HTML: 3D 1876- 1877
Mr. Ernst C.K. Wrede in Brunswick
Jan. 10, 1876
Please send me at once the seeds listed below, by Express via Bremen, by negotiation of Mr. Konstantin Württemberger. I will send you the amount by May 1. Last year’s box was not strong enough and arrived here badly damaged. I ask you to fill my order as soon as possible. It is very urgent. I include your bill in your order, as the open bills are kept in the Customs House.
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse, Hot Springs via Minersville, Beaver Co., Utah.
21 Jan 1876 [excerpt].
… My wife, your sister, went last Saturday to Metziger’s valley to see Father and Mother. …
<T171, cont.> Schönbach near Neusalz, Saxon Oberlausitz.
Jan 31, 1876
Dear Sir! Dearest Friend! First of all my deepest thanks for your friendly memory. It was already a comfortable shake-up from my work when the Nordstern and the Freidinker were sent to me. How much more ever did I enjoy your letter I received two days later. i want to thank you very much for it, despite your different conceptions, my gratitude shall express itself by the fact that I am going to answer you letter right away.
The burden of work under which I groan is very great as it always is around this time, as I still have to take care also of a neighboring parish whose minister has gone and is not yet replaced. Besides that, I have a very bad eye problem, and I will be completely blind in the not too distant future, as I can not yet retire and get rid of my troublesome and eye-straining writing work. Our newest school laws from Oct. 1, 1874 brought us besides many good things also a lot of terrible red tape, for which a perfectly healthy man is needed; but let’s forget about that.
When your letter arrived, I had the daily thought to write you at <T172> once, but was unable to get around to it on account of so much work. I wanted to tell you that on Dec. 29, 1875, our mutual friend, Professor Karl Traut [Traugott] Jähne died, caused by a dangerous stroke of his brain. His funeral was on Jan. 17, 1876 in Bautzen. I myself was unable, on account of the office, to be present at his funeral, which showed very clearly the great love and respect that our friend enjoyed with all parties. I therefore take the liberty to refuse your hard complaint that you used against him, that he did not consider you worthy of his friendship. I think that is not true. His silence is also unexplainable to me. I have talked more than once with him about you. It would have been possible that the only reason for his silence might have been that it was too much trouble for him in the last time, or maybe that he put it off from time to time. Jähne was no blind follower of a dead orthodoxy. Despite his firm faith, he was a free thinker until the end. I often asked myself how it could be possible that faithful Christianity and free masonry could exist next to each other in this man with the heart of a child. I can explain it today only by the fact that the desire for the ‘humanitas,’ as it is with the freemasons, has found a home in his soul, especially as his Christian viewpoint should tell him that it is very good.
According to my viewpoint, he had come to the point where religion and science started not to stand against each other any more so brusquely. He had a merchant’s soul, as you called him a bad man in the past on account of his silence. He was surely the merchant of whom is written in Matt. 13: 45-46, who had found the precious pearl. Therefore, because he has gone to peace, peace may also be between you and him. His silence hurts me very much for his sake and for yours, but I cannot believe in a bitter hatred against you; his nature was so noble, but it had to fight a lot during his last years with sickness and weakness. Despite his physical weakness, he had focused his eyes sharply to all matters of his time: political, religious and social matters; and still after his retirement his strength was taken more than it was good. Maybe this also is a reason for his silence, but now from something else.
<T173> I regret it very much that you yourself were sick. I hope you are better now, although these sicknesses often become chronic in the later years. You had during the past few years much rain and freezing; we had much drought, and that already since two years. As a result, 100 lb. of hay cost still five to six Mark, an unheard of price here. As a result of the drought and the rain that came too late, the potatoes were entirely ruined this time, while in other parts of Saxony these are supposed to be very good, this shows also their present price: 100 lb. for 19 to 22 [?]. Ours here are watery and slippery; fruit is more than since many years but very small by the drought. The market report from the last weekly market in Löbau states: 100 lb. wheat 10 Mk 49 [?]; rye 8.50; barley 8.00; oats 8.75; peas 11.50; young peas 11.00; lentils 12.00; groats 19.00; flax 13.00; rape seed 16.69; butter 2.90 for two lb.
The agriculture suffers now from the high salaries and the want of workers, as everybody prefers to work in a factory, where there is more lack of restraint, but also the factories don’t have a business boom any more. Our economic situation is very bad and these Social Democrats have surely to become more careful about the firg [?] measures of their leaders. Concerning the Social Democrats, I would like to mention a short note. If the people in Berlin think to suppress the social movement, they surely have then miscalculated. If the government and the representatives of the people and the higher classes are not aware of their duty, their Christian duty, toward the working classes, and if they work on with the principle that sneaked into our own and the life of our economy, namely "Everyone for himself," and do not adopt the one of their American Freethinker, "What you don’t want to have done to you, this do to nobody else either" [Golden Rule—LPM]—so is there no hope of getting this weird breed (put together from fire glow, sulfur vapors, and petroleum smell) out of this world.
But to another matter—politics! You complain about Grant’s American method, who understands how to silence the opposition newspapers by fat titles and jobs. I think America is not too far ahead of Germany in this regard. Corruptible natures—called scoundrels—are here also, especially since the newspapers are mostly in Jewish hands. There is very little realized from the high <T174> and noble task of the papers to serve the truth and the education of the people. The golden calf eats money, around which even the best papers dance. If I would not have to, in order not to stay back in time, I would take no paper at all. Sometimes one feels like throwing up. I am naturally satisfied with our political success, but much less with our political laws. I am no friend of Jews and parsons [?]. Since my youth, a democratic feature still goes today through my heart. But I don’t like the way, which is in such a hurry, with which the Liberalism built at our people’s life since 10 years. Everything goes with steam, yes, what’s the worst of all, after a one-sided pattern. As a rule, one never asks for the true interest of the people, the work is only there to show off, therefore the many laws that failed and had to be revised already after a few years, like work saved up for a later time. …
<Written in English.> G. Henry Crouse, Hot Springs.
7 Feb 1876 [excerpt].
I was very much surprised reading your letter of Jan 22 to Ernest, that you try to put such foolish notions … in his head … in his head … last year … he ran away, but after 14 days absence he came back sick and it took … about four weeks to restore his health …
<T174, cont.> Mr. Wilh. Rud. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Neusalz, Saxon Oberlausitz.
March 17, 1876.
Dearest Friend! I want to write only a few words today to thank you for your letter that is so precious to me. As I have not enough time, I have to put off a full answer. I must consider it to be a great sacrifice you did for me, that is, to write such a long letter despite your eye trouble and the many tasks of your profession. I am very sorry that I lost my control while having a bitter emotion, and said such a hard judgement about friend Jähne, the more as he is no longer among the living and is unable to defend himself. He, Friend Jähne, surely knows now very well, assumed that a dead man can still be conscious, whether he received the reward that his religion had promised him, or whether Schiller’s word became true: "You had hoped, your guilt is paid off, your faith was your share of happiness, you could ask the wise men—what you lost in a minute, no eternity will bring it back."———[My "Bartlett’s" includes the quote: "What one refuses in a minute, No eternity will return." from Schiller’s "Resignation" (1786),]
<T175> Our political world looks now all mixed up, which you surely heard already from the papers, and which the enclosed excerpt from the ‘Nordstern’ tells you in the American way.
But everything is also mixed up in our physical world. The whole winter was very mild without snow or sled tracks. Usually two to three cold days were followed by five to six days of thawing. On Febr. 28 we had quite an electrical storm with hail showers and rain. The morning of the 29th, a foot of snow lay before our door, which increased to 1-1/2 foot during the night. For some days, nice winter weather followed. On March 4, we had south wind and the sun was very warm.
In the morning of the 5th it rained, thundered, and flashed. The snow turned to water and a strong flood went through my garden (I live at the end of a small valley, where it spreads out into a bigger valley), but there seemed to be no immediate danger. At two o’clock at night, we were awakened by the noise of the water as it fell into the cellar under our house, and when I opened the front door, a stream of water came towards me so that I had to close it very quickly. I and my two oldest boys climbed out of the window, from where we could reach the stable which was still dry. We drew the cows and calves through the flood to a higher place, hitched the horse to the wagon, drove back to the window, and after all of us had climbed onto the wagon we pulled, in the dark night with heavy rain, through the raging flood, which luckily did not reach up yet to the wagon, and we went to a new house, situated on a higher place and which is about to be finished; there we waited—wet and cold—till dawn. It got colder in the morning and the water fell a little bit. We went back again to the old house as we were unable to make a fire in the new one. During the whole day a fine foggy rain fell, which covered everything with an inch thick ice crust. Many trees broke down.
On March 8 we had again full winter, and the whole nature was wrapped in an icy dress. On March 9, around noon it started again to thaw. In the night we had <T176> an eclipse of the moon, and on March 10 in the afternoon again rain and thunder, which caused a still greater flood than before, but as we had taken precautions, we did not have to leave the house. All bridges in Monroe County are flooded away, all mill dams broken, two big mills are entirely flooded away so that no traces are supposed to be left, other mills are broken down, railway dams and bridges ruined; in short—it was the biggest flood here that man ever witnessed. The last three days we had again a hard storm, and today snow lies 1-1/2 foot deep and it is very cold.
When I think of the many reports in the papers about floods and awful storms, I think it very superfluous to have troubled you with the tale about our experience, especially as we escaped only with a scare. But what one experiences himself always seems to be more important than what happens elsewhere, and so I might hope for sure that the friendly interest that you took till now in me may serve as my excuse.
For the same reason, I take the liberty to trouble you again with a request. Already last year I wrote to Brunswick for millet besides other seeds, but I received none. I just received a package of seeds from Eisleben; it contains everything, only millet is missing. I find millet listed on the Löbau market report that you enclosed, which causes my hope to rise to have the wanted articles sent to me by your kindness. Little packages that do not weigh more than 3/4 lb. can be sent by mail if they are marked as "samples without value." I would send you the amount, if our paper money would be valid with you, but I would rather repay your kindness by seeds, if you would like to have anything that I have.
Now my best wishes, and that’s enough for right now.
Your …
<Insert from T177>
[Sketch]
The following may serve for a better understanding:
The region here has much in common with Schönbach, only that many small valleys flow into the bigger one in which Schönbach lies. Mount Pisgah lies on the upper end of the main valley on the springs of the Little La Crosse River. Sparta is 18 miles to the north of here. At the lower end of the valley in Sparta, the Little La Crosse River flows together with the bigger one of the same name, and goes from there 30 miles to the southwest, where it flows into the Mississippi near La Crosse. <End of insert.>
<T176, cont.> Charles Helmuth, N.Y.
March 20, 1876
Already more than two weeks ago I received a note from Brunswick telling me that a box with seeds is on the way to me, but I waited in vain for some lines from you. Send it as soon as possible. American Express Co., C.O. D., to Sparta, Wis.
<Written in English.> Erickson Brothers, Mt. Pisgah.
Apr. 3, 1876.
Please do not sell my boys any shot or powder, nor tobacco, nor anything on credit without my written order.
Yours truly, F.A.M.
<T177> [1876]
Friend Oster!
The very bad weather and road make it impossible for me to come down again before Wednesday. I therefore have to ask you if you need the money badly to get it from the bank against my included note, which you have to sign.
With my friendly wishes. … F.A.M.
C.K. Wrede, Brunswick, Germany
May 15, 1876
Dear Sir! The seed trade was so bad this spring that I nearly did not even sell half as much as usual, and besides I had to sell most of it on credit with the promise to have it paid in autumn. As uncomfortable as it is, I see myself forced to pay off my debt not at the promised time, and therefore have to make use of your indulgence.
Your devoted …
Mr. Wilh. Rud. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Neusalz.
May 15, 1876.
Dear Sir! I received yesterday your kind letter of April 19, and in order to fulfill your wish, I hurry up and will answer it today. I was not able yet to find out how it came that my letter went off without postage. I was not able yet to see the Postmaster. As I had no stamps, I sent the letter to the post office anyhow with <T178> the money for postage. I am very sorry that I caused you so much trouble with the millet, but as I probably will receive this spring again seeds from Germany, I hope to receive it among them. Concerning the ‘samples without value,’ I know only so much, that I received this spring two packages, each weighing about 3/4 lb., by this way.
I was very pleased about the news that a cousin of mine, a grandson of Minister Unruh, is still alive, and I will fulfill your desire as much as I can, and will fill the gaps for the making of a family chronicle. It will be a pleasure, as I had already the same desire for a long time, to which your dates seem very welcome to me.
2. Karl Friedrich Meissner was a house teacher in Hamburg, married a rich merchant’s daughter, founded a school in Ütersen near Hamburg, lived his last years off his money, and left a son Karl, who is still alive so far as I know.
3. Gottlieb Friedrich, Merchant in Pirna, died there, left a daughter who married the salesman and took over the business.
4. Johann Christ[ian], I never heard from him.
5. Wilhelmine Friederike, lived with my parents and was the very dear friend of us children; lived after my father’s death in Odernitz with Uncle Moser, where she also died.
== From the second wife:
2. August Friedrich, Merchant in Dresden, died in Dresden and left two daughters.
3. Gotthelf Friedrich, Merchant in Pirna, died in P. without children.
My mother died in Dresden [about 1820—LPM] and after her my brother Ernst [d. about 1824, aged 17] who was an apprentice in the Court Printing Press. My brother Karl lives still as a gardener in Ütersen near Altona.
In order to fulfill your request and to give you a detailed sketch of my life, I am unable to do so today (no time!) and so I will put it off to another time.
I still remember that I visited with my parents my Uncle Unruh in Crosten. It must have been late autumn, because I remember still very well all the red apples they had there.
We have today already may 15 and the nature just starts to wake <T179> up from her long winter sleep. Bushes and trees are still gray.
With my best wishes … Your devoted …
<Written in English.> Mr. Dahl, North La Crosse.
29 May 1876. [excerpt]
Dear Sir, I understand that you harbor my runaway boy Ernest who pretends that he is looking for work. I … shall not pay any bill for boarding, clothing, or anything else on [his] account.
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse.
4 Sept 1876 [excerpt].
… In your last, you disclaim any intention to vex Ernest away; this may be so, but the tenor of your letters has put some foolish notions in his head, and was insulting to his father and mother. …
<T179, cont.> Mrs. Marie Petersen, Augusta, La Crosse Co., Wis..
Sept. 4, 1876.
Dear friend! I hope that these lines will reach you and your husband in good health, and that you had had good luck with the seeds I sent you in spring according to your wish by mail. You can send me the amount ($1.30) in a letter. I still have a request. Please ask the butchers in Augusta whether they can use some sage this autumn. I sell it in barrels for 30 cts. per lb. Please send me the names of the butchers and I will send them a sample.
With my friendly wishes, F.A.M.
Mr. Wm. Freise, La Crosse, Wis.
Sept. 18, 1876
Dear Sir! My herb crop is nearly finished. They are of an excellent quality, and I can send you this year as many as you want, packed in 1/4 lb., at the following prices per lb.:
Sage, 30 cts.; summer savory, 30 cts.; marjoram, 50 cts.; thyme, 50 cts.
If you could sell for me sage in barrels or bags to the butchers for 30 cts. per lb., I will give you five cts. per lb. for your trouble and will deliver the goods to La Crosse.
As I will have to pay off a debt at the end of this week, I would be very grateful to you if you could send me $15 or $20 by money order to Sparta.
With my best wishes, your F.A.M.
Mr. Karl Frölich, Nordstern Office, La Crosse, Wisc.
Sept. 18, 1876
Dear friend! As I always wanted once to get square with the Nordstern, I hereby send you a bill about my assets and ask you to let me know how much I owe you. I want you to print the ad below three times in the Nordstern.
With my friendly wishes, … F.A.M.
April 15 1875: six pks. flower seeds, $0.50; 1/4 hundred best asparagus plants, $1.00; one red peony plant, $0.50;
<T180> April 26, 1876: eight pks. flower seeds, $0.70; three syringia Persia @ 25 cts., $0.75 = $3.45
== Announcement for Butchers.
The undersigned has for sale some hundred lb. sage of best quality, raised and dried by himself, as well as marjoram, thyme, and summer savory. Samples and prices are sent by mail on request.
Address: F.A.M., M.P., M.C., Wis.
<Written in English.> Jane Crouse [wife of G.H. Crouse].
5 Oct 1876 [excerpt].
… Ernest … about 10 days ago came home sick and worn out, and is still unable to work …
<Written in English.> Jane Crouse.
13 Nov 1876 [excerpt].
… You say Henry is a kind and indulgent husband—oh how I wish I could say the same of Meissner …
<T180, cont.> Mr. E.C. Konrad Wrede in Br[unswick].
Nov. 20, 1876.
Dear Sir! I have in front of me your letter with your bill. It would be a pleasure for me to send you the amount, but I see myself forced to put up a counter-bill for damages caused by bad or false seeds received from you.
Cauliflower: new, earliest Erfurter dwarf. This kind was fully false, high bony, and late. I did not get a single head from the 1,000 seeds I planted, while the plants from a small portion of seeds that I received from another source as a sample gave beautiful heads with the exception of three or 4, and which I sold for 10 to 20 cts. per head. Counted the average price as only 10 cts., I lost from your seeds $100.
White cabbage: special early small white sugar cabbage. I received one lb. of this kind, but a test showed that the variety was wrong and completely worthless. I received the right kind last year.
Red cabbage: early Erfurt and late Holl were both the same variety.
Carrots: half long Brunswick and best red long one. The seeds from both of these were imperfect and hollow. My customers complained that nothing came up. With the best of care, I only got out of them about one-tenth.
Red beets for canning as well as long ones, were old seeds from which only some weak plants came up.
Not even considering the damage I had myself, I cannot even <T181> discern yet how big the one will be which I will have by selling bad seeds to my customers. But I am willing to accept $200 as an equivalent.
In case you have doubts about my information, you only have to send your bill to the First National Bank in Sparta, M.C. Wis. or to the Prussian Consul in Milwaukee in order to have it collected, which can then test my counter-bill.
Respectfully, F.A.M.
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse.
2 Dec 1876 [excerpt].
Your letter of Nov. 20 is … neither very friendly nor polite … it seems you cannot bear a friendly joke; what do we care if you or your wife become Mormons … you are trying to arrange my wife, your sister (Eva Dorothea, not Effie, is her name) against me, and to sow discord in my family. Such efforts will avail nothing. My wife is the most reasonable woman I know, so much unlike her relations that I and she herself have often wondered about. She will never become a Mormon nor a Methodist nor an Adventist, not because I don’t want her to, but her good senses shows her the folly of all this sectarianism.
You advise her to have her letters written by Ernst [sic] or Adolf [sic]. She is perfectly able to write a letter herself, but she is always so busy in mending, sewing, or knitting that she prefers to have it done by me.
We always rejoice to hear that you are doing well, and wish you a happy Christmas.
<Written in English.> G.H. Crouse.
10 Dec 1876 [excerpt].
Dear Brother, We return your last letter and ask you to keep it for a while and then read it over again, when we feel certain that you will feel ashamed of the same. We do not envy your good luck of having plenty to eat, to wear, and to cover, but are always glad to year that you are doing well.
Yours truly, F.A. and E.D. Meissner
P.S. [from E.D. M.] The letters Meissner has written in my name are not only written with my knowledge but also with my full approval. Your sister, E.D. Meissner
<T181, cont.> Mrs. Marie Petersen, care of Peter Petersen, Augusta, Eau Claire Co., Wis..
Dec. 10, 1876.
Dear friend! I received no answer yet to my friendly letter of Sept. 4. I would be very much obliged to you if you would send me soon $1.30 for the seeds I sent to you in spring by mail. My address is: F.A.M., M.P., M.C., W.
Mr. Karl Gottlieb Wünsche in Schönbach near Löbau in Saxony.
Dec. 1876.
Dear Sir! I cannot omit to say my deepest thanks to you for the friendly interest you seem to take in me and my family, and for the much trouble you undertook in order to make my ancestors known to me. Judging by your letter, we must have been schoolmates. Don’t you want to fetch up my memory and tell me in which region your parents lived?
As you mention my old teacher Schuricht (is his son Fritz still alive?), I have to tell you a small anecdote out of my school life. It was at that time—maybe still today—the custom to announce someone’s death by ringing the bells. Schuricht had bigger boys do this ringing. Once, I believe it was in summer, no big boys were in school, and I and several other small boys were trusted with this important responsibility. We hurried merrily to the bell tower. Having arrived there, however, we did not know whether to start with the big bell or the small bell. We argued about it and nobody wanted to start until I—with courage—took the rope of the big bell and started ringing; but oh! it was the wrong one. The first stroke was hardly finished when my <T182> good Schuricht came storming up the stairs in a rage. "Who has started?" "Adolf," was the shy reply. But as soon as this accusation against me was out, I sneaked under Schuricht’s arm, who stood at the upper end of the stairs, and down the stairs. Then i did not go to school any more for a long period of time.
I hope that the paralysis of your hand, which kept you from writing in spring, has completely gone and you will give me an opportunity to get better acquainted with you.
With my friendly wishes, … F.A.M.
Mr. Wilh. Rud. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Löbau in Saxony.
Dec. 1876.
Dearest friend! I received your "Centennial Greeting" as well as very soon afterward your dear letter with my pedigree. I nearly feel tempted to sit in front of my name and to design a coat of arms. But leaving out joking—it is very interesting for me, and it has to be still more interesting for my descendants to know where we came from.
I often wondered, while talking to Americans who were maybe two or three generations here in this country and did not know where their ancestors came from. Now we came from Bohemia, from Lutheran descendants who had to leave their home for their faith’s sake—my grandfather a Lutheran minister with strong orthodox views, my father already with much more moderated viewpoints, and I—?—a free thinker.—If we will all come into the same heaven, I would like very much to have you, dear friend, with me. One always says, "The apple does not fall far from the tree."
Only a few minutes ago I had an English paper in my hands with an article entitled: Goethe’s Mother. She is described as a strong believing woman, and was Goethe not also a free thinker? I don’t dare to compare myself with Goethe, only in order to excuse my deviating from the rules.
Your "Centennial Greeting" shows its admiration for our so-called free institutions. The principle is surely good, and it may appear quite nice from a distance. But how defective it still is on closer view and in reality.
We don’t know yet who will be our next President. At any rate, he will be the one whose party knows best <T183> how to cheat and bribe. If thousands of votes are bought by money or an advantage, and thousands of false or illegal votes are cast, can this still be called a free vote of the people? We Germans were proud of Karl Schurz, but in the last election he proved himself also a purchasable politician. It is true that we have some good things. We have free thinking, freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but everything is still a mixed-up chaos. We cannot say yet, we can only hope, what will become of it: whether the good or the bad will win in the end.
Concerning political matters, my sympathy is with the Democrats and with the South where conditions have changed. The Negroes have become the lords and the white men or the educated class have become the slaves. Since the Negroes obtained the right to vote, all public offices in most southern states are taken up by carpetbaggers—from the Governor to the Justice of the Peace. (A carpet bag is a traveling bag, and a carpetbagger means a man who came into this country with nothing more than a traveling bag. [Not quite -LPM]) These used their term of office only for bleeding out the country and to get rich, so that many of the big landowners are nearly about to starve.
With the word ‘slavery’ and ‘freedom for the slaves,’ the Republicans only throw sand into the eyes of other countries. People in Germany think a slave is a Negro with a chain on his hands and feet. How different is the reality! A plantation is the same as a ‘Rittergut’ [manor] in Germany. The owners live in a big house surrounded by the yard, gardens, and stables. About 15 or 30 minutes away live the Negroes. Every family has its own house with gardens, chickens, pigs, and so on. Every Saturday, provisions are distributed in the yard. Every family receives according to their number of members flour, bacon, and syrup. Some of the young people work as cook, housemaid, coachman, and servant on the farm, where they have a good life and consider it to be a favor they enjoy. The other family members rise early and go—while it is still cool—to the fields to work. The old people stay at home with the children. A foreman gives everybody his place to work and takes care that the work is done well. Now you should see once how <T184> fast the work is done. Soon breakfast, taken along, is eaten in the field, and around two in the afternoon the work of the day is done. Now they all go home and have dinner; they rest during the hot afternoon; around evening some of them work in their gardens, others go fishing, and if they have a good catch they bring them to town and buy in return tobacco and other luxury articles.
They get all their clothes from the farm owner, as well as medical care when they are sick. Such a so-called slave family had a much more carefree life than any white working family. Every Saturday evening, the young people have music and a dance. The whip is only used very rarely and then only against very lazy and stubborn individuals. Most plantation owners treat their slaves like their own children; they all seem to be just a big family.
That’s the slavery that I got to know myself when I lived in the South. There are unfortunately some exceptions, too, and from my experience I can say that they were there where rich people from the Northern states had acquired plantations in the South. The rich Southerners have more education; the rich people in the North have only pretended education and their pride in their money.
[We now turn to a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe …—LPM]
I will be 72 years old in a few days, and despite this fact I sometimes think that I have just begun to live; how many things would I still like to get! Surely the dream of my youth, "a family, a house, a farm, and property of my own," has become reality. I have a good wife, healthy children, troubles but no real need; but—if I look back to my past life—I am not satisfied. The battle with the world outside has no end; one always has to be alert here in America where one comes together with people from all nations. There is no peace, no stopping. If it were not for my family that still needs me, I surely would want my eternal peace.
Now, my dearest friend, I wish you and your wife all the good things for the coming New Year that might gratify us as earthly pilgrims, and my wife joins in these wishes too.
Adieu for this time.
Your faithful friend, F.A.M.
<T185> Marie Petersen, Augusta, Eau Claire Co., Wis..
Jan. 4, 1877.
Dear friend! I have received your letter with the $1.50, but as you owe me only $1.30 I return to you herewith 20 cts. You seemed to object to my sending you a post card, but it is a general custom now. As you did not receive my letter that I personally mailed in Sparta, I hereby send you a copy of it:
Sept. 4, 1876. Dear friend! … [mailed at Sparta]
I would be glad if I could send again some seeds to you this spring. Maybe you could recommend me to your neighbors. Wishing you and your husband a happy New Year, I sign … F.A.M.
Mr. Wm. Freise, La Crosse, Wis. (Post Card)
Jan 5, 1877.
I received your letter of Jan. 2 as well as a letter from Mr. Langdon, Goodband, & Co. I wrote them that I will bring the goods next Monday or Tuesday.
With my friendly wishes …
Mr. Ferdinand Kaiser, Eisleben, Germany.
Jan. 15, 1877.
I enclose a money order for 16 Reichsmark. Your bill from last year amounted to 12 Mk 60 [?], from which I take the liberty to deduct still a Mk for 20 gr. filled [double] rose balsam [Impatiens?—LPM] as the seeds were old and not a single plant came up. I therefore have 4.40 Mk with you in my favor. The vegetable seed samples I received were all true to their varieties, but the flower seeds were all mixed up. For instance, Bismarck asters were 3/4 false, viola tricolor maxima Kaiser Wilhelm had only a single true one among 20. As the customs taxes and other expenses in N.Y. double the price of seeds from Germany, I will order only as much as I can have sent by mail.
According to our postal laws, packages up to four lb. can be sent by mail—which I believe is also valid for the big Postal Agreement. I therefore ask you to send the seeds listed below in two packages:
1-1/2 kilo sage, fresh seeds; 1/2 kilo reseda [mignonette]; 1-1/2 millet, yellow; 20 gr. onions, round yellow Zittau giant; 20 gr. lettuce, red edged Algerian.
<T186> I am very interested in getting the sage seed fresh and soon, as I want to sow it all myself. I hope it is not mixed with old seed, or else the combination will be either too thick or too thin. I asked already last year for your millet, but received none. If you have none in stock, you can also send it a little bit later, as I cannot sow it out before the middle of May. With my best wishes … F.A.M.
Mr. E.C. K. Wrede in Brunswick, Ger.
Jan. 17, 1877.
I will try to answer also very politely your very polite letter of Dec. 13, 1876. I read the following story in a newspaper, "The N.Y. Sun."
Ten Thousand Dollars Expenses for a 25 cent Trade: Six years ago, Lewis D. Monat, a farmer in New Jersey, bought from Mr. Walrot Johnson & Co., seed merchants, 25 cents worth of early beet seeds, but which proved to be late beet seeds. He brought the salesman before a Justice of the Peace and received $90 as compensation. The salesman appealed a year later to the Court of Common Pleas, which confirmed the decision of the Justice of the Peace. The matter was then brought before the Supreme Court, which also confirmed the decision of the lower court. The salesman, still not satisfied, brought the matter further to the Court of Errors and Appeals, which confirmed the decisions of all former courts. More than $10,000 had been wasted by this complaint.
You can see already from this story how very obligated a seed merchant is here.
The cauliflower was at no rate earliest Erfurter dwarf. If you don’t want to believe my judgement, I can bring you many of my customers who reproached me because I had sold them late instead of early cauliflower, which grew tall but produced no heads.
I know very well that the special early white genuine English sugar cabbage is a good variety. That is why I ordered it, but you sent long sugar [?] instead. As I planted only about 1/2 lot for a test from these seeds you sent me, along with other seeds from last year, I can return these to you as I can make no use of them.
I readily agree that the carrots could be freak seeds, but they were all hollow and not fully developed. Maybe the weather was too <T187> dry when they were harvested.
The red beet seeds were at any rate old. I planted them side by side with my own seeds.
I have already received my seed requirements for this year from someone else, but as I am in the same situation as you, I will propose to you a cheap comparison.
According to the law here, packages up to four lb. can be sent by mail. If I am not mistaken, the same is true for the big general Postal Agreement. Please send me by mail the seeds listed below, with a receipt for these as well as one for the seeds received last year. I will then also send you a receipt for my demand for compensation.
[List ...]
Respectfully …
P.S. Send me fresh seeds, so that I can test them this year and sell them next year.
Mr. Ferdinand Kaiser, Eisleben.
Jan. 22, 1877.
I just received your new price list. On Jan. 15, I sent you a money order for 16 Reichsmark and an order for 1-1/2 kilo sage, 1/4 kilo reseda [mignonette], 1-1/2 kilo yellow millet, 20 gr. yellow Zittau giant onions, and 20 gr. red edged Algerian lettuce, which I asked you to send me by mail. I would now like to add: … .
Mr. Wm. Freise, La Crosse, Wisc.
Febr. 9, 1877.
I am sending you today by mail the seeds you ordered. Altogether 340 papers for 2-1/2 cents each, that is $8.50, which I would like you to write to my favor. Wishing a good reception and sale, I sign … F.A.M.
List: …
Mr. W. Freise, La Crosse, Wis.
March 15, 1877.
Dear Sir! At the end of this week I have to pay off a debt that I have with a butcher. Please be so kind as to send me right away the small sum ($9.00) that you owe me, by a money order to Sparta.
With my friendly wishes … F.A.M.
<T188> Buddhism: According to a notice in Nordstern, Minister Reims [?] made a speech in the Lutheran Church in La Crosse upon the above mentioned theme, from which I took the following excerpts.
Buddhism was founded 600 years before Christ by a king’s son named Gaudama or Buddha.
This religious system, which only in later times has received its deserved attention, and still today is the most widely spread in the Orient, is founded on discipline, morality, and humanity, does without the adoration of a Creator and Keeper of the Universe, has no cults, no prayers, and none of the usual apparatus of worship. The doctrine is that a Highest Being governs the world, invisible and without heavenly body; therefore no image is imaginable and it can be worshipped only by silent meditation.
Buddhism was derived from the so-called Sankiah philosophy, which taught materialism as the main principle, also eternity and immortality of substance, which is moved by two great principles: Nature and Soul, and which is continually changing. The fall is only apparent; in reality it is only a change.
Buddha taught equality and brotherhood of all men, abolition of all privileges and of the caste problem.
The soul of his religion should be love, generosity, humility, support of the poor and needy, chastity, etc. People must not swear, lie, slander, kill, steal, or take revenge, but must love modestly and calmly, in order to realize by silent meditation the personal being and the being of the Deity.
Life is a torture through many evils, and in order to escape this torture man should rid himself of every emotion by religion and philosophy, and receive the vision that finally everything is transformed into its original nothingness. This is the original substance in which both powers, activity and peace, are contained—by which the origin (activity) of the world is caused, which belongs to the causes and effects, and so these produce thereby a change effect of creation and destruction, as well as deliverance from all earthly suffering, the ceasing of the <T189> self-meditation and conscience, which closes itself in a circle and is so a little piece of the nothingness from whence we come, only an apparent death. …
Unfortunately, the Buddhist religion degenerated and its purity was lost when it was misused by princes and clergy for their own low selfish purposes. It also became mixed with the dirt of avarice and tyranny, and declined into idolatry. Thus Buddha came to be worshiped as God; religious pictures, relics, etc. were exploited; monasteries were built, etc.; so that the religious system was fitted to personal intentions and viewpoints.
Mr. Wm. Freise, La Crosse, Wis.
March 26, 1877.
Dear Sir! I asked you in a letter dated March 15 to send me the small sum of money, $9.00, that you owe me, by Money Order to the post Office in Sparta. you did not fulfill my request, and as I have to pay interest on April 1, I find myself forced to repeat the request.
If you will consider that I first have to work a full year to raise the seeds and prepare them for sale, and then I still sold them to you at an exceptionally good price, I am sure you will fulfill my request and send me the money still this week.
Mr. Ferd. Kaiser, Eisleben.
March 26, 1877.
I received the seeds I ordered. The big package arrived not by mail but by Express. If it had been sent by mail, the postage would have cost no more than $1.00; now it costs me $4.00 . I was still more surprised to find, when I opened it, peeled millet instead of seed. It is worth the 75 cts. to me for cooking, but I find myself forced to bill you for the $2.00 (8 Mk) you wasted on unnecessary shipping charges.
Respectfully, F.A.M.
Mr. John Ulrich, La Crosse, W.
March 26, 1877.
Dear Sir! My lack of money is so severe here that I can sell only little and am paid even less. (According to the many ads for dances, theaters, and other pleasures, it must be better in La Crosse.) I therefore find myself forced to limit my expenses to the most necessary <T190> things, and I ask you therefore to delete me from the list of Nordstern subscribers. I want to pay off my debt as soon as possible, but I don’t want to increase it.
With my friendly wishes, F.A.M.
Milwaukee Herald.
March 26, 1877.
I read in the La Crosse Nordstern that the German-American commercial paper and the ‘Fortschritt der Zeit’ [Progress of the Times or Times-Progress—LPM] have been combined. Accordingly, I request a sample issue of your publication. Respectfully, F.A.M.
Mr. Wilh. R. Jähring, Minister in Schönbach near Löbau in Saxony.
March 26, 1877.
Dearest friend! You have done me a great favor by sending me the millet. I am sure it will thrive here very well. Please thank Mr. Münsche on my behalf for his letter. The loss of the President battle will be no news to you, but maybe you are interested in reading about it in an American paper. I therefore enclose the Nordstern. I would also like to call your attention to an article on the last page. It is surely very strange that a man, "Buddha," had the same thoughts and viewpoints more than 2000 years ago that force themselves upon me when I am thinking.
Giving my best wishes to you, I remain your F.A.M.
<Written in English.> Mrs. Jane Crouse.
30 Aug 1877 [excerpt].
Dear Sister, Your friendly letter of Aug. 12 came to hand … We are troubled with much sickness. In spring about planting time the children all had the measles. After they got better, both of the biggest boys had a relapse … they got better just in time to go to the marsh and make our hay … came home sick … Father and the two little boys Carl 12 and August 10 years old had to do the work. Carl is a very good and industrious boy but … [now he is sick] … So you see that I have my hands full …
<T190, cont.> Mr. Georg Klös, Jefferson
Portland, Oct. 10, 1877.
Dear friend! You want to know what I want to have for the stones for your barn cellar. You can give me five bushel good wheat for it; this won’t be too cheap. So you know that your cattle were on my pasture all summer long. For this, I will take $10 or 10 bushel of good wheat, whichever you would prefer. Please let me know soon whether you agree, and whether you would rather pay in money or wheat.
Mr. Matthias Suhr, Jefferson
Oct. 12, 1877.
Dear Sir! You surely know that your cattle have been on my pasture all summer long. You therefore won’t consider it as <T191> unfair if I ask for it a small compensation of $10 or 10 bushel wheat. Please let me know whether you agree, and whether you would rather pay in money or wheat..
Mr. Mr. Zscherneck.
(As above)
<Written in English.> Mr. James Rogers, Portland.
22 Dec 1877 [excerpt].
… I charge you one Dollar for every day you keep and harbor my boy Ernest. Please send me by the bearer two dollars for Dec. 21 and 22.
<Written in English.> Mr. James Rogers, Portland.
24 Dec 1877 [excerpt].
Dear Sir, I forbid you keeping and harboring my son Ernest.
Ernest Meissner: You are commanded by your Father to come home right away and resume your duties.
<Written in English.> Mrs. Jane Crouse.
25 Dec 1877 [excerpt].
… Ernest … got it in his mind to go this winter to the Pinery, there earn lots of money, then go in the spring to Minnesota, earn some more money, and in the fall take the cars for Utah and make Uncle a Christmas visit. … Adolf [sic] about 17 years old … likes to go to dance, but he also likes to work. Next Dora nearly 15 years old is getting quite a help to me. … Carl [13], a tall lean industrious boy. Next August, a mischievous unruly healthy looking boy of 11 who likes to play but hates anything like work. We … have a pleasant comfortable home … E.D. M.
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