Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 9 (1894)

Lt 150, 1894

White, W. C.

Norfolk Villa, Prospect Street, Granville, New South Wales, Australia

August 2, 1894

Previously unpublished.

Dear Son Willie:

I wish to write you a few lines this morning. We have, none of us, been quite as well as usual. Maude is not feeling well and wants to go home for a few days. I cannot possibly get along, having her gone perhaps a week, for everyone is tired out. There has been considerable coming and going and meals must be furnished at all times in the day, and many perplexities make increased work. I wish you would talk with Sister Smart and see if she would come into the family just now. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 1

May has to get her clothing ready for her journey. Sister Belden must make her husband’s pants, and has been trying to do some things for him. The seamstress is here to make clothing for May, and Maude is not well and wants to rest a week. I think we will have to enter into different arrangements. It is at a large expense we keep up an establishment, and then it is the comings and goings that make work. Our home is as a hotel and just as soon as the school grounds are occupied, then we will have something to do there. The draught made upon me in this place since coming to Granville is not small. I wish to talk over matters with you. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 2

Maude is going home for one week. Her mother is in the hospital. And May is not very well. Talk with Sister Smart and if she can come and work for me I would be glad of her help. I want you to see about this. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 3

I cannot continue to live at such an expense as I am now living under. I reckoned up the wages paid and the board bill to get my housework done, and it amounts to ninety-four dollars per month. Then Marian’s wages and board are aside from this. The other necessary expenses of living, the rent added, swells the bill to one hundred and sixteen dollars per month, and then the bill for Mattie and her board added, and the expense for horses and carriage. The care and burdens which come on me, the constant coming of one and another, breaks me up. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 4

If I had considered this matter as I do now, I would go on the school ground, board with Brother and Sister Lawrence, have such a woman as Sister Smart to take care of myself and Marian and have a place near by the boarding house, that my family shall take meals there. I merely give you these things to think of. We have no prospect of having less comers and goers than we have had. I must have quietude and rest, for I cannot keep a Halfway House or a hotel. It will swallow my means and altogether too fast. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 5

Well, you may be able to devise some different things for me, for I cannot do as I have done. God does not require it of me. There is the burden brought on the girls that do my work—they are all tired out. It hurts me. Well, I will say no more. I have said this much that you could consider and plan with our brethren what can be done, for I think it would be advisable to go to Healdsburg, where I have a home and furniture, and save this large expense that is constantly piling up. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 6

I am feeling a little stronger, but I am determined to make some different plans, for it seems wild for me to go on as I am doing. The influenza is coming upon me, but I hope it will not be bad. My throat and lungs and head are involved. Well, I am sorry to burden you, but it must be. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 7

In much love. 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 8

What about Martha Brown helping me if Sister Smart cannot? 9LtMs, Lt 150, 1894, par. 9