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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/195
ArchiveNational Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeExtract
Letter Date16 December 1904
Address FromSunnyside, Pretoria, Transvaal
Address To
Who ToS.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 249-50
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner were produced by Cronwright-Schreiner in preparing The Life and The Letters of Olive Schreiner. They appear on slips of paper in his writing, taken from letters that were then destroyed; many of these extracts have also been edited by him. They are artefacts of his editorial practices and their relationship to original Schreiner letters cannot now be gauged. They should be read with considerable caution for the reasons given. Cronwright-Schreiner has written the date and where it was sent from onto this extract, and that Olive Schreiner’s letter was ten pages long. There are some differences between this transcription and the version that appears in The Letters....
1 …From Vereeniging to Johannesburg we went by the new line, using the
2first train that had ever passed upon it... Advocate Ferreira came to
3meet me at Pretoria station as Smuts was away in Johannesburg…
4 I have a splendid large room & slept splendidly last night; have not a
5touch of asthma & my heart is better that it ever ever is at Hanover
6or Johannesburg; I can feel it go quite slow & steady. This morning at
7breakfast General De La Rey came in. He’s a grand old man with a
8noble forehead & profile. Just after breakfast dear old John Brown
9turned up looking very young & sweet & good. Ely Findlay & little
10George came up. Ely looks so young & beautiful I hardly knew her.
11It’s strange how being loved & cared for a little makes a woman
12beautiful. It’s that starving hungry look that makes a woman look so
13old. About 11 o’clock, Mrs Smuts & I & her mother Mrs Krige drove
14down to see the Susanna Hall where the body lay in state. It is one of
15the most superb sli sights I have ever in my life seen. One glitter of
16silvery flowers & wreaths from end to end. It’s a thing to be seen
17to be understood. I have seen nothing like it in Europe or anywhere
18else. It made one feel breathless. The Hall is lighted by electric
19light & the floor & halls from the etr entrance on are covered with
20wreaths & emblems. Tell the Hanover friends our wreath looked very
21nice & was high up on the right hand side as you went in We then went
22to the room at the back & signed our names in the big book… The
23Smuts
have got the most excellent old black cook who makes the most
24delicious food. De Wet has not arrived yet; he is to stay here when he
25comes… We are going to watch the funeral from Smut’s office
26windows… The Government is opening their new museum here today. They
27of course asked the Boer authorities if they would object; they said
28“no.” as my informant said “we object to nothing; we
29remonstrate against nothing!” This of course is with right. Little
30Dick Solomon is to walk in the procession as representative of the
31Government…
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