"Destroying letters, letters as sacred as a promise" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/196 |
| Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Extract |
| Letter Date | 16 December 1904 |
| Address From | Pretoria, Transvaal |
| Address To | |
| Who To | S.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 250 |
| Permissions | Please 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, where it was sent from and the place it was sent to onto this extract. There are some differences between this transcription and the version that appears in The Letters....
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1
…Everyone is so sweet & kind here. There are thousands & thousands
2passing up from Johannesburg. De Wet is staying here. They say the
3dear old fellow quite started with joy when he heard I was here, & met
4me so warmly… Schalk Burger sits next me at table always… De Wet
5does strike you as such a splendidly true man when you meet him, there
6is only one De Wet. Two of his sons are with him… I am very very
7glad I came… (Private) I have it from one who saw the wire that the
8King wired specially requesting Milner to attend the funeral; but but
9the poor fellow is in terror of his life; he fancies the Boers want to
10kill him! Kill him Why he’s the best friend we have, he’s ruining
11the British Empire faster than all the Boers in creation could…
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2passing up from Johannesburg. De Wet is staying here. They say the
3dear old fellow quite started with joy when he heard I was here, & met
4me so warmly… Schalk Burger sits next me at table always… De Wet
5does strike you as such a splendidly true man when you meet him, there
6is only one De Wet. Two of his sons are with him… I am very very
7glad I came… (Private) I have it from one who saw the wire that the
8King wired specially requesting Milner to attend the funeral; but but
9the poor fellow is in terror of his life; he fancies the Boers want to
10kill him! Kill him Why he’s the best friend we have, he’s ruining
11the British Empire faster than all the Boers in creation could…
12
13