Y. W. C. A. Long Street,
Cape Town. Dec 22, 1932.
My dear Annie Bliss,
It has been a long time since I received your long, interesting letter and I cannot let this Christmas time pass without at least starting a letter on its way to you.
The Seminary and College are closed for the summer holidays and some of us are here because we want to be in Town and becuase it is the most convenient place to see and hear what is going on and one can get to the sea if desired.
The small portion of Mount Pleasant at Kalk Bay, overlooking the sea, is closed for the present while Miss Callahan and Miss Sarah Cummings are at their houses Miss Callahan with her sisters at Bedford in the Midlands - and Miss Cummings with Mrs. Gamble who is now a widow but still lives in the Mission parsonage at Uitenhage. They will return for the latter part of the holidays and invite all past students for an afternoon on Jan. 14th as Dr Bliss urgently requested they should do after she and Dr. Ferguson had passed on. They have some good tennants [sic] in the larger part of the house.
The shops are quite busy, and prices low, but people are not buying ery much I am told. I have not done much shopping but am meeting old friends and coming in touch with the Christian Endeavour work a little as I wanted to do.
Last year a friend from New Jersey sent me a large number of used Christmas cards. I have made some of these into needle books, flannel leaves, large and small needles, darning wool and cotton and safety pins, etc. with a text of scripture, all of which we hope will cheer the sailors far from home. I think something of this kind in [sic] done in most seaports. This has been pleasant holiday work.
I am invited out to Christmas dinner with some old friends whom I have not seen much of for the past year.
Dr Stoneman is retiring from the Presidency of the College and will soon go home for a rest, but if she wishes she has been offered a home in the Institution, if she cares to come back and live here. She has property in both countries, but real estate is not a good investment just now I am told. There have been a good number of students this year but we do not know how many will come in 1933, for most of them need help and salaries have been cut so much it will be difficult for the Professors to give bursaries, although the loan fund is still circulating and we hope students will be able to pay back their loans.
I heard yesterday of a firm in Waterbury whose factories extend half a mile but the returns are falling off, "but our spring is near," the friend writes and they hope business will be better. Waterbury, as you may know, is called the brass city because there are so many manufacturers using this metal. They have a large foreign population and before prohibition, the saloons were simply everywhere and drunkeness terrible. I wonder what the result of the new administration will be! We used to be afraid to walk on the streets at night.
I wonder how your health is in these days and if you are still busy in the school work.
I sent a Christmas greeting to your cousin Frank D. Bliss to the New York address he gave me some time ago. Is he still there?
With love and all good wishes,
Yours sincerely,
M. F. Baldwin.