1887.08.30 English
This letter is a transcription of Elsebeth Erlangsen’s typed transcription of a handwritten letter to her mother, RMH’s daughter Emma, who at the time the letter was written lived in England. Unfortunately, Mrs Erlangsen did not manage to read all words, and hence there are some open spaces in the letter. The lady was close to 90 years old when she transcribed the letter, and it is no wonder that she had problems making out RMH’s handwriting which was difficult to read for most people. Below one of the letters Mrs Erlangsen transcribed in 1990 she has noted that she had to use a magnifying glass in order to see the text clearly. When reading RMH’s letters to his daughters what is striking is the closeness and love characterising RMH’s relationship with them – as well as his strong belief in God, particularly evident in the letters to his daughters.
My dear Emse! This was as far as dearest mother came yesterday[1], suffering a severe headache, however only as an adverse effect of a serious cold. Hence, we persuaded mother to stay in bed today, where she is enjoying the company of ..........(?)short stories, so very good (?) that hopefully everything is over and done with by tomorrow. Now it is my honourable and pleasant duty to finish the letter. May the good Lord preserve and protect you in the new year, (it is mother’s birthday on September 2), may he provide you of His rich joys and let your spirit and your strength grow in health and power and may your work be joyful and of good use to the dear children and to yourself. [2]
Well – as our dear “Zazi” [3] says - - the old madam .....is here again and yet the same madam .....is only at the bottom of all deeds here (?) above in the tranquil waters and in the great depths, - above, however, is a rich and lively change in our striving that one’s deeds shall be bettered, ever and ever....from work. As long as the spirit and the body keep their strength, we could and should continue to develop – even in the most advanced age[4]. 5 young students arrived today from Fredericia[5], - every single of them blubbering loudly when he (or she) arrived, but then smiling very contentedly as he saw the other well-known faces.
The trees are already starting to talk about autumn, the acacias[6] and the elms[7] already showing many yellow leaves, but during the last few days it has been summer, with 16 degrees[8] - - - I have started looking for a suitable job for ducky Engelke, her examination is very soon now but she has no butterflies in the stomach.[9]
Warmest greetings from your faithful father R. Malling-Hansen
The thick and.....letter paper is a fiddle, apparently it deprives us of quite a number of long letters from you, dearest!
[1] SA: RMH’s second wife, Anna, apparently wrote the first part of the letter and then RMH continued on the same sheet. We only have a copy of RMH’s part of the letter.
[2] SA: Emma lived in England with a Danish reverend and his family. Her position in the family was probably what we today would call ‘au pair’, with responsibility for the children of the family.
[3] SA: We don’t know who this ”Zazi” is – or whether he is referring to a woman or for instance to a literary work ?
[4] SA: It is not very easy to make out a coherent meaning from these words, but obviously the gist is about enjoying one’s work and continue to develop as long as the body and spirit remains healthy
JMC: I can only confirm that the transcribed text, especially this paragraph, is unclear and not very coherent, and my translation obviously has to mirror this.
[5] SA: At the time it was common practice for all deaf children to spend an initial year at the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Fredericia (founded by initiative from RMH); Here their cognitive skills and degree of hearing were checked and diagnosed such that they, after one year, could be placed in the institution best suited to their individual characteristics: the so-called “not completely deaf”, who had either been hearing in the past or who possessed some degree of hearing, continued their education at Fredericia or at one of the Keller Institutions where they were taught according to the speech method (lip reading). The totally deaf children were sent to the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Copenhagen in order to be taught in accordance with the sign method. Finally, the category of “imbecile” (as the term was at the time) deaf-mute were educated at one of the Keller Institutions, the sign method being applied also in such cases.
[6] SA: The large acacia in the garden in front of the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute was planted in 1839, the year the institute was erected. Whether this tree was also included in RMH’s measuring of the growth of trees we don’t know for sure.
JMC: The tree is a ‘false acacia’ – Robinia pseudacacia – and it is in fact still standing and under special protection, supposedly the oldest of its kind in Denmark. It appears in the famous painting of the institute(see our site under....)
[7] JMC: = ’Ulmus’
[8] SA: In fact, Mrs Erlangsen’s transcription has ’OR’ here, but I don’t see that it could be anything else than GR (= ‘grader’ = ‘degrees’). JMC: There is also the possibility that they are using a Réaumur thermometer. 16 degrees Réaumur would then be 20 degrees Celsius, which is more in tune with his comment that it feels like summer. What she has transcribed should then be read as ‘o’ R. , where the ‘o’ stands for ‘degree’.
[9] SA: The second-eldest daugther, Engelke, was born in 1867 and at the time must have been around 20 years old. We don’t know what kind of exam she was about to take, but later on she worked for a year or a few years as teacher of the Institute for the Deaf-Mute. Later on she transferred to the nearest neighbour, the Royal Institute for the Blind and married the inspector at that place, Fritz Wiberg. They had no children but dedicated their lives entirely to the work for the blind.