From: Krasna, Bessarabia
7 July 1921

Valued Editorship!

Maybe the American readers will be interested in the following scene that took place in court and which I now report.

Senior Mayor: “Listen up, Adam, Mr. Schek accuses you of stealing barley off his field.”

Adam: “Shucks, the people have made a mistake. I have as much as the whole corner up there and I don’t need his barley.”

Senior Mayor: “But there is evidence, Adam, and if you do not admit to it, then the punishment will be even greater. The events go like this, Adam. Schek arrives in the field to pick up barley. Suddenly he realizes that heaps of barley are missing. He looks around for any tracks, but it was to no avail. He couldn’t find anything. He continues with loading and curses like an Ottoman. Suddenly he glances over to your field and notices that a few heaps are much larger than the others. He also sees a track leading over to your field. He walks over and looks and finds the barley in your heaps of oats. The barley was covered up with oats. If you did not steal the barley then there wouldn’t have been a reason to cover it up. And then barley in heaps of oats?!”

Adam: “Who is a witness? Who else was out there with him?”

Senior Mayor: “Well, I sent out Desatsky, an official. Desatsky, what did you find?”

Desatsky: “It is just the way you have said.”

Senior Mayor: “Look, Adam, I am not saying that you are a thief, but it is clearly evident.”

Adam: “Shucks, that isn’t even my land. It belongs to my ‘Fehne’. She has a deed and everything on it.”

Senior Mayor: “Well, time and again and everywhere you have talked about that your wife had received nothing else but 200 rubles, and now she owns land?!”

Adam: “I bequeathed the land to my wife.”

Senior Mayor: “Well, then I too should bequeath some land to my wife, then the heaps of grain will become bigger.”

Adam: “Shucks, you do what you want. I am living well. I eat and drink well and think: God, thy will be done.”

A Citizen from Krasna