1870.12.20 English

The royal institute for the deaf-mute  twentieth december eighteen hundred and seventy

 

 

 

                        your lordship[1] [2]

 

 

 

 

           yesterday i presented the letter from mr kilian[3] in strasbourg to the teachers of the institute and they assessed the letter approximately the same way as your lordship did    the teachers were of the opinion that inherent criteria spoke against complying with mr kilian’s request for pecuniary assistance   however we agreed to use the occasion to club together a contribution to wounded Frenchmen and to the bereaved family members of fallen Frenchmen[4]

 

    for the eventuality that your grace may wish to join us in contributing, i take the liberty of sending you the list   before i circulate at our institute and respectfully request your lordship to sign your name at the top of the list if you so desire

 

 

                                       your faithful servant

 

  

                                            Signed by hand:

 

                                           R.  Malling  Hansen

 

 

[1] CB/JMC: The translation evidently does not show it, but In this document RMH uses the Danish vowel ’å’ which was generally written as ’aa’ at the time. In Sweden, the letter ’å’ was officially adopted already in 1869, while in Norway it was decided to adopt it in 1917 and in Denmark not until 1955.  Hence, it was very progressive and modern of RMH to introduce it on his writing ball already at this time.

[2] CB: The recipient of this letter is J.P.Trap (1810-85), a Government official and an author. The King’s private secretary 1857-84. Published the Danish counterpart to Whitaker’s Almanack 1842-85! Friend of King Frederik VII and King Christian IX. Published the first geographical depictions of the Kingdom of Denmark and Schleswig – denominated as ’TRAP Denmark’ – very well-known books. Besides, he was Director of the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute and, as such, the superior of RMH. They had a very good ’cooperation’ in the sense that Trap left the entire running of the institute to RMH, who personally opened all mail to the institute, even mail addressed to the director! When needed he informed the director – otherwise not! But this quickly changed in 1885 when Trap died and a new director was appointed.

[3] SA: Googling the name leads us to Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian, 1823-1904, who worked with and for the deaf-mute and blind in France.

[4] CB: The cause of the ’begging letter’ from mr Kilian must be the German-French war in 1870-71, which was raging at the time.  Mr Kilian is writing from Strasbourg, situated in the area of France  -  Alsass-Loraine  -  that was conquered by the Germans and which at the time of the peace treaty in 1871 was surrendered to Germany – until 1920! Mr Kilian was probably a local RMH – responsible for the running of schools for the deaf-mute and blind – and was likely to be in a financially particularly difficult situation.