From: Emmental, Bessarabia
20 August 1911

I received the third issue of this publication at the post office on August 14. I had waited for it with anticipation to know how our friends and family are faring across the big pond. Unfortunately, there was not much in terms of correspondence. I hope consecutive issues will have more information. I hope that a few folks out there will take the pen and write for the paper!

Almost everyone here has finished threshing. This probably holds true across the ocean as well. We could start winter seeding, but there is no rain. The soil is so dry that plowing is not feasible.

Many thanks to A. Degenstein, J. Ganje, Peter Jochim, Anton Wickenhauser, J. Giesinger, and Michael Miller for all the newsy items in Issue #4. The toughest job out there does not prevent them from sacrificing an hour to write for the sake of friendship and fellow readers. Wish some of my friends would make themselves heard! Mr. Jochim of Emmons County, you probably know a few of my friends there! Just take the paper with my note and show it to them! Perhaps some of them have forgotten the old homeland. Things have changed from the times when our ancestors left Germany and settled in Russia. There were no newspapers and this generation mostly does not know where in Germany the ancestors came from.

As the Staats-Anzeiger grows here and overseas, people who will come a hundred years from now will know exactly where their ancestors lived in Russia. I don't know where many of my friends are in America, but hope the Staats-Anzeiger will be a medium to find out.

My nephew Jakob Dirk and his two sons Poncianus [Pontianus] and Hermes [Herman] are also in North Dakota, but I do not know their address. I also have a brother-in-law, Jakob Marthaller in North Dakota and don't know his address either. If someone out there knows, please let me know!

Out of 311 members of the newly established Credit Bank of Bender, 169 came to vote for the new board. Mr.Christian Fischer of Bender is the new bank director and Michael Suchow, the vice president. Both gentlemen will earn 1,200 rubles annually. A bookkeeper, A.W. Kaminsky has been appointed with an annual salary of 1,600 rubles as well as two assistants at 1,200 rubles per year. May God bless this enterprise!

Greetings to my sons-in-law Ignatz Gross in Morton County and Eduard Richter and their families as well as all friends and readers.

Romuald Dirk

From: Emmental, Bessarabia
8 September 1911

Esteemed Editorship!

From the time of the threshing until 5 September, we had a drought. Ever since then it has been raining every day. If it should continue like this for the rest of this month, we are afraid that the Welsh corn will not ripen completely.

All autumn grains are still standing in their prettiest green. The price of grain at the end of August was quite high: Wheat 1 ruble* and 12 kopeks* per pud (36.11 Lb), barley 76 kopeks. The wheat has now dropped to 90 and barley to 70. Horses and cattle have been very expensive all summer long, and it seems the prices are still rising.

A horse, which could be bought last year for 100 rubles, now costs 175, and the price for cows rose from 40 to 80 rubles. On 5 September, several buyers for horses from Krasna arrived here, but due to the high prices they only bought 15 horses. In the village mutton costs 14 kopeks per pound, beef 15, butter 30, eggs 22, and in the city all of it is 5 to 8 kopeks more expensive.

Also, today Anton Arnold from Karamurat, Rumania, is here in Emmental to buy horses. He did not buy any, probably because the price was too high for him. Dear nephew Peter Januscheitis in Morton County, N.D., the authorization for your fatherly property I have received and I am thinking of going there on 12 September. I heard, and the trustee also told me about a month ago, the inheritance is already divided among the siblings, and your portion was given to your brother Thomas, who is supposed to send you your part. After expert evidence, I will file an oral complaint due to illegal sharing. I have not been at your brother Thomas’ for half a year. If you would have sent me the power of attorney a month ago, I could have prevented the illegal distribution. Of course, now it will cause a lot of problems.

On the 12th, I will travel to Krasna and after my return I will report to this paper what I have heard and seen. As far as I know the grandmother is still alive and is now 80 years old.

A cordial greeting to the relatives and the reader’s circle.

Romuald Dirk

*100 Kopeks = 1 Ruble (Russian Currencies).