we are still all right. For some reason to me quite unknown Rhodes
9:  seems to have a peculiar hatred for your brother & Jones, & he has
10:  kept them both out. Oh if dear old Innes would even now, openly leave
11:  the Rhodes Sivewright Sprig party openly & forever.
12: 
13:  The doctor says I must go to "?Gower Bury" ^(I think that’s the name^
14:  near Port Elizabeth. Can you tell me 1) Whether the hotel is open
15:  still, since ?Beastons died. 2) what terms are. 3) Whether if I if I
16:  write they will be sure to send the cart for me. 4) Whether there are
17:  somes rooms larger & more airy than others which I could order. What
18:  you think of the place? I suppose you wouldn’t come up or Miss Green
19:  for a couple of days if I were there? I feel I need I need as much to
20:  see people I love as get sea air. Perhaps the best thing would be to
21:  come to Port Elizabeth first & then go up. Is it far from Port
22:  Elizabeth.
23: 
24:  Olive
25: 
26:  ^I know you’ll forgive my troubling you.^
27: 
28: 
29: 

Notation
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.