LETTERS FROM 1921 October 17, 1921 Dear Kiddies I suppose you will almost be beyond being --- now. It is just a year this week since we were bidding …. Ontario. You will have a year's growth, which I suppose…. But to us you are still our little ones. We are thankful ….. by is one in which w can thank God for all his mercies….. trials that the latter do not seem worthwhile. The year…. add before we realize it we shall be looking forward to … you all again. I have just come downstairs to finish this. Mother…. but she said she would let me come away for your sakes. She misses you very much, night and day. Today I got a few of the ten cents stamps commemorating the … at the Chinese post office. I send them on to you. Our post office in this province has not had any notification of the advance of postal rates to foreign countries, so I shall only put on ten cents yet. I hope that you will not have to do the same when it reaches you. If you ever have to pay extra, let me know at once. On Saturday the cook came to me to try to get his brother out of the camp where he hd enlisted. We went to the north of the bridge but were told that the new recruits had left for Paoting, Taiwan, hours before. I notice by your last letters that you have been doing some thinking on your future careers during the last few months. Of course we do not know ho it will all come out but we do hope at any rate that the first year of it will come on all right and that by this time next year you will have matriculated. Don't let there be any risk about it. From the very start of the year put good regular work on it. Be particular about the subjects which you are not fond of until you get so expert in them that you will enjoy them. The last week we have been getting letters form a boy who ran away from school last spring. He wants to come back. We wrote to him that he would be allowed back in the second year, where he was when he ran away last spring. He thanks us profusely, but thinks that it will be time enough to drop into another class when it is proved that he cannot keep up. Besides as he is from a poor family it will be an additional hardship for his mother to have to pay for an extra year's schooling. I told the secretary to reply that the second year was about his size and that so far as giving his mother more hardship, we did not consider that it was the school that was to blame for that but the boy who ran away. This is just by the way, as we are not looking for any running away on your part nor any shirking, but a good decent stand among the upper ones when the results come out next year. We are hoping for mail from you shortly, as the C.P.R. boat is due today with the Thomsons and others on it. Much love from both. Your father, Robert A. Mitchell -------------------------------------------------- Weihwei December 11, 1921 Dear Jess & Morr Sunday school is over and I shall get the home letter started. I am late because I wa lzy not getting up till time for Sunday school. The more one loafs the more he wants to loaf. I feel like getting right back into bed now for the night. The past week has been one of late nights, trying to get accounts done. I had mine audited yesterday. We are supposed to have them mailed to Mr. MacKenzie not later than Dec. 15th in order to let him have a chance to get the closing done before presbytery meeting in the middle of January. I am glad to have it over with. Mother's have been waiting for the cost of workmen on her numerous schools. Yesterday Mother blossomed out with an "At Home" for the missionaries, from four to six. Mrs. Auld poured tea. Dolly Ainsworth and Agnes Bruce passed tea. I stood around in the way and ran the gramophone. I think that all of the folks at home turned up except the Hatties. Mrs. Hattie was not feeling well and I guess his books sheltered him from an unpleasant social function. In the early part of the week we had a committee meeting to talk about the Christmas services and last evening the ladies ahd one to arrange for the foreigner's dinner. The rest of the week was uneventful. Tuesday we expect to be at Aulds' for dinner, because there is a commission from the China Medical Board to be there to see the hospital. We have made application for a grant from them and though one doctor has reported favorably, this is the director of the Board. The folks are joking the doctors about the amount of cleaning up which is going on in preparation for this event. We are asking to be shown around before it gets dirty. The masons have quit work for the winter on the hospital building. They have got up to the place for the second floor. The open Autumn has been favorable for their work. This week Mr. Djao came from Kikungshan. he brought us a lot of nice holly. It was just in time for the decorations for the 'at home'. He was telling us of some of the changes in the roads they have made there this autumn. The steep hill near the old Herring House has been taken down about eight feet, so that it will come along to our place somewhat on the level. The low part around Struthers' corner is filled a good deal, being built up with stone. The road going down to the valley between Struthers and Bruces has had a good deal taken off the ridge. There has been a plan to put a fairly level road the whole length of the concession, along the east face of the hill. It is pretty much all complete except through Williams' property (formerly Slimmons'). He objects to giving a right of way through his place. I do not know what they will do about it eventually. The road strikes off about Bruce's place and avoids all the big hill on both sides of Lochead's. It will make the walk to the new concession very much easier. The Forbe's foundation is built and the road to it. It is on an almost impossible place, just west of Lochead's and he has had to build up a road to it from Lochead's side. The Assembly Hall is about finished. It is between the C.I.M. and the old Stott place which is now the Swedish school. When I begin to talk about these things it makes me think of the times we had there together and I wonder when you will ever see the place again. it is so long since Will saw it that he would not know the place. Even for me there have been many changes in two years. Monday: I have just returned from Mrs. Aulds. She is altering my Amethyst silk to make it more modern; loose and long waist. Sorry to trouble her but she has always been good to help me out in dress making difficulties. Dad forgot to tell you about his birthday party and he kept asking me what to say. Dec 6th we had Struthers, Mrs. Arthurs, Miss Anderson. I had a birthday cake and the candles used for Mother's birthday cake were used. Struthers found out during the day and sent him a tie holder. The School were having a party for one of their number and sent over some of their cake and Best Wishes which came in when we were at the table. Altogether we had a pleasant evening. Mrs. Auld is making great preparations for her dinner. I have sent over our four candlesticks, red and green paper and for eats, cauliflower, turnips, beets and celery. Dec. 6, Monday: Dad forgot to tell you about his birthday. I had Struthers, Mrs. Arthurs, Miss Anderson. I see I have told you this above when writing B ill. I want you to tell me how Bill looks. Miss McIntosh says he is as stout as Mr. Armstrong. I want to know about Morr's dressing gown and whether he needs…. Any of the summer or winter pyjamas. Also does Jessie need a white underskirt or a black sateen to save the silk one I sent, for it is rather thing for winter wear. If you send a list of what you want as soon as you get this I can have them ready to send with MacVicar. Parcels sometimes miscarry. He leaves here early in May. The teacher from Chicheng came in and I was interrupted and now, must go to my class. Heaps of love to my two Sweethearts at Oshawa. Mother often longs to see her two, indeed, her three Precious ones, but not now. Hope we are all spared to meet again. Let us live so that if not on earth, we may be certain of spending eternity together with our Savior for whom we bear this separation. Lovingly, mother Jennie H. Mitchell -------------- -------------- Copyright 2014@JTMitchell, Toronto, Canada All rights reserved. May NOT be shared on Facebook or elsewhere without written permission. You may however share the site address as http://www.themissionarychronicles.com ------------------------------------------- Weihwei, Honan December 18, 1921 Dear Jessie and Morr: This past week has given us an unexpected treat. We did not know that there were any boats coming till the Monteagle towards the end of the week, but two batches of foreign mail came in with your letters up to the 13th and 16th of November. You may be sure we were glad to see them. Mother had been making fruitcake and there were no kiddies around stealing the raisins. Some way it made her wish there were some such rascals about. I expect there will not be much preparation for Christmas in our house. Mother has her south suburb schoolgirls in to dinner after church today. She had the Gicheng girls in once. You see she always finds something to take up her time and energy and be helpful to others. She is showing them Bile Pictures in the meantime while waiting for the dinner. This week there has been some entertaining in the yard. Tuesday two representatives of the China Medical Board came to see the hospital in order to report as to whether our application for a grant ought to be granted. They were Dr. Houghton and Mr. Goodrich. The latter is the son of Dr. Goodrich. He is an old Chefoo schoolboy, leaving there in 1910. I think that perhaps he ran across Will at Peronne in France. He is the substitute for Mr. Green who is in America but probably most of the responsibility falls on Dr. Houghton who is the technical head of the Board. They were busy all day Wednesday looking over the plant and plans, asking questions, etc. After their arrival on Tuesday we had a big dinner at Auld's. Most of the people at the station were at it -- the grownups. The table was set in the form of a cross. The lights were candles but we managed to make a hearty meal even in the dim light. Wednesday Mrs. Struthers also gave a tea. There was present a man representing the firm which is putting the machinery in the cotton mill. He is green on traveling in the interior of China. When he got off the train he went about a good deal of the city before he reached the compound where the engineers are staying. They insisted that he come out to the mission s they had no proper accommodation. He was greatly relieved when he got into Struthers's. I understand that another man and his wife were in the party but when they saw the station and the look of the surrounding country in the dim evening light they decided to keep right on the train. There was some hitch or other that they were not properly set and they knew no Chinese. They thought they were a way back of beyond. The deputation did not give any hint of what they were going to report though Dr. Auld thinks that they were rather pleased with what they saw. Apparently Dr. Houghton is a live critic of things about a hospital. He saw pretty much everything and asked questions freely. He had been in a mission hospital before he got this position. Having a thought of Morrison in mind I asked him whether they had any foreign students in the medical school. He said they had had a good many applications from America but that they had only two - a woman from Siam and a son of Dr. Johnson in Tsinan. As Johnson had been brought up in China and was looking for ward to Medical Mission work in China he was accepted. The thought had once before run through my mind "How would it do for Morrison to take this medical course in Peking?" He would require at least two years college work before entering medicine, taking the biological sciences. It is some time before that but it is an idea to think of - perhaps to be rejected, but at any rate to be thought of. Mother was out at Gicheng yesterday to inspect her school. I was talking curriculum with my teachers. In came a man to talk over a little affair. He asked why we did not want the piece of land between our place and the school dormitories. I replied that we did but the man wanted too much for it - twice what it was worth. It seems that the land had been offered to him and he thought of buying it and building a home for his family so that they would be under our protection from robbers. I have been trying off and on for years to get the man to talk a reasonable price but could not. Now I am not sure whether or not this man is really wanting to build a house there and have the insurance of the foreigners presence or whether he is in collusion with the owner in order to get us to give a big price and then he will get a rake-off. In either case I am afraid we are in for paying the price. It is the brick maker. He has certain good qualities but I think that he might be willing to take advantage of us that much. We do not want Chinese houses put in there and rather than have it we shall pay the price to insure ourselves from his presence. If he is willing to pay the price to insure himself from robbers we shall have to pay the price to insure ourselves from his presence. I had a couple of games of tennis the past week, trying to take off some of my superfluous fat. Dr. Gordon says that Mrs. Mitchell will soon have to take the gores out of my clothes again. I don't mind how soon so that I shall get my wind back. We have still been having very mild weather. It sprinkled a little the other day but no snow has come. Next Saturday there will be services in the church. Then a Christmas dinner of the Christians then a entertainment. In the evening there is a Christmas tree for the foreign children. We foreigners are to have our Xmas dinner on Monday. Love from Father… -------------- Copyright 2014@JTMitchell, Toronto, Canada All rights reserved. May NOT be shared on Facebook or elsewhere without written permission. You may however share the site address as http://www.themissionarychronicles.com ------------------------------------ Weihhwei, Honan, China December 19, 1921 Dear Jess & Morr I had hoped to write you this A.M. but was delayed there were so many other things came along. Then I had a fierce headache. I must give up going to feasts; the Chinese food upsets me every time since I returned. I was over-persuaded into this one because it was given with the hopes of making two Christian women who had fallen out good friends. I was telling Bill in my letter to home about some of the carts, and animals hauling them, I met on the way out. When I got there I had an examination with the pupils. One never answered one word she was so shy. Some did very well and some not so well. Yesterday the south suburb school where one little tot of seven is awfully cute, she is so short I had to lift her out on the bench. Of course she cold climb but it would take her some time and she had such thick wadded clothes she hardly waddled. She looked like a round bundle. The Chinese wear tighter and narrower clothes than they used to do & they look more like a roly poly than when the trousers and coats were wider. They all wear mufflers around their necks and have a pin of some kind - silver or gold washed in their hair in the front where they catch up a bunch of hair. It looks prettier than the yarn they used to wear so much when you were here. Jess, what about your hair? Are you letting it grow out? I shall have Dad make out a chit on Eaton's when he returns from Tennis and you guy a coat either in Eaton's or if you can get one in Oshawa buy it there. The check can be sent to Eaton's through Bill and you need not go to Toronto if a coat can be obtained in your town. About your other heavy clothes for next winter, consult someone about them & we can have another chat before you buy. If you go to Toronto you could have that same woman make you a dress. Or best would be if in July you went to a dressmaker & did the work yourself. Then you could get two dresses. Then if you need a suit have her make it. Or do you think you could undertake a suit. If not make a light weight coat for yourself. Any such work should be done in the holidays & if you did that work & took no position you would be saving as much money as you could earn & at the same time learning something you could use later. Did Morr ever use the fine suit of Bill's? He never said. And Jess, did you ever do anything with that white fur I left with you? I thought you might take it to Hallams. I often see their ad in the Presby, other church papers. They are Presbyterians & might do more for you. Now heaps of love to both of my precious sweethearts in Oshawa. Mother, Jennie. H. Mitchell