From: Larga, Bessarabia
6 July 1920

Valued Staats-Anzeiger!

Foremost I want to inform Johannes Moser that I have received his letter. I also have forwarded the letter he had enclosed for his sister Rosina Strubel to Balmas with instructions that she should come and see me in Larga as soon as she had received the letter. So then Mr. Johannes Moser, you will receive a letter from me during the first few days after reading these lines. The letter that you will receive in the mail will explain everything. I believe that the widow Strubel will visit me within 2 days to talk about her silence in reference to your letters. I would write more but one has to be frugal and use paper sparingly. A month ago the Staats-Anzeiger had sent me more than 40 sheets of paper. But 40 sheets do not last long with the amount of writing I do.

My nephew Peter Januscheitis recently wrote me a letter, in which he mentioned that he had written a letter to me some time ago. But I must make it clear that I had not received a letter from him. Most likely the letter stalled at some post office because of its weight and insufficient postage. He now wrote me that he had included several written sheets along with some blank paper and probably did not put enough stamps on the envelope. Currently, there is a paper shortage worldwide. Then when a nice package with blank paper comes along without the required postage, what a surprise when such paper is lost – perhaps at the destination post office. However, during the past few days a new conscientious postmaster was assigned to the post office in Kainari. I believe that such pranks will not happen in his office. But then again one should not praise the day before the evening has arrived!

Today, I also sent a letter to my children Ignatz and Amalia Gross and one to my nephew Peter Januscheitis. My nephew wrote that my children Gross each had sent me $10 on two occasions. But since I have not as yet heard anything about it from our post office, it could be that they had sent the money to Regel.

The harvest has started here on 4 July and proceeds without interruption due to good weather. As of 1 July, every day brought an extreme heat under a cloudless sky, so that one could hardly stay out in the open. If this heat lasts much longer, then the result of the beet harvest will only be average. One figures that wheat will bring 10 rubles per pud (36 lbs.). Today the price is still 20 rubles. Barley’s price is only 6 rubles per pud. Cattle and horses still cost as much as before, the same also with textiles.

There is not much else to report. The wolves are on the prowl every night. If they cannot drag animals completely out of the stable then they tear holes into their flanks. These fellows probably received word that shotguns have been taken away from the people. That is why they are so daring.

I am saying hello to the readers and the editor.

Romuald Dirk

From: Krasna, Bessarabia
8 July 1920

Dear Staats-Anzeiger!

Every now and then I find a reader in the Staats-Anzeiger who would like to know my name, but doesn’t mention why he wants to know. It is not something special that I don’t know how to write in High German. I have not written the plain truth about everybody yet, so there is no reason for anyone to get angry with me. If someone finds something in my articles that he does not like, then he should say so in the paper without knowing what my real name is. I have written many times about why I do not list my real name. It is just because I cannot write in High German.

Dear reader, if I would do so then I would be the laughing stock, because they would know who the dumb one is who can’t write in High German. Then the days would be gone for me sending articles to the paper. I cannot live without the dear paper, and those I had written the truth about would then write nothing but lies about me, and I would be aggravating myself half to death. Right now there would be a lot that belongs in the paper, but that is not supposed to be, else you would also get to know the good-for-nothings from other areas.

During the war, there was sometimes a total hullabaloo. The men were off to war and the young women had a pleasurable life at home. It is known that one of them went to Anschakrak (Tarutino) to see a midwife to take care of her problem in a way that no devil would find out about it. But you can do that once too often. When the men returned from the service then the things with the women stopped, but it started with the girls. Then when there was a mishap, off to Tarutino to the midwife they would go and everything would end up fine.

However, with the last two girls things did not go too well. The midwife was barely done with her magic, when the situation became exposed to the police. The police picked up the girls and the midwife and took them to jail in Akkerman. We will find out later as to what was going to happen there with the two bride’s maids and the bride woman. Rumor has it that the bride woman was supposed to be shot, because she so badly had corrupted the women of the men that were off to war. Now the word goes around that there will be another big war. Then the story of going to Tarutino will come to an end with the shooting of the emergency helper.

I would have liked to write about several other things but I have to drive to the Schager valley. There I will try to find a position as a manager under a German nobleman. I really don’t want to have anything to do with such a high-ranking position because I do not write too well. But my wife and my Hanesche are not at peace until they have me living in misery. Respectfully,

A Farmer

From: Larga, Bessarabia
14 July 1920

Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!

Each period of time brings it’s own and the time of war also brought its own: Good and evil, hard times and easy times, and also wonderful things you never heard of or knew about earlier, or perhaps only in America and Germany.

In Russia, one didn’t know until now that there is a mirror, in which everything can be seen, what has been stolen from someone or what someone has secretly committed. If one wants to get to know an evildoer then one look into a mirror will identify the evildoer completely.

A resident from Alt-Arzis in the county of Akkerman arrived from prison camp in Germany and brought such a mirror. Several men from Bessarabia did likewise. These gentlemen caused a lot of excitement with their mirrors among the people. In the beginning one didn’t really want to believe this wonderful thing, but by convincing oneself, the mirror made believers of many people.

In fall of the previous year, I myself was in Arzis in the marketplace and had my lodging at my niece’s daughter. Here I wanted to spend the evening with her husband Anton Kunz and a glass of wine. We hardly had made our plans, when the meat merchant, Mr. Fleckenstein from Krasna arrived. He parked his wagon and horse opposite from Anton Kunz’s trading post, then entered Mr. Kunz’s inn to eat his supper. Mr. Fleckenstein told us that he had done good business already, and that he only had 900 rubles worth of goods for the next day and the same would only take him a few hours to sell. Mr. Fleckenstein went to bed. When he woke up the next morning the box with the sausages, lard and meat together with about 35 rubles in change were gone. He was left with the empty wagon and the horse.

Of course Mr. Fleckenstein lamented about his misfortune to my friend Mr.Kunz. He advised him to go to J. W. in Arzis, since the same had a mirror, which would tell him where the merchandise was. In the beginning Mr. Fleckenstein did not want to believe this, but finally he went to see the man. The young owner set up the mirror and started looking at it. After a few minutes he said to the meat merchant, “Opposite Anton Kunz’s there is a one-horse cart and on top of it sets a wooden box without handles and a red stripe on the rim. Next to the cart you, Mr. Meat Merchant and a 10-year-old girl are sleeping. On the other side of the cart, five Rumanian soldiers are standing with rifles on their backs. Two of them are lifting the box off the cart and are carrying it up the street. One of the other three has a sack in his hand and they are crossing the marketplace. Then the one with the sack pulls a harness from underneath a merchant’s wagon and puts it in the bag. Then all five are walking toward the railroad station and are placing the things in a railroad car. Four of them took the train to the next railroad station Sarata. One of them returned to the marketplace and just then the train left Sarata for the city Ackkerman.”

The meat merchant had listened attentively and in awe. Then he said, “My things, as well as the things of the other merchant are lost, but since you, young man, described the box and everything else accurately, I will give you a gift of 10 rubles and I believe that you can see everything through the mirror.”

I would like to report more about the wonderful mirror, since I heard a lot about it. But one cannot believe everybody. There are people who have heard about camels, but have never seen a camel and then they tell people, that it has the head in the back and the tail in front. That’s why you have to patiently listen to much, but believe little.

Time seems to bring about everything and finally mankind will be smart enough to create live animals, just like eggs are being artificially incubated. But I think that might be impossible to do. Most of all the applied art for world peace has to be established, and whoever manages to do that deserves to be called the artist of all artists.

Toward the end I have to ask about something else. Is Jakob Schneider, who hails from the Cherson village of Mannheim, not a reader of the paper? His brother-in-law Michael Kupfer would really like to find out where in the New World Mr. Schneider is residing. Every person, especially in America, who can read in German, should be a reader of the Staats-Anzeiger. When Mr. Schneider reads these lines he might want to bring some joy to his brother-in-law by ordering the Staats-Anzeiger for him and also let himself be heard from.

I am greeting my children Ignatz and Amalia Gross, the editor Mr. Brandt and all fellow readers.

Romuald Dirk