From: Emmental, Bessarabia
September 1911

(Continuation)

Every one listened attentively to Uncle Christian, and he spoke further:

“For the price of a vice, you can raise two children. Maybe you think that off and on a little tea and a little coffee, a little wine, a little liquor, a little bit of good food, a few nicer clothes, and a little feast, that cannot possibly amount to too much. But remember what ‘Milk-Seppel’ says, “A lot of little will make a big many.” That’s why you should watch your small expenses. A small leak will sink a big ship! If you only like delicacies, you will end up a beggar. Also, fools often hold banquets, smart people eat at it.

I still have a lot to tell you, but it is time to go to the auctions. At any auction a lot of items are sold cheaply. Yes, often much cheaper than when originally purchased, but it is still much too expensive for whoever doesn’t need it. Just think about what ‘Milk-Seppel’ usually says, “Just buy what you don’t need, and surely you will soon have to sell your necessities.” Also, if you can make a cheap trade then reflect on it for a while and remember that through cheap purchases many a person has gone to ruin.

Also, (illegible)… Some of you walk around with a hungry stomach and let your family starve, just so you can load your necks with finery. “Taffeta, satin, velvet and silk extinguish the fire in the kitchen,” like ‘Milk-Seppel’ would say. Such things one cannot call necessities, let alone comforts of life, yet many still yearn for them, just because they want to look pretty.

Through these and similar follies many respected men have lost much of their wealth and had to borrow from others, whom they had shunned earlier, but who, through diligence and economic ways, asserted themselves in their position. “Then it shows very clearly that a farmer who is standing is taller than a fancy gentleman who is kneeling,” like ‘Milk-Seppel’ usually would say. Perhaps they were heirs to a small fortune but didn’t know how it was acquired and think that the sun is high in the sky and will never set, and it is not worth talking about when one can spend a little of a lot. However, the one who continuously dips into the flour box and does not refill it will get to the bottom soon. Once the well is dry then one learns to appreciate the water.

If you want to learn the value of money, then go borrow some and you will soon find out that borrowing brings sorrow. It is the same for those who have loaned money to those people and would like to have it back. ‘Milk-Seppel’ says, “a fool’s obsession with fashion has cursed many a person. So don’t be vain, always ask your pocketbook first.” The pride begs as much as the need, but it does not turn red as easily.

The poor person who is imitating a rich one is just as foolish as the frog that is blowing himself up to get as big as an ox. A big ship may always drift towards the sea; a small boat should stay close to the shore. Such stupidities will not stay unpunished for long, because “pride will be served vanity at noon and contempt in the evening,” like ‘Milk-Seppel’ would say. Pride takes its breakfast with the wealth, its noon meal with the poverty, its supper with disgrace. What in the end is this pride worth under false pretense, after so much daring and tolerance? It cannot give you health, nor take away pain, and it cannot raise your personal worth, but it can create envy and speed up disaster. Like many of you here have driven home from the fields with tired horses. But, arriving in the village, the poor animals had to endure many hits with the whip just to parade proudly in front of people. However, could those poor animals speak, they would shame you humans with brains to demand such an injustice from them.

We are at the place where the auction will shortly take place – and indeed on credit. But what folly does it take to get into debt due to unnecessary items. All auction stipulations are one year of credit and that perhaps has made some of us come here, even though there is no cash, but hope to be able to make it nice without it. But I ask you, think about what you are doing when you have more debts than you already have. You are giving someone else power over you. Have you maybe already forgotten how some of you have fared when you couldn’t pay at a certain time? You had to be ashamed in front of your creditor. I am still seeing it today, which cringing excuse you had to make, because you should know: The first vice is debts, the second lies, and debts are pulling the wagon on which the lie is traveling.”

(Continuation follows)

The fieldwork is making progress as a result of favorable weather. Should the weather continue the Welsh corn will be nice and ripe. We are counting on 200 pud (7,222 lbs) of corncobs from a desjatine (2.5 acres).

A sincere greeting to relatives, friends and acquaintances.

Romuald Dirk