[Sender’s name and mailing address: Mandilla Himmelright Wertenberger, Colegio Americano, Colegio Inglés para Hombres, 22 Calle del Comercio, Casilla 89, Concepción, Chile
Recipient’s name and mailing address: Mrs. Elizabeth Fuhrman, Redhaw, Ashland Co., Ohio, U. S. A.]
Concepcion
[sic; should be “Concepción” throughout], Chile
[Monday,]
Nov. 13 ’99
Dear girls and boys (if they are present):
You doubtless will think me slow in fulfilling my promise to you, but it seems I have not found time to write to anyone but my own people thus far.
Are you still faithful S.S. attendants, and do you still take an interest in studying your lessons?
If you could see all the scenes that I looked upon during my journey to this place you would certainly “thank your stars” more every day that you were born in a land where there is at least a little advancement in civilization and the Bible is not entirely discarded by the common people.
I am certain, too, that you would love your parents and teachers more and opportunities for improvement would be more anxiously seized by you.
Our trip, as a whole, was enjoyable, though I wished several times that I might die when I was seasick. I would give a great deal if I could show you all the interesting things that we saw on our journey from the beautiful fertile valleys of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers through the interesting places of the great metropolis (New York) of our own country, over the stormy Atlantic, across the isthmus of Panama, covered with its luxuriant tropical vegetation and populated, or rather, inhabited by half-civilized mixed dark races, some of whom were in the original garbs of Adam and Eve, through the old Spanish town of Panama, with its old cathedrals in ruins and its interesting Plazas (little parks), and down the barren coast on the Pacific side of South America, whose mountain peaks and towns at the base of the foothills were the only things that broke the monotony of the desert sands and blue seawater. Most of the towns along the seacoast are only clusters of low houses built closely together and made of bamboo canes covered with mud. The roofs are usually flat and covered with tiles, sheet iron brought from the states, or mud. Our Mission teachers at Callao and Lima, Peru, keep their chickens and raise their flowers on top of the house in which they live (mud roofs), and the only yard they have is on top of the house. A big rain would leave those towns nothing but a heap of mortar. Last August there was a light shower of rain in Lima, the first one for seven years. This part of the country, however, had very destructive rains a few months ago, but the dry season has begun now, which will continue till March or April.
Strawberries are in the market now. They are sold by the dozen, and when they become more plentiful they will be sold by the hundred. Not any of the fruit raised here is as nice as the fruit of our own states except grapes, because the seeds are thrown into the ground and if it grows, all right, and if it does not grow, it is all right also. The plowing is nearly all done with teams of oxen hitched to wooden plows with one handle, and the farm products are hauled to town in clumsy two-wheeled oxcarts. Most of the people, however, live in cities and towns because they have little or no protection against robbers.
We have church services, an Epworth League, a junior league and a Woman’s Christian Temperance Union organization in connection with our and the girls’ schools of this place. The religious papers sent here from many states of the U. S. are anxiously received by our attendants. I would be pleased to have my or any of the Sunday schools at Redhaw send us temperance, Sunday School ,and any kind of religious papers if they see fit to do so. They would be gladly received here.
The natives of this country are very superstitious. Some of our boys have gone home to die with their parents tonight. Many of them believe the false prediction that the earth will be destroyed by coming into contact with a comet tonight. If it is not destroyed I presume the priests will tell their people they warded it off by petitioning the Creator and will charge their poor ignorant members a large sum for saving them.
We reached Concepcion Nov. 3rd, and both of us commenced teaching today. Our greatest trouble with pupils here is that they seem to be natural-born liars and thieves. All the teachers along this coast complain of the deception of their pupils, and everybody in this country drinks wine more freely than water, consequently drunkenness is even much more common than in the home states, and I believe in total abstinence more strongly than ever (unless it is used for medicine). Pencils, books, and all little trinkets must be under lock and key all the time.
Now, do you think there is any work to be done here? One teacher, who has more than a hundred pupils, told me that not one of them was absolutely truthful, but many of them are very polite, and in one respect they are superior to the people of the states, and that is they never laugh at a foreigner when he is trying to learn their language but kindly correct him. They also seem to feel a sense of joy after making an effort to be truthful or when they succeed in adding happiness to the life of another. Please do not understand that our pupils are wholly bad. We can see much of the spirit of righteousness in them, though in many cases the better qualities are somewhat dwarfed.
Nearly all the boys and men in this country smoke cigarettes, but it is forbidden in our school.
Children are always accompanied to and from by their parents, and girls and women are considered second to men by most people here.
Just wait till I speak my mind to them on the subject(?)(?)(?)
One of the teachers just came in with a letter from home of Oct. 8th and some news from Orlow’s. Of course, I could not wait a minute but had to read it at once. And now it is mail time for the north, so I must cut everything short or this will not go for another week.
Please write often. If you ever go so far from home you will know what a letter from home friends means.
May God bless you all, is my prayer.
Dillie H. W.
Transcribed 2015 by SMK
Posted Dec 29, 2018 at 19:56.
Revised Nov 15, 2022 at 18:37. EDT.
Retrieved Jun 1, 2026 at 22:35.
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