"Colossal evil threatening South Africa, Boer society hidebound" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Schreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/117 |
Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | After Start: Wednesday December 1898 ; Before End: August 1899 |
Address From | 2 Primrose Terrace, Berea, Johannesburg, Transvaal |
Address To | |
Who To | Henrietta (‘Ettie’) Schreiner m. Stakesby Lewis (1891) |
Other Versions | |
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. This letter has been dated by reference to content. Schreiner was resident in Johannesburg from December 1898 to late August 1899.
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1
2 Primrose Terrace
2 Berea Estate
3 Johannesburg
4 Wednes-day
5
6 My dear old Ettie
7
8 Your likenesses made me sad. I do hope my darling you are now better
9than when they were taken. I chose one of the groups, & Robert said I
10was to tell you which of the heads you were to send me. I like the
11full face best, though I like the side face too. The one where you are
12standing with Guy is good very, but the one with Elbert not at all
13good. Oh my darling I just cried when I saw the photographs. Please do
14try ?Sandows complete developer regularly every day: it is so good for
15strengthening the heart & circulation if practiced slowly & two or
16three times, instead of fifteen or twenty. I find it a most wonderful
17relief. When I was in England all the specialist I saw advised me to
18go to a place in Germany where they give you baths followed by ?ju
19jimnastic treatment of a peculiar kind, which they say cures ^or almost cures^
20forms of heart disease which till the last few years quite incurable.
21The point of my heart is three inches more to the left side than it
22should be owing to the great enlargement of the left cavity of the
23heart; by these exercises, as I understand it, they force the blood
24back into the heart so to speak or relieve its action, allowing it in
25a few months to contract & so the heat gets back to a more natural
26condition. I couldn’t go because I couldn’t afford the £15 a month;
27but now I have tried these exercises (which are not planned for the
28heart at all) I have realized what the right kind might do. I believe
29you lie quite still & the limbs are worked in such a way as to send
30the blood back-wards. Do try the exercises. I think you got a
31?Sandow’s Developer for the boys.
32
33 Please Good bye my darling. I like Johannesburg less & less the longer
34I stay here. It is a terrible place.
35
36 Your little sister
37 Olive
38
2 Berea Estate
3 Johannesburg
4 Wednes-day
5
6 My dear old Ettie
7
8 Your likenesses made me sad. I do hope my darling you are now better
9than when they were taken. I chose one of the groups, & Robert said I
10was to tell you which of the heads you were to send me. I like the
11full face best, though I like the side face too. The one where you are
12standing with Guy is good very, but the one with Elbert not at all
13good. Oh my darling I just cried when I saw the photographs. Please do
14try ?Sandows complete developer regularly every day: it is so good for
15strengthening the heart & circulation if practiced slowly & two or
16three times, instead of fifteen or twenty. I find it a most wonderful
17relief. When I was in England all the specialist I saw advised me to
18go to a place in Germany where they give you baths followed by ?ju
19jimnastic treatment of a peculiar kind, which they say cures ^or almost cures^
20forms of heart disease which till the last few years quite incurable.
21The point of my heart is three inches more to the left side than it
22should be owing to the great enlargement of the left cavity of the
23heart; by these exercises, as I understand it, they force the blood
24back into the heart so to speak or relieve its action, allowing it in
25a few months to contract & so the heat gets back to a more natural
26condition. I couldn’t go because I couldn’t afford the £15 a month;
27but now I have tried these exercises (which are not planned for the
28heart at all) I have realized what the right kind might do. I believe
29you lie quite still & the limbs are worked in such a way as to send
30the blood back-wards. Do try the exercises. I think you got a
31?Sandow’s Developer for the boys.
32
33 Please Good bye my darling. I like Johannesburg less & less the longer
34I stay here. It is a terrible place.
35
36 Your little sister
37 Olive
38