From: Emmental, Bessarabia
8 December 1911

After lasting wet weather, with the sun hiding behind autumn clouds for quite a while, hard frost and dry weather appeared for a change, for which the whole environs have been yearning, so they can continue their busy work by wagon. Naturally, many people do not want to be the first ones, since the roads were bumpy and rough due to the hard frost, and it was no fun driving on them.

On the eve of the feast of Mary’s Conception, the sky became very clear and on the day of the feast the sun was shining brightly onto our faces. But we looked at it as an omen of hard frost, and we were not mistaken. The present winter not only surprised the people of North Dakota, but also us here in the south, but certainly he could not assert his might as much here as in North Dakota, since the sun here is more at home than the winter. So he had to give in after a short reign, and every one of our farmers could totally finish all of their summer work before he once again came to rule. As Der Staats-Anzeiger from North Dakota taught us, the winter there proved that he is at home there, and naturally the north is the winter’s home. Consequently, the people in the Dakotas should not complain, when the winter has an influence there.

With that he brought all of you, so to speak, the old homeland into your mind, and the fact that there is an enormous difference between north and south. I believe that many among my friends and acquaintances in the north say that they would have stayed in South Russia, if land had been available. But I have to say that until today there is no great shortage of land. Not the lack of land alone is the reason why most people who are over there have left their homeland, but many other circumstances made them search for something better in far America.

Several years ago it was really bad here in the south for poor farmers. Because if there was indeed one who wanted to try despite lack of funds to buy a piece of land, he had to, whether he liked or not, seek the arrangement of a profiteer and knock on his door. There he did not always find what he was looking for, since the kopeks (Russian currency) of the profiteer are mercilessly hungry and drag others back with them wherever they go and the farmers usually were left empty handed.

But now, dear fellow countrymen, this evil has been remedied to some extent. You will have noticed of late, that the immigration from South Russia isn’t as strong as earlier. Nowadays, there is help here for the poor farmer. He is, due to the establishment of good credit companies, almost totally out of the grip of the profiteer. I am also reporting to you that such companies came to exist where the farmer can borrow money at a low interest rate. Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere. Such companies only exist where advanced ideas and education have made their way. Since these are still in a deep sleep in many places, much has to happen yet until they can be introduced everywhere.

Where education and advancement are missing, ignorance and roughness rule. And where these have roots, 10 or 20 of the best and most educated men have to work a long time to wake up the people. Ignorance and roughness are equal to a wolf, which attacks a herd of sheep and does not consider that he is inflicting more damage to the owner of the sheep than his hunger could cause, and would remain unsatisfied. It is inborn to the wolf, and he is only copying his ancestors. Every person who knows the wolf will say that the wolf is this way and will stay this way. Of course, he will stay this way, since he does not see it different in his pack. But if he is caught and trained, he will soon give up his inborn vice and will improve. With this I do not want to put a human on the same level with an animal and compare, but only to describe how you can wean an unreasonable animal from its bad habits.

How much more humans, who……. text missing ……. worry about filling the teacher position. Finally, some people had the idea, that if the teacher would commit himself for 20 rubles (Russian currency) less, then he would be offered the job again. Thought about and done, the teacher was asked, and he agreed immediately. Similar circumstances rule in many communities. And one is supposed to be surprised when there is no talk about education, progress and sound knowledge? These are circumstances we have to struggle with in many places here in the south. Naturally, intelligent men are in all communities, and they are willing to do away with the evil. But they are usually a minority, and what can one do, if the Moldavians would rather stay with their oxen and will not have anything to do with horses? Gosh, if such backward people would only look around in colonies like Landau, Selz, Karlsruhe and many other school facilities of the Cherson Government. Their eyes would be opened like those of Adam and Eve in paradise.

Greetings to the editorship, correspondents, and fellow readers of the paper.

Romuald Dirk