From: Brisbane, Morton County, ND
9 December 1911
Now that there is more of an opportunity to write, I again will let something be heard from here. The weather is fairly nice. Since the 28 November, we have had nice weather and the snow we had soon disappeared, so that one can use the wagon again. Because there is not much new to report this time, I want to present a poem:
When Noah was out of the box, the Lord came to him and sensed Noah’s sacrifice and said, “I will have mercy on you and since you lived such a pious life, you decide for yourself what kind of mercy.”
Then Noah said, “Dear Lord, water doesn’t taste good to me anymore, because in it drowned all sinful beasts and mankind. That is why I, a poor old man, would like to have a different drink.”
The Lord then reached into paradise and gave him a sweet vine along with good advice and tutor, and said, “This you shall take care of well,” showing him this and that.
Noah was immensely happy and summoned wife and child, and all his domestic servants, planting vineyards all around him. Noah was really not dumb and built a cellar and pressed the wine and filled the barrels.
Noah was a pious man. He tapped one barrel after another and drank to God’s honor, which was of no trouble to him. He drank after the big flood, for three hundred and fifty years.
An intelligent man will understand from this that wine consumption will bring no harm. And further, a clever Christian will never mix wine and water together, because in it drowned all sinful beasts and mankind.
I also would like to visit the Argentines and deliver them friendly greetings. Maybe one of the readers south of the Equator, or in its vicinity, could send me the addresses of Adam, Georg, and Gottfried Schismak [Tischmak]. They moved from Rumania to Argentina, and I have not yet received any news from them.
Math. A. Erker
From: Emmental, Bessarabia
Dear Colleague Anton Jochim!
Your reply to my report in #13 of the Staats-Anzeiger I received in #16. I am glad, dear colleague, you and your worthy wife are in good health. But I am surprised that you have the notion to move back to the old homeland. I think that this can only be accomplished if one has some desire in one’s legs. Should America really not have anything better to offer than Russia? Then there would be many human souls to pity, who from Russia, were seeking better luck in America.
In Russia, I also have experienced such a desire in my legs, which today I regret. You say that we could not feel happy at our old places in Nikolaital and Simonsfeld. Of course, that is what we thought then, whereupon you left Simonsfeld soon thereafter. I myself still stayed three years after your departure, and then I looked for something better in my home community Krasna. However, I did not find anything I had wished for and I regret it still today that I had taken that step. I was looked up to by small and large and all my superiors, as long as I was in service, which today I no longer know.
Therefore dear colleague, Anton Jochim, do not forget the proverb: “Whosoever has his bread, should not look for greener pastures!” If you have a well-earned small investment, then look after it there where you earned it, because here in Russia nothing will contribute to its growth. I would like to write something about Simonsfeld, but neither from Simonsfeld nor from Nikolaital do I receive any news.
Dear colleague Anton, maybe you will have the opportunity to get to Stebbins, Morton County, where I have two married daughters. The older one is married to Ignatz Gross, and the younger to Eduard Richter. Should you visit them, and then you will find out what my activity is. Because since I left Kotschabe after twelve years of service, I do not find peace in any business. Everything I attempt does not fit, and thereby one gets to hundreds of positions until in the end one’s pants are worn out. After that I had attempted everything.
For three years I had a store, thereafter a tavern, and now a butcher shop in Emmental. But with it I also have no peace. Therefore, in spring, I will go to the old homeland Krasna and intend to stay there, God willing.
Two of my sons are blacksmith craftsmen, and the third is a shoemaker. At his place, I will find work to last me the rest of my life. In closing, many heartfelt greetings to you and your honorable wife from my entire family and me.
Dear friend, Dosiderius Wagner, in Canada!
You too I want to inform via the Staats-Anzeiger that I received your letter from the 7 November, which made my whole family and me very happy.
According to your promise when you departed, I was hoping to soon receive news from you about how you got to your destination in Canada. But it must be terribly far from here to Canada, because your letter took from April to November to get here. I know that you can write well. That’s why I do not have to think that perhaps you needed all this time to write a letter, because the far distance is the only reason.
Dear friend Dosiderius! To correct the situation so that in the future the letters will not take as long, get acquainted with the editorship of the Staats-Anzeiger in Devils Lake, N.D. They will bring me your letters in their newspaper within 16 days.
Now I have to inform you about how things are over here. You do know that earlier on, things here went up and down. It is still the same today. As soon as one thinks to be standing solidly, then something will get in the way and thwart all of one’s plans. When you left from here, it was the 28 March. Since then we have worked and put together a little capital. But just as soon as one thinks to have gotten it down, that’s when also the hungry Mr.Winter appears as a guest and does not spare anything until spring. He leaves behind new sorrows, and he himself goes to Argentina for the summer.
On 21 November, I was at the post office in Kainari to receive the mail for Emmental. There were three returned letters in the mail from America. One was addressed to Thomas Haag in Canada, one to Ignatz Gross in North Dakota, and the other to a person unknown to me. I do not know the reason why the letters with the correct addresses did not get to their destinations.
Married in Emmental were: Elias Maas to Theofilia Müller, and Melchior Seifert to Eva Baumann. The first couple was wed in the prayer house on 8 November.
My family and I were also invited to this festivity. Due to circumstances, I could not participate, only my family. The wedding celebration lasted three days, and the guests amused themselves with plenty of culinary provisions. Better off yet was the cook, your mother, because in the evening of the final day at the end of the wedding celebration she came to me. I was just reading the Staats-Anzeiger, when she counted a heap of copper and silver coins, which she had received as a reward from the wedding guests for the well-prepared meal.
All news that occurred from 28 March until today, I submitted all summer long to the Staats-Anzeiger for publication, and I will also forward whatever follows. Order the Staats-Anzeiger really soon, then you will find out everything. For as long as I will be in Emmental, I will still have a good many things to report, but a lot I have to postpone.
There is a misunderstanding among the people, because the Emmentalers maintain that when the Staats-Anzeiger reflects a description whose originator is from Emmental, then everything is written about them and they react with strange faces. Therefore, I should not write much about the old homeland, lest in the end I will make enemies in Emmental. However, I’ll see if you write a lot from there, then I will write also.
With a sincere greeting, Romuald Dirk