Holy Cross Mission
Bontoc
Mountain Province
Philippine Islands
Tukukan
April 4, 1932
My dear Miss Olcott:
I am deeply distressed over the delay in writing to acknowledge receipt of your letter, and the package of beautiful little dresses that came promptly and in fine condition. I was much interested in your letter which told of their being made by twelve girls in your Branch of the Girls' Friendly Society at Glencarlyn, Virginia, or, at least, that each girl was responsible for a dress. They evidently took great pains and pride in the preparation for they are indeed lovely little dresses, wrapped and tied with so much care as individual dainty Christmas gifts. I certainly did admire them and the girls' taste, for they are just as pretty as they can be. Indeed they are almost too nice for our little heathens or near heathens, and I cannot allow them to be worn every day and all the time as they have a way of getting extremely dirty, and hardly seem to realize that they are. Of course they have no mirrors and cannot see what they look like. We toil to make them as clean as possible, this is one of our major tasks, and often their pretty dark brown skins glisten after a good bath with soap and water. Soap is a luxury for them, and I supply quantities. It is rather too much to expect of people who live in soot and ashes to keep clean without soap.
Not all the girls you see in the enclosed picture attend school. Most of them have at one time or another, but when they are big enough to work in the rice fields mothers insist upon their doing that, and of course it is so natural for women and girls to do the farm work, and they have to keep at it and work very hard simply to get enough to eat; and sometimes the poorer Igorots hardly have enough. We have the children when they are small coming to kindergarten and first grades, teach them religion and try to make an impression on them for good. Many of them keep right on and eventually go through high school, become teachers or follow other usful [sic] occupations.
Our boys' school is always very well attended. The boys do not have as many demands on their time as girls have. Their chief duty is to get wood for cooking the rice, and they can easily do that at odd times. However they do not require to be educated in order to become christians, and we have many ignorant, or rather, illiterate christians. It improves them so much when they attend school, and those who do are vastly more intelligent in grasping the truths of our religion.
I have the assistance of a native teacher for the boys' school - a man - a woman for the girls' school. Dorothea Safangan whom you see seated in the center of the group of girls. Mr. Mark Suluen assists as well. He is a trained catechist and is very valuable to us. We have very large congregations every week at our service of Holy Communion when the priest comes from Bontoc seven kilometers away. There are about nine hundred people in this village, living in their grass huts, and I judge not less than two-thirds of them are baptized, and many are confirmed.
We are very isolated in these remote mountain fastnesses, but find a great plenty to do.
Thanking you all again most cordially, and with all best wishes, I am
Very sincerely yours,
Margaret Routledge
[I'm not 100% sure that this letter was meant for Margaret Olcott since the envelope is missing. I feel sure it wasn't meant for Jane Olcott, since she was married by 1932 and would not be "Miss Olcott" any longer. Margaret didn't marry until 1944, so she'd still be "Miss Olcott" in 1932 when this letter was written. Margaret and Jane did have two other sisters, Ella and Alice. Ella was married before 1919, and I couldn't confirm what year Alice married. But the letter did come to me directly from the Olcott family, and I think it's likely that it was addressed to Margaret Olcott.]