"Narrow racialism of Nationalists" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box1/Fold5/1898/20 |
Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | Monday 25 August 1898 |
Address From | The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape |
Address To | |
Who To | Frances ('Fan') Schreiner nee Reitz |
Other Versions | Rive 1987: 335 |
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 date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident in Kimberley from early August 1894 to November 1898.
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1
Monday morning
2
3 Dear Sis
4
5 Thank you much for your letter. I am going to Port Elizabeth first, to
6stay with Miss Molteno. If I get fit & able to work there (as I very
7likely shall) I shall come back here & work: if not I shall come on to
8Cape Town later. Isn’t it good about the elections? I am very
9doubtful about Barkly because we never know what Rhodes is up to
10underhand!
11
12 Yesterday evening as Cron & I were driving home in our little trap
13from Kimberley, we passed a cart full of people from Barkly, they
14bowed, ^to me^ & though I didn’t recognize them him I noticed a fat
15man take off his hat bow very markedly. The moment they’d gone by it
16flashed on me it was Rhodes! Cron says it was & that he’ll put a
17notice in all the papers that I bowed to him! I don’t believe that
18he will do such a thing. I will never shake hands with Rhodes & I will
19never bow to him if I know it. If it was Rhodes he has changed
20tremendously even since I saw him in England. Such a miserable bloated heavy
21face.
22
23 Good bye dear. Much love to you all.
24 Olive
25
26 Cron says Rhodes looked so changed & wretched because he knows he’s
27going to be beaten at Barkly W. But I don’t believe it. ^They have
28ridden on too many Kimberley men to vote.^
29
30 ^I shall likely leave tomorrow for Port Elizabeth. My address there
31will be care Miss Molteno, Girls Collegiate School, Port Elizabeth.^
32
33
34
35
2
3 Dear Sis
4
5 Thank you much for your letter. I am going to Port Elizabeth first, to
6stay with Miss Molteno. If I get fit & able to work there (as I very
7likely shall) I shall come back here & work: if not I shall come on to
8Cape Town later. Isn’t it good about the elections? I am very
9doubtful about Barkly because we never know what Rhodes is up to
10underhand!
11
12 Yesterday evening as Cron & I were driving home in our little trap
13from Kimberley, we passed a cart full of people from Barkly, they
14bowed, ^to me^ & though I didn’t recognize them him I noticed a fat
15man take off his hat bow very markedly. The moment they’d gone by it
16flashed on me it was Rhodes! Cron says it was & that he’ll put a
17notice in all the papers that I bowed to him! I don’t believe that
18he will do such a thing. I will never shake hands with Rhodes & I will
19never bow to him if I know it. If it was Rhodes he has changed
20tremendously even since I saw him in England. Such a miserable bloated heavy
21face.
22
23 Good bye dear. Much love to you all.
24 Olive
25
26 Cron says Rhodes looked so changed & wretched because he knows he’s
27going to be beaten at Barkly W. But I don’t believe it. ^They have
28ridden on too many Kimberley men to vote.^
29
30 ^I shall likely leave tomorrow for Port Elizabeth. My address there
31will be care Miss Molteno, Girls Collegiate School, Port Elizabeth.^
32
33
34
35
Notation
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.