"Citizen franchise league, women here far behind, nothing like England" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box11/Fold2/Undated/12
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date1904
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToBetty Molteno
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. The year has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident in Hanover from September 1900 to October 1907, after 1902 with visits, sometimes fairly lengthy, elsewhere. The name of the addressee is indicated by content. The first page of the letter is missing.
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5 I don’t know if you would feel it as I do but I fear you will find the
6people here very depressing if ever you come; all interest in anything
7but there own small, small affairs. I haven’t been able to get any one
8to exchange two words even on politics ^or South African affairs^ since
9I came; except the old English Chief Constable who is a great jingo, &
10who rushed up to me in the street today to ask me what I thought of
11the Japanese war. There are not three people here I believe who take
12any interest in anything outside Hanover, & its small matters. One has
13to just to recognize there is absolutely no kind of personal sympathy
14between you & them & go on your way with out being hurt. Willing &
15glad to help them where one can. Please be care full not to discuss
16Hanover or me with the good friends at Uitkyk as all will some back
17here to this terrible little world from Prince Albert. Mrs Fouche the
18Dutch Ministers wife here is sister to the minister in Prince Albert.
19You don’t know how beautiful & large even the life in Cape Town seems
20after this. Beaufort West is mentally small & suffocating but Hanover
21is much smaller. The social sky rest just above one so that one can
22always touch it with ones hand, & it presses on one’s head. I am quite
23sure you could never live in a little Upcountry town, but farm life I
24believe would absolutely suit
25
26^you if you had your own farm. ^
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28 Olive
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