From: Emmental, Bessarabia
23 February 1912

A few days ago I mailed my justification and my rebuff of the attack on my person to the Staats-Anzeiger. Mr. Michael Gross made this attack on me in Issue #29 of the paper. If it will find acceptance remains to be seen. (*Editor: This already happened.)

During the last half year, I have written a lot for the Staats-Anzeiger, but never did I feel compelled to attack someone personally, because I know that such attacks are not welcomed by the editorship and would have perhaps landed in the wastebasket. But I noticed that the editorship sometimes makes an exception. (*Editor: We believe that we talked about that sufficiently in the prior issue and the honorable Mr. Contributor should now be satisfied and continue to favor us with his correspondences which we always welcome. The Mr. Correspondent is a clever writer and he fares like many of those. He might not be understood at all or is misunderstood. Thus Mr. Dirk, continue to write. We will see to it that you will be justified in every respect.)

Today, 23 February, I also received a letter from my children Eduard and Eugenia Richter in Morton County, North Dakota. They reported that they also read the Staats-Anzeiger, which made me very happy. They also sent me Michael Gross’ outrageous personal attack on me. But I want to let my children know that I already read this long before I received the letter. I also want to remark that I am not mad at the editorship of the Staats-Anzeiger. Perhaps the editor had a good reason to accept the attack. (*Editor: We are glad that you don’t bear a grudge about the story and that you judge us so reasonably. We had reasons though to accept Michael Gross’ correspondence, but put the gentleman into his place right away. But these reasons weren’t of a pecuniary nature and there is no purpose to mention them, but they were justifiable – this much we will remark on.) I am glad that so many of my friends and relatives read the Staats-Anzeiger. All of these people know that Mr. Gross’ attack on me is not true and based on lies. That alone is satisfaction for me. Mr. Johannes Seifert from Emmental died recently. He left his widow and 5 children.

The weather is warm with cloudy skies. Should it clear up soon with wind blowing from the south, then the farmers will be able to start with the seeding at the end of the month.

I am greeting my children and all friends here and there, as well as the editorship and the reader’s circle.

Romuald Dirk

From: Emmental, Bessarabia
6 March 1912

With happiness I read in Issue #30 of the Staats-Anzeiger, a correspondence from my dear friend Philipp Seifert, who encouraged me to report more about the old homeland. Now, I think I have already done that and with pleasure. I hope that Mr. Editor Brandt accepts my justification and if he does, I will again correspond and will not get perplexed by a slanderer.

In Issue #30, once again the same correspondent, (I don’t think it is someone else) who attacked me personally writes a story about a man who married a widow from Emmental, who owned a grocery store. The man who married the widow 7 years ago is Joseph Reiss. The heartless correspondent who sent in the report about Joseph Reiss, who is an upright and honest man, is not ashamed to sign the correspondence with Joseph Reiss’ name instead of this own. (*Editor: That is impossible for us to know, since the name of the man who married the widow was not mentioned, and since Joseph Reiss is also a reader of the paper we naturally assumed that he wrote the correspondence. What else could we have thought? Naturally a person who sends in correspondences, attacks other people and then uses the name of another man instead of his own is a mean creature.) I feel sorry for Mr. Reiss and that the correspondence was published. (*Editor: Yes, we are sorry too.) I have noticed a long time ago that whoever has no shame also has no honor.

A greeting to everyone,
Romuald Dirk