From: Ijuhy, Brazil
13 February 1927

Valued Staats-Anzeiger!

It has been a long time since my last report so I would like to send a few lines to the esteemed paper.

In my last report, I mentioned that working conditions here are very bad.

We poor people have to work like prisoners on the coffee plantations. Early in the morning the manager urges us on to work like cattle. Each father of a family with his children has to shoulder the hoe and then proceed to the coffee plantation. There they have to chop down the meter (3 feet) high grass in the rocky soil. This work is really hard for people who do not earn enough to have bread in the house. And this is in the much-praised State of Sao Paulo!

The second torment for people is that once they are done hoeing, they have to pile up the soil from four coffee plants. Toward the end the piles got so high that one no longer could get the soil to the top. Because of this hard work, our sides swelled up and the whole body ached so much that we could hardly walk. When we got up the next morning, the misery started all over again. The manager came along and urged the people to work harder.

We were pushed to work even harder when the harvest started. It was not quite as difficult as the hoeing, but through the manager’s constant prodding one got very tired and run down as the day went on. Two men could only gather half a sack of coffee beans during a day’s work. For this work they would then be paid 1 milreis and 200 reis. How could they live on such meager wages, especially when they tore up their clothes while performing this work? The women never finished patching clothes. Many clothes had patches on top of patches.

The harvest lasted four months. After the harvest was completed, the people again had to reach for the hoe, because the grass had grown to a man’s height in the meantime. It was a lot of trouble and hard work to hoe off the tree-like grass. The piled-up dirt had to be put back around the coffee plants again. This work was especially harsh and demanding for the children.

People were disappointed the most when they received their wages. They were so miniscule that they could not live on them. People were promised to receive 40,050 milreis at the end of the year for taking care of 1,000 coffee plants. Now at year’s end it came about that in order to get paid, they had to contribute some. I took care of 3,050,041 coffee plants, and for this work I should have received 200,075 milreis, but only got paid 110,025 milreis. I was cheated out of the rest. I would like to warn people not to go to Sao Paulo, because there they will not earn enough to make a living. For clothes alone it would not be enough. People are forced to resort to flour sacks to fabricate clothes for themselves.

On our journey to the State Rio Grande Do Sul, we traveled through the State St. Katharino. We did not like it because the land there is very rocky and mountainous. But here we like it better because there are schools and churches.

On 6 February, the newly constructed church was blessed and officially opened in Ijuhy. The bishop and six priests presided at the ceremony. Children were confirmed at this opportunity. My children Theodosius and Dorothea were confirmed and five of Isidor Krenzel’s children also received holy confirmation.

My address is available in the Staats-Anzeiger. In closing, I greet the esteemed editorship and the entire reader’s circle.

Alexius Fenrich

From: Krasna, Bessarabia
4 March 1927

Dear Editor Mr. Brandt!

I read the Staats-Anzeiger regularly at my neighbor’s Johannes Leinz. Based on guidance from my wife Irena, nee Herrschaft the daughter of the deceased Valentin Herrschaft, I want to carry out her wish and extend her sincere greetings to her godmother Genoveva Ihli and her husband Thomas. We also greet our old neighbor and school day friend Thomas A. Leintz. We would further like to know if our old Aunt Barbara Schaefer, the mother of Genoveva Ihli is still alive. Also to her we send many greetings. They are being asked to please correspond through the Staats-Anzeiger.

How are Lorenz and Katharina Fenrich and their loved ones doing? A short while ago I did mail you a letter, which you probably have received by now. Currently, only very few letters arrive here from there. It seems like the Americans have become really lazy in writing. We understand this laziness to be an indication that perhaps you are going to visit us.

Furthermore, I also greet my comrade Zachaeus Kahl along with his brothers Lorenz and Nikolaus Kahl, also Karl and Dorothea Riehl, Joseph Fenrich in Canada and Alexius Fenrich in Brazil.

Now I send a kind greeting to Mr. C. J. Haag, assistant to the editor of the Staats-Anzeiger along with his family. Your loved ones are still in good health. (*C.J. Haag: We sincerely echo your greetings.)

Now, farewell dear friends and please do write.

Isidor Leinz