1870 CHINA MISSIONARY'S LETTER AND PRINTED RELIGIOUS TRACT
Fine pair of early Christian missionary items from China, includes an A.L.S. of missionary DAUPHIN W. OSGOOD (1845-1880), a medical missionary who established the Foochow Medical Missionary Hospital near Ponasang. During his ten years of labor he had given medical aid to 51,838 patients and about 1,500 opium smokers. Died of sunstroke. The very rtare letter, 4pp. 8vo., Foochow, November, 1870 was sent to Sarah Holt in New Hampshire via San Francisco, with envelope. Osgood describes how a year earlier he had been at Omaha en route to the "Celestial Kingdom...as our locomotive ran off the rails when we were crossing a bridge...here for ten months...studying the language which is no small task [adds Chinese characters and explanations]...Fouchou twenty miles inland...surrounded by a high wall over six miles in length...six gates which are closed at dusk...street are very narrow and dirty...in constant danger of having your head rapped by the passing sedan chairs...which are the only conveyances...going three miles...the get about 15 cents...This city abounds in Heathen Temples...we have GOD'S promise that it shall succeed..." . Accompanied by a Christian religious tract printed in Chinese, 1p. large 4to., explains the concept of the soul, fully translated. Three pieces.