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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box4/Fold1/1908/5
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date28 January 1908
Address FromDe Aar, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToWilliam Philip ('Will') Schreiner
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
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.
1 De Aar
2 Jan 28th 1908
3
4 Dearest of Laddies
5
6 Your visit was a great refreshment to me. It is lovely & cool this
7morning too! Thanks from bringing the rain!!! You are a general
8benefactor. It must be impossible for you to realize how lonely my
9life here, & of what benefit any human intercourse is to me. I should
10adopt a child if I it. But until one knows one has about 100 a year to
11spend on a child it would be hardly right for me to to take one. There
12is the nurse, doctors bills &c &c while it is young & later schooling
13& clothes, &c. Until it was nine if ten I would teach it myself; but
14after that I would want music teachers &c.
15
16 A very rich leading man in Cape Town (Ettie didn’t tell me his name)
17once came to her, & asked her to write & ask me if I would take the
18child when it was born, its mother didn’t want it, & he would pay
19for its education, & put a small sum in the bank £500 for it to
20inherit when it was 21. But dear old Het I suppose thought I would not
21bring it up in the unreadable religion which is hers so she only told
22me about it years afterwards & I’ve always been regretting it. Cron
23is so passionately fond of children too: they bring out all that is
24best in his nature. When "the enciclopedia" is finished of course I
25should be able ^to adopt one^ but then also my grave would be ready!!!!!
26
27 Dear if you should chance, you or Bill, to know of any one who would
28do to come as a clerk to Cron for some months or a year, do write &
29tell us
. He is trying every where to get one & can’t. It seems to me
30there must be lots of young fellows who have just completed their
31articles, who would be glad of a year or six months experience in an
32upcountry office at moderate salary. Even if it were not a lawyer at
33all, but simply a smart young man of ^tolerable^ education & good
34character
it would do. There must be numbers of such in these hard
35times.
36
37^Good bye dear Laddie. Love to all the home folks. ^
38 Olive
39
Notation
The 'enciclopedia' referred to is From Man to Man.