Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Olive Schreiner BC16/Box3/Fold6/1907/35
Archive	University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	21 December 1907
Address From	De Aar, Northern Cape
Address To	Chambers, St George's Street, Cape Town, Western Cape
Who To	William Philip ('Will') Schreiner
Other Versions

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 William Philip ('Will') Schreiner, 21 December 1907, 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 address this letter was sent to is provided by an attached envelope, with the final insertion on the back of this.

1:  De Aar
2:  Dec 21st 1907
3: 
4:  Dear Laddie
5: 
6:  We leave on the 26th for Hanover to see about packing things & trying
7:  to let or sell the house there. The men have been building our little
8:  house here. No I can’t get away it seems I shall never get away
9:  again. His late partner is after the New Year, starting here as a
10:  notary & attorney in opposition to Cron. He may by the terms of the
11:  agreement take auctioneering or general agency work – as long as
12:  Cron lives here - & I don’t see how the man is going to make a
13:  living unless Cron goes. Oh why did Cron l ever have anything to do
14:  with him. How I begged how I prayed, how his ^Cron’s^ mother prayed
15:  also that he would not take him into partnership! I asked Cron last
16:  night if he was going to take another Partner "No", he said shortly "I
17:  shall never take a partner again." He promised me so faithfully when
18:  he drew up the arrangement that he was safe guarded in every way so
19:  that Mayer could never start here for himself – it was all in the
20:  agreement he said. I didn’t quite understand your remarks about the
21:  article from the DF Advertiser I sent you. There’s nothing in it
22:  about excise or you! It’s about Cron & certain per Bonds man at
23:  Beaufort West saying they will not have him as member because he is an
24:  Englishman. There must come a split in the SA Party before long. The
25:  pity if it is Mal I fear my dear old Malan will go with the
26:  retrogressive old Bond Party & so we shall be compelled to follow poor
27:  old Sauer, whose views are always right from my standpoint whatever
28:  his manners may be. I sometimes wonder if there would be no
29:  possibility of bringing you & Sauer together. The amusing thing about
30:  you & Sauer is that you say much the same thing about eachother. Sauer
31:  says you are an able honourable man & all that; but no that’s never
32:  worked with you knows what you are. The way you sneer at unreadable
33:  other men, the way you try to do everything on your own book with out
34:  asking any ones advice or even letting your colleagues know what you
35:  are doing!!!! Which is very much the complaint you make against him.
36:  Nothing but the return of Jameson & de Beers to the leader ship of the
37:  Progressive party can hold the SA Party together - & that will.
38: 
39:  A happy Xmas to you all dear Boy, Fan for a Xmas box
40: 
41:  ^a book by Elizabeth Robbins called "The Convert". It’s about the
42:  suffragettes It’s good. We are going to try & have a happy Xmas here,
43:  but Cron seems more depressed & miserable than I’ve ever known him.
44:  Both Politics & business seem to have opened his eyes to depths of
45:  intrigue & meanness he didn’t dream of. I try never to refer to
46:  these things to him & be as merry as I can when he’s about. I feel
47:  sure both our lads have passed, but am anxiously waiting for the lists
48:  to be out. ^
49: 
50:  Olive
51: 
52:  ^We go to Hanover on the 26th & will likely be back on the night of the
53:  1st ^^=^^ 2nd of January. When do you pass?^
54: 
55: 
56: 

Notation
The book referred to is: Elizabeth Robins (1907) The Convert London: Methuen & Co.