"Only two questions in South Africa, rank confers duties" Read the full letter
Collection Summary | View All |  Arrange By:
< Prev |
Viewing Item
of 397 | Next >
Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner: Mary Sauer MSC 26/2.11.99
ArchiveNational Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date6 February 1896
Address FromMiddelburg, Eastern Cape
Address To
Who ToMary Sauer nee Cloete
Other VersionsRive 1987: 265
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 Middelburg
2Ja Feb 6 / 96
3
4 Darling Mary
5
6 I don't know why I've been thinking so much of you the last days. Last
7night in the middle of the night I woke up with a kind of longing to
8see you, as if I'd been dreaming of you.
9
10 We are leaving this on Saturday & going to Mr Webber's farm near
11Bedford for a few days. Then Cron is going to Congress' ^&^ I am going
12to stay with my friend Mrs Cawood near Cradock. So address Mortimer
13Station
if you write before the end of the month. On the 1st of March
14we shall get home to Kimberley.
15
16 I am very delighted with the stand the Telegraph has taken. I am very
17sorry Mr Sauer did not write those splendid leaders. I almost wrote to
18thank him for writing them, till I heard he hadn't. I don't know what
19we should have done without it. That letter in the Cape Times about Mr
20Sauer
& Mr Hofmeyr was disgraceful. I felt so angry I could almost
21have written a reply; but silence is the best reply to such
22productions. It was peculiarly out of place, because I believe for
23their incomes both Mr Sauer & Mr Hofmeyr are far more generous men
24than Mr Rhodes. Do you folk in Cape Town think that Mr Rhodes will
25come off first? Do you think he will ever face the Cape Parliament
26again? I wish I could see you dear. You & Alice Corthorn are the two
27people I seem to long so for now. My sweet old husband sends his love
28to you. There was a very excited letter about him & myself sent us
29from some unknown friend in Town this morning in the Wynburg Times.
30Political feeling must be running very high in Cape Town when such
31letters are written. I see nothing very striking in Crons ?letter I
32only wonder that hundreds of Englishmen have not written in the same
33strain. It is a pitiful thing how race feeling blinds men's eyes, to
34all justice
35
36 Good bye darling
37 Olive
38
Notation
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.