[
    {
        "id": 210564,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1985",
        "page_number": 171,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "152\n\nFOUND IN A PENNSYLVANIA ATTIC –\n\nLetters from China 1903-1906*\n\nWEI PEH T'I\n\nWhile cleaning out his mother's attic in Bala Cynwyd, Harry V. Ryder Jr.' found a bunch of letters that had been sent from Taiho. Bala Cynwyd is an affluent suburb of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; Taiho a river town in the northwestern corner of the interior province of Anhui in China.\n\n2\n\nThe letters were dated between January 1903 and April 1906. They were written to Harry's maternal grandmother, Louese Hedges Strawbridge, by Edith Rowe, who was a classmate at a \"finishing school” in Philadelphia. Both Louese and Edith were Baptists. Edith's letters reflected the high standard of private school education in eastern United States at that time. Her command of written English was more than respectable. Scenes and events were vividly described; ideas eloquently expressed; and grammar and spelling impeccable. Except for one or two words, her handwriting can be read without any difficulty. Two of the letters contain charming line-drawings, an old-fashioned practice still favoured by young students in American schools today.\n\nLouese Strawbridge was the only child of Samuel and Ann Hedges, who had come originally from Ohio. Samuel Hedges had served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war he brought his wife to Philadelphia where he became a successful horse trader.3 Bala Cynwyd is near Devon, in the heart of the Pennsylvania horse country. After graduating from the Friends School, Louese went to a “finishing school\", then was married to George Strawbridge, scion of a family that had founded and operated the prestigious department store, Strawbridge and Clothier. Louese and George had four children. Catherine was born in 1896, Helen in 1900, Janet in 1903 and Benjamin in 1907. Except for Benjamin who died in\n\n* Lecture delivered to the Society on 6 October 1986. The author is grateful to Harry and Phyllis Ryder for making available the letters and for information on Harry's grandmother and her family.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210580,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1985",
        "page_number": 187,
        "title": "RAS-1985",
        "content_text": "168\n\n38 /hid\n\nWEI PEH T'I\n\n39 Rowe letter dated 29 January 1903.\n\n40 Rowe letter dated 17 February 1904.\n\n41 Rowe letter dated 5 January 1905.\n\n42 Rowe letter dated 1 October 1903.\n\n43 Rowe letter dated 5 April 1904.\n\n44 Rowe letter dated 24 August 1905.\n\n45 Ibid.\n\n46 Rowe letter dated 5 January 1905.\n\n47 Rowe letter dated 2 March 1905.\n\n48 Rowe letter dated 5 April 1906.\n\n49 Rowe letter dated 1 October 1903.\n\n50 Rowe letter dated 5 April 1906.\n\n51 Ibid.\n\n52 Ibid.\n\nAppendix: Letters from Edith Rowe to Louise Strawbridge (Mrs. George Strawbridge) of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania:\n\n(1)\n\nYangchow January 29-03\n\nMy dear Louise:\n\nIt was so kind and thoughtful of you to write to me here and send the book \"The First Christmas\". Both the letter and book came to me Christmas afternoon, so they had a double appreciation.\n\nMy hands are so cold today I cannot hold my pen very well. Our house here is very comfortable, but we have no fires except in the sitting room and dining room, so the thermometer ranges from 30 degrees to 40 degrees in my room. I enjoy it for our Chinese clothes are very warm. You would laugh if you could see me, so we did at each other when we first put them on. Would you be interested for me to describe what I have on? We wear foreign underclothes, but try to dress as much like the natives as possible.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x",
        "rank": 0
    }
]