1 De Aar
2 June ?28th 1911
3
4 Dear Mr Henderson
5
6 I am sending you my paper. I hope you will be able to read it. If it
7is too late to be of use to you will you do me a great favour & return
8it to me at once. I am too ill to write out again the substance of
9what I have written there & I much need it to send to one of my
10friends who is sitting on the Government Commission, & who wishes to
11know my views on the matter. If you feel it is still in time to be of
12use to you will you return it to me as soon as you can.
13
14 Yours very sincerely,
15 Olive Schreiner

1 Villa Flandre
2 Newlands
3 Dec 26th 1911
4
5 Dear Sir
6
7 I find the letter I kept at de Aar to be posted to you was never sent.
8I wrote at once before leaving de Aar to tell you how much I regretted
9that my health would not allow of my travelling about the country in
10the summer, but that anything I could do from Cape Town (where I shall
11be for the next three months) I should be most glad to do.
12
13 The subject of the so called Black-Peril is one that interests me
14deeply. My feeling of course is that peril which has long over
15shadowed this country, is one which exists for all dark skinned women
16at the hands of white men.
17
18 If I can do anything in Cape Town to assist in any way I shall be glad.
19
20 Yours sincerely
21 Olive Schreiner
22
23

1 De Aar
2 June 28th 1912
3
4 Dear Sir
5
6 I deeply regret you have not got the returns One was sent to Mrs
7Sprigg, one to Rev Canon Mercer, Piet Retief, Transvaal. One Mrs
8Murray sent to a Jo'burg lady who feels deeply on the question & Mrs
9Murray told me was anxious to have one. One I filled in myself but I
10was lying ill in bed when I wrote it out & it was written so badly you
11could not have made it out so I've copied it on form 22 which I now
12sent. The delay has been caused by the illness & death of husbands
13mother & of my sister Mrs Stakesby Lewis. These things have taken all
14my time & thought & I have been long confined to bed myself. I wish I
15could have given my evidence by word of mouth as I have much more to
16say.
17
18 Yours faithfully
19 Olive Schreiner
20
21

1 De Aar
2 July 15th 1912
3
4 Dear Mr Henderson
5
6 Those who heard your speech in Cape Town tell me it was most
7impressive, I wish I could have been there & done more to help, in a
8matter which lies near my heart.
9
10 When you have done with the form I filled in could you return it to me.
11 I can't write it out again & want to get some of the facts copied to
12send to a friend on the government commission. I would be greatly
13obliged if you would let me have it.
14
15 One who lives in a great railway camp like de Aar is simply
16overpowered by the evil & degrading attitude of white men towards dark
17women. I do hope the Christian Churches will speak out, in no doubtful
18manner, on the truth that it is not honourable legal marriage between
19the races that degrades both, but the reckless & degrading illegal
20immoral relations between white men & dark women. One dare not bring a
21decent black or coloured girl into this place.
22
23Yours faithfully
24 Olive Schreiner
25
26

1 De Aar
2 July 29th 1912
3
4 Dear Mr Henderson
5
6 I had no idea you would have any use to make of the answers when once
7the conference was over. The answers were of course private for the
8conference. As one would not wish a thing so hurriedly & in illness
9written down published.
10
11 I have sent it to my friend Mrs Brown to read, as she is working hard
12at the "Black Peril" matter & when it is done with will return it to
13you if you in any way need it. I feel it is important to make women
14take the right view of this matter. I know women who are simply mad
15with petty fear & rage on this subject.
16
17 Yours Faithfully
18 Olive Schreiner
19
20 If I am better I am planning later to go for change to the Eastern
21Province & shall visit Alice, & I shall hope to have
22
23^a talk with you on this matter. Also on the subject of native women as
24nurses.^
25
26

1 Dear Mr Cross
2
3 Did you get the article on the Wanderings of Boer I sent this week? If
4so when done with please pass on to my mother! We hope to be in
5Grahamstown on Monday week.
6
7 Yours ever
8 Olive Schreiner
9
10 ^I'm sorry I've not seen Mr Brotherton. Don't you need a change to the
11Kowie?^
12
13

1 Dear Mr Cross
2
3 We leave this on Monday by the early train for GT: spend a few hours
4there at the Railway Hotel with my little mother; & go on by the
5evening train to the farm of a friend near Bedford. I do hope we shall
6see both you & Mrs Cross. I am a bit better but don't quite pull
7together.
8
9 I have Did I tell you I'd been writing an allegory story here called
10"Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland." I haven't quite done it yet; I
11feel well enough to sit on the sand!! but not much more.
12
13 Good bye. I am hoping against hope we may see Mr Lloyd here yet.
14 OS
15
16 It was all right about the heading. Any thing you did would be all
17right, because the heart is right. Cron would send his love but hes
18out on the rocks.
19

1New College
2Eastbourne
3
4 Feb 4 / 97
5
6 Dear Friend
7
8 I sent you last week the copy of a little South African story. Please
9regard it as strictly private till it appears. It will I think certainly
10be published on the 17th of Feb (this month) but something
11might delay its appearance a little. Please don't show it to other
12people till you see in the papers that it is published here. The copy
13I send you is a rough unrevised proof. I will send you a copy of the
14book itself as soon as I have one.
15
16 I know that I shall be bitterly & everywhere attacked in South Africa
17for writing it; but there are some things a man must do. Good bye dear
18Friend. Is there any chance of your going to Johannesburg?
19
20 Olive Schreiner
21
22

1 The Homestead
2 Feb 20 / 95
3
4 My very dear Friend
5
6 I have just been reading your letter which was a very great comfort &
7help to me. You do not know how sore anything like conflict is to me.
8Yet all my life I have had to fight. It has been so impossible for me
9to see things eye to eye with the world about me. My heaven is a place
10where is work but no conflict. Yet it is a heaven I cannot enter,
11because if one is compelled to say what one believes, it means
12conflict whether one wills it or not.
13
14 I do not yet know what could give one the strength to live & give more
15work to the world if it were not the thought of all the rare &
16beautiful fellow sol souls one knows are in it with one. Is there no
17chance of your coming up to Kimberley at all? I hope we shall go down
18to Grahamstown early next year, & then we shall have the pleasure of
19seeing you.
20
21

1 The Homestead
2 May 5th 1896
3
4 Dear Mr Cross
5
6 Thank you for your letter. Keep the article I don't want it back. I
7will send you a copy of the next one soon. Please send me a copy of the
8Please order me 12 copies of the Penny Mail in which your article
9appears. ^I'll pay for them. Tell the Editor to be sure to send them me
10to the Kowie.^
11
12 I have been ill & leave for the Kowie on Sunday. We pass through
13Grahamstown on Monday Tuesday, arriving at 6 am & going on to the
14Kowie at once by the 8 am train, so I fear there is no hope of our
15seeing you.
16
17 Yours ever
18 Olive Schreiner
19

1 P.O. Box 406
2 Johannesburg
3 5.4.99
4
5 My dear Friend
6
7 I am just sending you a wire from Olive, who was so glad to get your
8letter last night.
9
10 She says you must come & spend the day, & have lunch with us. Let me
11add my invitation to hers.
12
13 We lived at Primrose Terrace, Berea Estate (next to E. Pallingers').
14My office is with Hudson Hutchinson & Mallius, Natal Buildings
15Commissioner St.
16
17 In haste
18 Yours most sincerely
19 SC Cronwright Schreiner
20

1 Dear Mr Cross
2
3 This is to introduce to you one of my dearest & oldest friends. If you
4haven't met each other before I know I am giving you both joy in
5bringing you together.
6
7 Olive Schreiner
8
9

1 My very dear Friend
2
3 I have sent you a copy of the paper on the political situation which I
4& my husband produced & which he read here last week. I should like to
5know what you feel about it if ever you can find time to write to me
6about the. The Cape Telegraph & Argus have both refused to dis-cuss it
7on the ground of its being a woman's work, & the former had a very
8little leader on the wrong of interesting themselves on public matters.
9 You don't know how tender I feel to you & Mr Lloyd because you are
10the only two men I know in South Africa, who would not dis-count a
11woman's work merely because it was a woman's work.
12
13 I have been so very glad to hear from my mother that you were looking
14well again after your long illness. I am getting much better now &
15able to work.
16
17 Yours affectionately
18 Olive Schreiner
19
20 The Homestead
21 Kimberley
22 Thursday
23
24
25

1 Dear Friend
2
3 Thanks for the card & the cutting. It was very good to have a peep at
4you, though it would have been better if I could have seen more of you.
5 We pass through Grahamstown tomorrow morning on our way to Middleburg
6where we shall probably stay for a month. The asthma got very bad here.
7
8 My dear friends Miss Molteno & Miss Greene are staying at Miss
9Clough's boardinghouse in Beaufort Street. If you would make time to
10call on them, I know it would be a real pleasure to them to meet you,
11& I feel sure if you would only get to know them really you would feel
12the richer for it. Miss Molteno especially is certainly one of the
13half dozen noblest woman souls I have met.
14
15 I wish very much I had meet Mrs Cross. I have heard so much of her
16from my mother who feels much drawn to her.
17
18 Yours with affectionate greetings from the very heart.
19 Olive Schreiner
20
21 I hope your sympathies are on the side of the Chartered Company as
22opposed to the Chartered Company. The one good which may grow out of
23it is that may break the nightmare power which Rhodes has exercised
24over the country.
25
26 My address will be Commercial Hotel, Middleburg, Cape Colony.
27
28 Be sure to put Cape Colony on or letters often go to Middleburg in the
29Transvaal.
30

1 Yes, dear Friend, marriage has been a very rich & beautiful
2development of my life. Month by month as we live together we seem to
3come nearer to each other; & to feel a more complete fellowship. I do
4not feel that it in any way fetters or narrows my world - it seems
5rather to enlarge it.
6
7 Did you receive the photograph I sent you. I will send you another
8soon which is better. I am sending you by this post also a little set
9of poems which you may not have seen. The friend who sent it me & many
10of the home critics think very highly of it. To me it seems not poetry
11only good verse, but you may see it in another light.
12
13 Good bye. I am so glad you are so well again. My Husband sends his
14friendliest greetings.
15
16 Yours affectly
17 Olive Schreiner
18

1 Coles Hotel
2 The Kowie
3 Thursday
4
5 Dear Mr Cross
6
7 Thank you so much for coming to meet us. It cheered my heart. We have
8had pouring rain ever since we came, & it pours & flows still, the
9rain falling in torrents They say it has rained continuously here for
10ten days & if the weather continues as it is now we shall certainly to
11not stop more than the week & may leave sooner. Thanks much for the
12book of Watsons poems, which I got this morning from Kimberley. I was
13glad to see Mr Rendlebury again.
14
15 Please be careful not to mention to any one, nor to & to ask him not
16to mention that Mr Patterson has written some of the leaders the
17Midland News. It was told my husband in confidence, & directly after I
18had spoken I remembered that perhaps I ought not to have done so.
19Please don't remember the fact to any one.
20
21 If we do stay here I do hope you will be able to come down. I had a
22note from Mr Lloyd yesterday. He is ill & in the doctor's hands.
23
24 Thank you for your goodness.
25 Olive Schreiner
26

1 My dear Mr Cross
2
3 I return with many thanks Mr Moffats letter though with sorrow that I
4have to return it. I much wish I could have sent it to W Stead of
5London, because when you discuss Rhodes with him he always says - "Ah
6but think of the noble work for Jesus & civilization he is doing in
7Mashona land". Not that Mr Moffats letter contained any news to me:
8what he says my husband & I have already many times heard from
9different friends in Mashona land, but the name of Moffat carries
10right with it, in such matters. I wish we could meet Mr Moffat & have
11a talk with him.
12
13 I am perhaps coming down to Grahamstown in January & one of the great
14joys will be a long talk with you. If I am well enough we shall
15perhaps spend a couple of months at the Kowie.
16
17 Yours with heartfelt greetings
18 Olive Schreiner
19

1 Private
2
3 My dear Friend
4
5 Please be careful not to say anything to my dear little mother that's
6about my political views. I never answer her letters on the subject or
7refer to the matters she dis-cusses. I fear my articles will very much
8anger her as they are sympathetic towards the Boer. Curiously enough
9Ons Land the leading Dutch paper has a leader attacking me & my
10articles right & left! I can understand that Jingo Englishmen should
11attack me saying it was too sympathetic to the Boer, but that the Boer
12should attack me, gives me the same sense of surprise that one would
13have, if you went to help a little man whom a big one was knocking
14down, & he were to start up & give you a blow between the eyes!!!
15
16 It was a great pleasure to us both to see you. Tell me what you think
17of the books.
18
19 My friendly greetings to your wife I wish I had met her. Tell her she
20is very rich with five sons. But I expect she knows that.
21
22 Olive Schreiner
23
24 ^ I liked your friend very much indeed.
25 OS ^
26
27
28 ^I send you the rough copy of my article please return it, & tell me
29what you think of it. Do you see why it should enrage the Boer?^
30
31 ^Private^
32

1 Dear Friend
2
3 Are you still waiting for evidence of Rhodes' complicity - or, have
4you got it now???
5
6 Yours ever
7 Olive Schreiner
8
9 I hope you heard those "Bard" poems, especially "Barren".
10
11 The Homestead
12 Saturday
13
14

1 The Homestead
2 Saturday night
3
4 Dear Friend
5
6 Thankyou for your letter. I have of late a curious increasing clinging
7to all my friends, & human affection, the mere expression of it, even
8when I know it exists, seems so much more dear to me than it used it.
9I used to think I only wanted to give, I feel now I need more to
10receive.
11
12 April 21st 1898
13
14 This letter was begun the day I got yours just as I was leaving for
15Johannesburg. I did not find time to finish it. We returned to
16Kimberley this morning after a fortnight's stay with the dear Lloyds.
17We both feel much the richer for our visit. Not only did we get to
18know Mr Lloyd much better than ever before; but we got to know & love
19his dear sweet little wife, with her big wonderful eyes. I have never
20enjoyed a visit so much I think. All the world seems warmer when one
21is near Mr Lloyd.
22
23 You wouldn't say I didn't value your letters if you know I had read
24your last letter over three times. I don't know whether it is because
25I am not physically so strong as I used to be that I cling so to my
26fellows. Have you read a very beautiful & touching story in the
27Century magazine called Madam Butterfly? Its one of the most powerful
28little stories I've read for a long long time. Read it & tell me if
29you don't agree with me. Have you also read a very interesting article
30in Temple Bar for March called on Toussant L'Ouverture? If I had time
31I should like to write an article on him for some Colonial paper. So
32few Colonials know that there has been at least one great man of
33genius who was a pure-blooded negro.
34
35 Cron sends his warmest greetings to you.
36
37 Yours with love to your wife as well as yourself.
38 Olive Schreiner
39
40

1 The Homestead Kimberley S.A.
2 April 13 / 96
3
4 Dear Mat
5
6 Political affairs have been taking all the life out of me to such an
7extent that I've not been writing to any one, & never got a chance of
8writing to tell you how glad I was to get your letter & book.
9
10 I may be coming to England at the end of this year & then I'll see you
11perhaps; any how I shall in the summer (that is about a year from now)
12when I mean to go north. I want my husband to see the north country
13life & the north country folk, who are the best in England.
14
15 We have been having terrible times out here. You people in England
16don't know what the heel of a capitalist is, when it gets right flat
17on the neck of a people! We have an awful struggle before us in this
18country.
19
20 It's no case of not being allowed to fish on somebody else's ground! -
21you won't be allowed soon to have even a soul of our own. Now we are
22killing the poor Matabele.
23
24 Good bye dear old man.
25
26 Yours hoping to see you soon
27 Olive
28
29 ^Love to Edward & all the dear folk at Millthorpe when you see them.^
30

1 13 Gildredge Rd
2 Eastbourne
3 Aug 4 / 97
4
5 Dear Mat
6
7 Thank you for your letters I was glad to hear you were fighting the
8good fight with the capitalists, but your fight is all cakes & ale
9compared with ours out at the Cape. They only try to over work you,
10but they try to shoot us! I should so much like to see you again, &
11for you to meet my husband, who is much of your way of thinking, that
12the best thing to do with the capitalists is to crack their sculls - I
13am for using gentler means.
14
15 I am unreadable sailing on the 21st of August for South Africa, but I
16am very unfit here, & may go up to Highfield - near Benrhydding,
17Yorkshire for a week before I leave; if I do I'll let you know &
18perhaps you'll manage to come & see us there, eah? I should think it
19isn't far from Leeds.
20
21 ^Give my love to the dear folks at Millthorpe if you go over there.
22
23 Your good chum
24 Olive Schreiner
25
26 Don't forget the photo.^
27
28

1 Hanover
2 Cape Colony
3 Feb 13 / 01
4
5 Dear Mat,
6
7 I was ever so glad to get your letter & the photo. I haven't got a
8photo I can send you here but I'll send you one "when the War is over"
9& I can go any where & get anything. I am now up here, hundreds of
10miles from the coast in a little village: with the war all about me.
11We are under Martial Law. No one is allowed to be out of his house
12after 8 o'clock, all lights must be out at 9; & we are not allowed to
13stray out of the village not even to go for a little walk. Cron asked
14for a pass from the military to come up from Cape Town but they will
15not give him one so I have not seen him for two months, nor any of my
16friends. I have hired an empty room in a house here, & put in a
17stretcher & a table, & do my cooking on a spirit lamp, & I & my little
18dog Neta live together.
19
20 There are said to be 20,000 English soldiers within a few miles of
21this place, & that de Wet with 3000 men is trying to come down & they
22are trying to surround him, & for ten days people have momentarily
23been expecting the village to be attacked. Troops with cannon are on
24the kopjes round, & there is watch keep up all night. But what the
25future will bring no one can say.
26
27 One just waits week after week. Several people I know have lately been
28arrested, which is much worse than dying on a battlefield. It's all a
29funny world! Give my love to Ed & tell him, & the Miss Fords my news.
30The military censor opens & reads all letters, but I'm glad to say he
31let yours come through all right. I've often wondered why the & how
32the Christians came to invent Hell. But last night when I was lying in
33bed it struck me that the early Christians lived in a time very much
34like this under the Roman Empire, during its decline & fall; & of
35course the poor things believed in hell because they saw it. Hell is
36Martial Law. Give my love to Florence, & tell her that one day "when
37the War is over" you & she must come out here, because I don't expect
38I shall ever be feel well enough to go to England again. I hope you're
39very happy & the world going very well with you, dear Mat. Is your
40mother still living? Are you thinking of getting married one of these
41days or is it still in the far future?
42
43 Drop me a line soon. I hope Mr Censor will letter this letter through.
44
45 Good bye,
46 Olive Schreiner
47
48 I still laugh sometimes when I think of you, & the old farmer. You are
49just like Cron, good at fighting!! I'm sorry you didn't see Cron. I
50often told him about you & that you & he were very much alike, in
51character & also a bit in appearance.
52
53

1London
2Feb 11 / 97
3
4Dear Mr Hay
5
6I am sending you a copy of my little story, which is to appear on the
717th of this month. Please let me know what you think of it. I shall
8send you a bound copy as soon as I get them.
9
10I have a great, a very great favour to ask of you. It is most
11necessary we should have here as soon as possible some exact quotation
12from Mr Rhodes's speeches at the Cape P bearing at on his attitude on
13the native question & ^on^ imperial rule.
14
15In a st speech made ^which I heard him make^ in the House about four or
16five years I think on the Pondo-land matter where some valuable
17remarks as showing his attitude on the native-question, “I prefer land
18to niggers” &c &c.
19
20Again at ^in^ a speech of what I read an account (a speech at some
21public dinner Cape Town) he made a very strong anti-imperial speech,
22in which, among other things, the words that the “Imperial Factor must
23be eliminated in South Africa.
24
25Would it be possible for you to send me the copies of a few such
26statement in Mr Rhodess own words as reported in the news paper, & or
27parliamentary books.
28
29Will you please be very sure to send me the account for the time &
30trouble which, any person you get to collect them for me must be put
31to. Kindly forward them to (if you are good enough to get the extracts
32copied for me) to 19 Rus-sell Rd,
33Kensington
34London W.
35
36That address will always find me even if I go abroad. I have been
37present at, or read in the papers, at least 16 speeches of Rhodes
38which have contained statements, implying an anti-imperial feeling, &
39an anti-native feeling.
40
41I should also very much like to have a copy of that speech he made to
42the bond members (I think when they visited him as an anti-scab act
43deputation at Groote Schuur) in which he spoke of the importance of
44keeping strangers out of the land, & the land in the hands of the old
45inhabitants. &c &c. I think it was on the memorable occasion of the
46snuffbox & the stone!
47
48I regret exceedingly that I never made a collection of these
49statements at the time.
50
51(They would be of immense use not only to my-self but to some of the
52politicians here that
53
54That
55
56I think if I had seen that statement from the Globe which you printed
57in the Register, I should have replied to it. The great difficulty
58here is the terrible way in which the press has fallen into the hands
59of the Rhodes party. I suppose you know it was Beit who bought the
60Saturday Review.
61
62Please forgive my troubling you. I would not do so but there is no one
63else in Cape Town, whom I could ask.
64
65Yours sincerely,
66Olive Schreiner
67
68My Husband sent some cuttings from the Cape Register to the Chronicle
69some days ago, & they have been inserted. But you have no doubt seen
70the Chronicle.
71
72