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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner: John & Mary Brown MSC 26/2.2.17
ArchiveNational Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date15 October 1907
Address FromDe Aar, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToMary Brown nee Solomon
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections.
1 De Aar
2 Oct 15 / 07
3
4 My darling Friend
5
6 Thank you for your letter. I am glad of its news.
7
8 Its my favourite old spot up there by the block house that I used to
9walk up to three or four times every week in the old days ten or
10twelve years ago.
11
12 I am sitting alone in my little fore-trekker room with Ollie. The wind
13& dust are howling about. It is very hot, & about 1 o'clock, I am not
14going down to the Camp for dinner, as Cron is away at Beaufort West
15seeing about his election; & it's not worth while walking that mile in
16the dust & heat if I don't see him at the end. I am making such pretty
17little muslin curtains for the windows & the ?brakets, & am going to
18have it so nice & clean when Cron comes back. I am in some ways nearly
19as lonely here as in Hanover, but I love so to see the commercial
20travellers & Jews eating their food at the hotel, & it's such joy to
21see the train coming in across the plain & hear its whistle, & to know
22it comes from the great world of things & men & goes to it It quite
23keeps away that awful shut off feeling one had in Hanover. Did you
24read that really disgraceful letter of Mrs Roos's in Ons Land. When
25one thinks of all that Jews & Catholics & Freethinkers did for the
26Boers during the war, dear old Sir William Butler ^who is a Catholic^ &
27Dr Kolbe, & the brave little Jews who died fighting with them & for
28them at Mafeking & else where. When one thinks of the way the
29freethinking English working men stood by them, when all the good
30earnest Christian brothers were hounding their attackers on, this out
31break of ignorance
32
33^& bigotry is truly terrible. The attitude of many Boers since the war
34is more painful to think of than the attitude of many English during
35the war. At present one political party is exactly like the other. We
36shall see when the new parliament meets according to what principles
37men will group themselves.
38
39 I'm so sorry dear Elsie has still that painful case. I think it must
40be really getting too much for her.
41
42 Love to you all
43 Olive^
44
Notation
Mrs Roos's letter in Ons Land cannot be traced.