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| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box1/Fold2/1895/11 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 29 August 1895 |
| Address From | The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape |
| Address To | Highstead, Rondebosch, Cape Town, Western Cape |
| Who To | Frances ('Fan') Schreiner nee Reitz |
| Other Versions | Rive 1987: 256-7 |
| Permissions | Please 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. The address this letter was sent to is provided by an attached envelope.
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1
The Homestead
2 Aug 29 / 95
3
4 Dearest Fan
5
6 Thankyou for sending the cottons. I hope you are all flourishing. I am
7quite free of my asthma, but have been laid up for some days with a
8boil in the ear, or would have written to thank you before. We have
9had a sad accident here, a little boy of four has been lost for a week.
10 He went out playing the dog before the house, & was never seen again.
11I fear he must murdered! His parents are poor white people who live
12near the Homestead. Did you see that slashing leader on myself in
13Merriman’s Telegraph? I am afraid I am like Will & don’t make
14friends with any party! I am in the wars on all sides. But each man or
15woman has just to hold by what he or she believes to be true & go
16straight on.
17
18 Good bye, dear, drop me a line & tell me how it goes with you all.
19 Olive
20
2 Aug 29 / 95
3
4 Dearest Fan
5
6 Thankyou for sending the cottons. I hope you are all flourishing. I am
7quite free of my asthma, but have been laid up for some days with a
8boil in the ear, or would have written to thank you before. We have
9had a sad accident here, a little boy of four has been lost for a week.
10 He went out playing the dog before the house, & was never seen again.
11I fear he must murdered! His parents are poor white people who live
12near the Homestead. Did you see that slashing leader on myself in
13Merriman’s Telegraph? I am afraid I am like Will & don’t make
14friends with any party! I am in the wars on all sides. But each man or
15woman has just to hold by what he or she believes to be true & go
16straight on.
17
18 Good bye, dear, drop me a line & tell me how it goes with you all.
19 Olive
20
Notation
A slashing leader called ?The Eternal Petticoat? appeared in the South African Telegraph on Monday 26 August 1895 (p.4). This does not name Olive Schreiner specifically but attacks the woman who ?with a cigarette between her lips? interferes in politics and men?s business generally, rather than staying quiet & out of the way in the domestic sphere. Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.
A slashing leader called ?The Eternal Petticoat? appeared in the South African Telegraph on Monday 26 August 1895 (p.4). This does not name Olive Schreiner specifically but attacks the woman who ?with a cigarette between her lips? interferes in politics and men?s business generally, rather than staying quiet & out of the way in the domestic sphere. Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.