From: Krasna, Bessarabia
16 June 1912

Most Honored Mr. Editor!

As I promised in my last correspondence to write in High German, I’ll make my first attempt today no matter how it will turn out. It has already become difficult for me to write in the mother language because by reading the newspaper so much, the High German took precedence. I would have started a much sooner to write in High German, but whenever I wanted to start, my heart throbbed and trembled. But now I was thinking, a good start is half the battle, and just wrote in High German. Words from the farmers’ dialect probably will sneak in now and then, but with time they will lose themselves like a sheep loses wool.

Well then, my comrades in America, now I will also write …… text missing …. newspaper has to write. I wrote up to this point and then I read what I wrote. I liked the paragraph so much that I had to laugh, because by reading the newspaper for a year I am now able to write in High German.

There is nothing stupid about a newspaper. If I would have known sooner that by reading the newspaper one can further one’s education, then I would have acted smarter and read the paper for a year instead of letting the people know that with the dumb farmers’ dialect I did not understand anything. Then I would have done it like my buddy Kahl, “When writing, then immediately write in High German.”

Sure enough, I like my article for a start in High German and I am totally ashamed because I had always written with a dialect. Now I want to see – as the distinguished gentlemen say – how things will turn out. My friend Kahl! Once I am affluent with writing in High German, the editorship will be kept busy. Then I will write a circular about the truth and the lies. Then, so I think, these hypocrites that always sweet talk, and up front purr like a kitten but all the while scratch like a cat with its hind legs, will find out what sets the truth and lies apart. Since childhood they have not learned anything about the truth from their parents. Hold up, my little foxes of lies, I have grasped it and the longer I write the better the pen will glide.

Now I want to write more about those who always want to be the nice guys and who empty their glasses in the stealthy corners of the taverns in Anschakrak (Tarutino), so that nobody can accuse them of drinking like nursing babies.

If someone like that has intentions of sneaking unnoticed into the corners of a tavern, then he will first look over his shoulders ten times with great care to insure that no one notices how his heart languishes for the soft grape juice or the refreshing grain oil. Then when he sneaks out again and runs into one of his town’s people in the market place, he will wipe off the sweat that the alcohol has pushed out of the pores on his forehead. He will sigh as if he has exhausted himself walking and he’ll say, “Oh, I’ll have to go and get something to eat, I haven’t had anything yet.” Then, if the individual he meets invites him, as it often happens in the market place, for a glass of wine or rye, he will dismiss it by waving his hands. He will then say, “Never mind, I cannot do that before I have eaten and further, I am not very fond of it.”

Now just wait, little fox, when you try again to pull one over on me in the market place. Then I’ll have you on the list and you’ll take a walk under my pen to the place where I’ll tell you how many times you have already cooled your burning heart in the back corners prior to going for food.

A miracle man like that with like skills approached me in the market place in Arzis, but I will let him be this time with my first write-up in High German. However, the next time he will not get by.

In closing and with the highest politeness I send you, dear friend and your wife and children, as well as the reader’s circle, a heartfelt greeting.

A Farmer

Source: Der Staats-Anzeiger, 31 July 1912

From: Makarofka, Bessarabia
18 July 1912

Again, I was very close to believing that I was shorted an edition of the Staats-Anzeiger, but then things turned out for the better. Just as I was thinking about how often I don’t receive an edition, the telephone rang. I thanked the telephone operator and promised her that I would dispatch a special messenger. Then I opened the door and told my coachman to use the sulky and drive to Sguriza and fetch the paper. He brought Edition #45 after half an hour.

When I unfolded the paper, my eyes immediately focused on a report by my old colleague Anton Jochim in Canada. He wrote about an adventure with a believer in nature. My dear colleague, I believe that this man could have been an associate of the professor who wanted to make his students believe that men don’t have a soul. But the students didn’t have much faith in him and referred him to their priest who presented facts that men do have a soul. The heat now was on Mr. Professor. In front of the students, he compared the priest to a fur cap and asked them to greet the priest from him. Although the priest had delivered sound proof from his treasured books and scriptures to his students, the priest should still listen to the professor’s advice. Namely, if your spiritual advisor will show me a small piece of a soul from a butchered man then I will be ready to agree that men have a soul. The students relayed to the priest the professor’s message. The priest reacted by having the students deliver an invitation to the professor for a visit, which the professor politely accepted. Soon thereafter the professor visited the priest. The gentlemen both tried to bring their point across.

This time the professor personally made the proposition to the priest to show a piece of soul from a butchered man. Whereupon he would agree with him and believe that men have a soul. The priest briefly seized up the professor and then curtly said, “Mr. Professor, do you have a mind? Show me a piece of a mind from a butchered human being. Then I too will believe that you have the intellect to talk about such an important subject with the students. Else I will rest my case and take you as a complete fool who doesn’t know the least about such important subjects.” The professor did not have anything to say any more. He pulled back in defeat and no longer with his students touched on subjects that the human eye cannot see. - Such individuals, dear colleague, are people that search where they have not lost anything.

I would like to mention that the weather during the first few days of June was still dry, but since 5 June we have a lot of rain. We had already started with harvesting a variety of grains. The rainy weather now hinders efforts, but hope does not lead to shame! Therefore we will endure with patience and after all the bad the good will appear.

Just as I was writing these lines I received the news that the reservoir at the Oekonomie near Marakofka had raised so much as a result of a cloud burst that the dam had broken on its right side. On the left side of the dam there is the water driven mill which serves as a complete run-off for the water, but the on rushing water was so enormous, that the place for the run-off could not handle it.

I greet my old colleague Anton Jochim as well as Mr. Jakob Sommerfeld and the other co-workers, and especially my children in North Dakota.

Romuald Dirk

From: Stebbins, Morton County, ND
20 July 1912

We have dry weather and are cutting hay. The grain fields are bad in some places, and good in others. On average, it will be a poor harvest. Flax and corn however, are growing very well.

My Uncle Thomas Riehl from Lemmon, South Dakota visited us. He said they already had four failed crops, one after another so that all farmers will have to move on. He himself will move to Canada, where it is known that crops grow well.

A greeting to my friend Kaspar Gedak in Krasna, South Russia who I know is a good writer. Who is now, I assume, employed in a government office.

Why, comrade Kaspar, do you not let anything be known in the newspaper about you? You certainly have time and are able to write well.

Should you not be a subscriber to this paper, then I advise you to order it. I know you will be happy when you read a lot about comrades, friends and acquaintances.

With a hello to all readers,

Eugenius Riehl.

From: Raleigh, North Dakota
22 July 1912

The weather has been very hot the past days so that the wheat appears very dry. Everybody here is getting ready for the harvest, so are we. We will not harvest much, but we will make do with what God bestows on us.

We were presented a great joy when we recently saw a picture of our father in the dear newspaper along with his biography. I immediately cut out the picture and put it away for safekeeping.

As soon as we receive the Staats-Anzeiger, we peruse it to see if there is anything written about parents, siblings or friends.

We are also happy to know that the parents and siblings have found a good place. Maybe there, enough can be earned so that all of them can come to America.

So then, I send a greeting to parents and siblings in South Russia, as well as to all friends and acquaintances.

Eugenia Richter,
Wife of Eduard.