Harold Alston GILES [6369]

  General Notes:

John Allen Giles Diary and Memoirs.
Page 454
Monday, August 11, 1873. Another letter from Herbert.
Ningpo 19 June 1873
. . . . . that he is now closing round us: fans and punkahs are hard at work from morning till evening. I can't manage much work, and attempt as little as possible. . . . . . Here there are only two to nurse Harold and I am one. His weight is outrageous, and he always insists upon being carried when you are ready to drop with fatigue or have sunk comfortably to repose in an armchair . . . . .
H.A.G.

Page 459.
Found a letter from Herbert, forwarded from Sutton and much delayed in coming.
Ningpo July 10, 1873.
My dear Father,
We are having it about as hot as the Tichborne claimant may expect to get in the life to come -too hot to do anything but drink iced porter and brandy and soda. The former is a sine qua non; from it we get the strength necessary to support our otherwise unbearable existence. I can't go on with my book except by the veriest snatchers, though the printer is waiting with his gaping mouth for the expected sop. . . . . . We heard last night that the ministers had hauled their flags down and were leaving Peking. No such luck, I'm afraid. If true and war was declared, Kate and Harold would be packed off by the next mail to help fill up your house - Dum loquimur, the news comes that the Audience is over and the ministers have seen the Emperor, greeting him with Western salutations. No details as yet, but intense excitement. . . . . . How do you like the flying Saxon name your grandson has? I put my pen through the second r in the Fenn family name. It would just have spoilt a fine choice; but he stands now in the big Bible a fat and worthy successor of a great namesake. Someone said to me the other day " Why, he'd make two of you" whereupon I thought that if he can only be trained up in the right path, I shall have falsified the progeniem vitiosiorem of an old friend Horace. . . . . . We had a narrow shave last night as I ever care to have again. Time 8:30 p.m. Harold just going off to sleep. Kate went downstairs into the pantry to get some iced tea and a snack for supper. I staid in the bedroom with Harold. Suddenly I heard a crash, which I thought was all the glass and crockery gone at one fell swoop. In an instant I heard K. shouting out to the boy and calling in Chinese for water. I went downstairs in two bounds, a flight at a time, and found the dining room keeping the fifth of November before the due date, in a blaze - K. on the other side of the room unable to move towards the door because of the flames, but with the window open ready to escape. The boy came running in with the filter which as usual was the empty, but he got a jar of iced water and managed to dash out the flames. K. had hit the sideboard with the hand holding the kerosene lamp - same which burnt down Chicago - and the shock had knocked the lamp out of their hand onto the floor, spilling a lot of oil on the ground which was covered with matting. By a wonderful chance the lamp which was made of tin after tumbling about like that remained in a standing position, flaring away with the glass smashed to atoms, and minus about one quarter of its oil. Had all the oil got out or the flame got into the oil reservoir of the lamp, we might have had an explosion, and in any case we should have had great difficulty in getting the fire out. As it is there is only a great burn on the matting, which I now believe was a good thing for the oil to fall on, for it sucked it in like a sponge; and the oil instead of spreading burnt in one spot. Of course the matting couldn't catch until the oil which is spiritous was burnt away. We finished drinking everybody's health all-round in iced tea.
Your affectionate son
H. A. Giles

Page 463
Wednesday, November 5, 1873.
. . . . . Received the annexed sad telegram from a friend of Herbert's at Ningpo bearing two words only "Baby Dead!" This is the second boy who has lived to be one year old and then died! Arthur Allen Giles buried at Tientsin, and now Harold Alston Giles buried at Ningpo!
J.A.G.