From: Emmental, Bessarabia
18 December 1920
Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!
If you want to eat cherries you have to plant trees ahead of time. And whoever wants to read news in the Staats-Anzeiger has to make sure that correspondences are sent in. The editorship can’t know what is going on in the world. That is why the readers have to diligently send in reports, and sadly enough there still is a lack of that being done.
Here in our village quite a few people are reading the paper, but no one except for me has written anything for the paper. The people who order the paper would probably like to see a little thank you note in the paper, and if everyone would do that the Staats-Anzeiger would soon comprise of eight pages again. In Edition #37, Sebastian Kambeitz is asking the people from Balmas to write. But you hear very little from there in the paper even though there have been big changes since the start of the war, and this would be interesting for our fellow countrymen in America.
Today Anton Loeb died. He was 58 years old. He left behind his wife and four children. This should inform his children, Adolf and Justina Wagner in Canada. In the mailbox of Edition #35, I saw that my sister Karolina also receives the paper. Thank you very much, brother Joseph!
This is to inform Mr. Wilhelm Gross that his friends and siblings are still in good health. I will send the correct address to your brother Ignatz.
The weather is still dry, cold and with a little snow, so that we can’t use the sleigh.
A few days ago I went to Bendery. There were many Russian refugees who had come across the frozen Dnjester River. The Rumanian government had given the order to send the refugees back, but no one wants to voluntarily make the return trip. It must be very sad over there.
The Russian money is being re-evaluated for the second time. The first time many people did not exchange their money in the hopes that the Russian ruble would increase in value. Now they are ready to exchange all their Russian money. On the 21st of this month the exchange will start.
I heard that someone was supposed to have thrown a bomb into the parliament building in Bukarest and killing three ministers.
In closing, I am greeting my old mother in Fox Valley, as well as my brothers Joseph and Peter.
I also wish the editor lots of luck and many new readers in the New Year.
In our neighboring village of Kainari, a burglary took place at a rich farmer’s house. All clothing and also Russian gold and silver was taken. The loss amounted to 12,000 lei.
Zachaeus Kopp