Letter begun 29 January 1907 from Susan Tallmon to family

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ess i a a c i n a t i a g. that go up an d dowa; ' t 4) We do iiave otner inte rea ts besides the absforbing one of the york, Be&arding our recreationa alght be aeationéd the fact that Lio iadies have cañeras and a sewing vonanJ " Then we a l l three take aaily w*le*, a thing we never thought oí dolng at hoae, but which be-cotiü quite necessary here, living in t h i s aaall coapound as we do aad apeadlas so auch tlae over our booka. But thia duty is a ver? ple&atAt one ao.t only n because we have ¿ood coapajiy" but also because this' oíd c i t y is so full oí i a t e r e s t . We aay v i s i t one oí its several auadrod temples in their varlous stages of repair and disrepair? 'or ¿o along the city wall where we get a good view of the graves la which are buried teas of thousands of those s l a i n ' i n the t*il Pfíüg ra-oalllaa fifty years ago. We aay walk dowa our llanboo S t r e e t , dis-jiayíng a l l its a r t i c l e s nade of bamboo,. to the líilñ Street with its I t t r a a t i T e shops and friendly people and we f ind levery thíng full oí absorbing i n t e r e s t . When we leave the c i t y , as it is easy to do, nud walk along by the river bank, our walk is no 1 Táe ríver has its owa busy Ufe in the many boats the ñeavy freight boats with their car^oes and thi, l i g a t e r pa.ssenger boats often bearing a couple oí uundred people on a single boat in tkae crowded " í a i r tisaw . We hear the noisy chantVng oi the boat^en aa¿ their heavy trampin¿ as they pole their boats. IIven in the winter the ínteres t is no less íor then the boatnenyho winter here are busy naking repairs on their boats aany of then \lging la queer l i t t l e houses buílt in the river bank - but the hund^th part oi our pleasurea ia these walks c o u l d n ^ be told - so we stop trylng . Be assured that we fiad many thin¿s that "vary the monotony" of our a i s s i o n a r y l i f e . m/yü* \ One thing which ve concerned about is the f&ai^e which is very se veré to the south oí us . Tens of thousands of people have left t h e i r hoaea and these iaaine refugees are seeking food and s h e l t er anywhere they can fiad it and alaos t by any means. These ?ho are fleeing beíore Grin lamine have advanced, to the south of us and daily we expect then at our c i t y . Ihen the vasaguard reaches our áoors we will have a d i f f i c u l t problean to a e e t . Our miss ionary meada ¿ay that í i f t e e a allí loas are involved of whon nal i a aiüfiosj are now ibsolutely without food. As aaother harvest cannot be reaWdl u a t il aext July a¡nd as aany already have exhausted their en t i r e rescurce by the tlae this l e t t e r reaches you the suffering will ha ^ • rebebed the acute st&ee.