Source: Dakota Rundschau, 1 July 1932 · 📰

From: Krasna, Bessarabia
May 1932

Dear Editor:

A mishap occurred on May 27. The 18-year-old son of Albertus Riehl and his 13-year-old sister went to the clay pit to get clay. The 18-month-old child of Reinhold Koch was with them on the wagon.

When the young Riehl began to load the clay, a wall of the pit caved in and buried the wagon. Riehl’s head hit the axle of the wagon, which was shattered by the falling clay burying the young man. The frightened horses broke their traces and escaped without harm. The baby was buried in the pit, but the 13 year old who only had sustained minor injuries, managed to free the child. She could not free her brother and hollered for help, which arrived in the form of other people in the pit. They did everything they could to free young Riehl. He was freed, but had lost consciousness and was hauled to his home. The baby was also unconscious and was brought to the first home. The doctor from Tarutino arrived as fast as he could to work on the wounded. Results are not yet available.

During the night of 30-31 May, we had rain. It was more hail than water and we feared for our windowpanes. Yet, the grain in the fields stands tall, winter crop as well as the summer grain. The good Lord willing, we will have a good harvest. We should get better grain prices on top of it. Then many sad faces will break into great smiles. At the moment, barley fetches 33 Lei and corn 21 Lei/Pud. Eggs are 70 Lei per hundred. By the way, the eggs remind me of something that happened here last week. As usual, one of these egg buyers came into town and a woman sold him 40 eggs. He paid at a rate of 65 Lei per hundred, therefore the woman should have received 26 Lei but received only 22 Lei. Counting the money often as she might, it still amounted to only 22 Lei. She got her dander up and demanded the missing 4 Lei, which the dealer didn’t want to cough up. She threatened to break apart the entire inventory on his wagon. The dealer had not expected this turn of events and shouted in fear, “Little mother, don’t touch those eggs. I’ll pay you a 100 Lei, just leave me be!” He gave her the money and the farm wife went her way.

On May 10, we had another mission event with Pastor Bernhard Leibheim celebrating his 30th anniversary of priesthood. A small essay on the event will follow at a later date.

For today, I am sending greetings to our readers here and there.

Joseph Braun