From: Karamurat, Romania
16 March 1914
I am not a registered reader. But nonetheless, I am an eager reader and this indeed at my brother-in-law, Romanus Bogalofsky. I have to agree with the many readers who maintain that the Staats-Anzeiger is the best paper on God’s wide earth. Reason being that reports appear from all over the world. Also, correspondence can be read from many friends who moved away and from whom one hasn’t heard anything for a long time. This also applies to me.
I have a brother-in-law by the name of Johannes Schuck in the New World from whom I always wanted to hear, but I did not have his address. Now, to my delight, I recently found a remark in the newspaper that he too joined the Staats-Anzeiger family as a new reader. This family is big already and it will commendably grow bigger. Now my request is that Mr. Brandt, the editor, accepts these lines.
Last summer, Regina, my oldest sister died. During her last moments she made me promise to write to all siblings. But because I did not have an address I could not fulfill the wish of the dearly departed. Now, dear brother-in-law Johannes, you were never lazy in writing and I am asking you to write me a letter. Also from my brother Ludwig Bartsch, I have not received a letter ever since he is in America, but I am still hoping for one.
A bad contagion dominates among the pigs here in Karamurat and wherever it is spreading to, not a single pig survives. On top of this, people are so ignorant and do not make any attempt to prevent the disease from spreading. They haul the dead pigs to the open field where dogs will feed on them and subsequently spread the epidemic. Some even go a step further and just leave the pigs lying in the yard. What can you say to such ignorance?
I do not want to take up any more space in the newspaper. I send greetings to my brother-in-law Johannes Schuck and sister Magdalena Schuck. I would be very grateful if he would pay my subscription to the Staats-Anzeiger for a year. In which case, I would often and cheerfully submit reports from here. Further, I send a greeting to all my friends in Russia and in the New World.
Joseph Bartsch.