Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to C.Y. Sun, Tientsin April 24, 1929
Dublin Core
Title
Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to C.Y. Sun, Tientsin April 24, 1929
Subject
Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to C.Y. Sun, Tientsin April 24, 1929
Transcription
Dear Mr. Sun:
Charlie writes me quite happily that he has definitely decided to return to his home this coming summer and has written you to that effect. My purpose now in writing you is merely to thank you for your decision to allow the boy to return, and to express my personal conviction that the decision is eminently wise.
Of all the Chinese boys whom it has been my privilege to meet and deal with during the last thirty years, none has more fully won my confidence and good will than has Charlie. As I have watched him in his college course, I have been a little disappointed that the boy has not been able to enter more actively into the general life of the college, but this has been due evidently to the seriousness with which he has taken his responsibilities and the very earnest way in which he has gone at his studies. For the past year, the boy has seemed to me a bit fagged. In this country, we would be accustomed to use the expression as applicable to him of having "gone a bit stale". In other words, he seems a little tired mentally and physically, and I am sure that he will profit in the end by going home at the close of his college career this summer even if it should be deemed wise for him to return later for post-graduate work.
Tom seems to be going along smoothly in his work at Middlebury, and the last report that I have had about Mary was a decidedly encouraging one, as I wrote you at the time.
I watch with keen interest such fragmentary reports as we are able to get in this country of the conditions and developments in China. What a wonderful thing it will be for China and for the world when a stable and responsible government once gets authoritative control and the days of war lords and adventurers can be regarded as belonging wholly to the past. It is my sincere hope that this day may speedily come and that perhaps some of our old Andover boys may play their effective parts in bringing about this happy outcome.
With kind personal regards, and trusting that your health is steadily improving, believe me
Very sincerely yours,
Charlie writes me quite happily that he has definitely decided to return to his home this coming summer and has written you to that effect. My purpose now in writing you is merely to thank you for your decision to allow the boy to return, and to express my personal conviction that the decision is eminently wise.
Of all the Chinese boys whom it has been my privilege to meet and deal with during the last thirty years, none has more fully won my confidence and good will than has Charlie. As I have watched him in his college course, I have been a little disappointed that the boy has not been able to enter more actively into the general life of the college, but this has been due evidently to the seriousness with which he has taken his responsibilities and the very earnest way in which he has gone at his studies. For the past year, the boy has seemed to me a bit fagged. In this country, we would be accustomed to use the expression as applicable to him of having "gone a bit stale". In other words, he seems a little tired mentally and physically, and I am sure that he will profit in the end by going home at the close of his college career this summer even if it should be deemed wise for him to return later for post-graduate work.
Tom seems to be going along smoothly in his work at Middlebury, and the last report that I have had about Mary was a decidedly encouraging one, as I wrote you at the time.
I watch with keen interest such fragmentary reports as we are able to get in this country of the conditions and developments in China. What a wonderful thing it will be for China and for the world when a stable and responsible government once gets authoritative control and the days of war lords and adventurers can be regarded as belonging wholly to the past. It is my sincere hope that this day may speedily come and that perhaps some of our old Andover boys may play their effective parts in bringing about this happy outcome.
With kind personal regards, and trusting that your health is steadily improving, believe me
Very sincerely yours,
Creator
Alfred E. Stearns
Publisher
Phillips Academy
Date
April 24, 1929
Rights
All Rights Reserved by Phillips Academy
Language
English
Type
Correspondence