River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1888-01-12
LETTER FROM GERMANY.
fContinned.)

Aye, my friends, | will be honest.
It was then, that | make long face
and thought of home sweet home.
When you get into such situation,
you will take my advice and not go on
deck with a sickly smile hang ing about
your ears. for on board ship the hu-
man heart is hard and your own ten
der heart may be embittered by rude
jokes, that cause you to hang your
head over the rail and open your
mouth as if to swallow the sea and all
that is in it. My friends, you must
excuse my earnestness. l speak from
experience, three nights and three
days was / sea-sick and even now my
memory recalls every phase of it.
But enough of these hOTrid thoughts.
know. my friends, l have your SYM
pathies. Even now see you weeping
at my hardships and hear your lamen-
tations; and the sympathy from the
sadness of your hearts causeth me
cheer. What blessing it is to have
sympathizing friends. And now let
me tell you something of pleasanter
nature.
The last Thursday in November, in
response to the call of our worthy
President, the American people of
Leipsic and their English cousins.
whose total number is perhaps 600
persons, came together in the evening,
as many as could leave their work, and
celebrated Thanksgiving Day in truly
American style. All that lacked was
the turkey and the pies. Turkeys you
know are peculiarly American, and
like our Indians do not thrive well in
strange lands. Pies are also indigo
nous to America. Consequently we
missed these delicacies very much.
There was present large attendance
of Americans, English, Scotch and
Germans. The programme of which
| enclose copy was carried out i'm the
most successful manner. The must
clans were nearly all members of the
Leipsic conservatory, many of them of
considerable reputation. who render
ed the selections in a most charming
manner. The old college songs were
entered into with Tremendous enthus-
iasm; and the heart of every American
throHbed with patriotic feelings, as all
voices joined in the opening piece,
My Country it's of Thee The Sec
ond verse of this selection as you will
notice in the programme is The well
known English version: God save
our G aeiOus Queen for the benefit of
our English cousins; and the third
verse Hell dir i'm Siegerskray" for
our German friends, all sung of course
10 the same music. The part of the
programme most appreciated by all
especially by our German friends. to
whom it was "A novel idea, was the
House Guard or Broom Brigade. This
brigade was made up of 10 young la
dies, members of the conservatory, all |
wearing dresses of the U. S. stars ard |
stripes pattern. This Guard gave a |
parade on the large stage in front. |
Some of the figures were executed |
very gracefully and perfectly, and |
ELECTED tremendous applause from our
German friends. After this exercise.
the guests gathered about in little
groups of acquaiDtances; and the in
ner man received substantial refresh
ment. The din of merry voices ran
high with anecdote and laughter. All
hearts were made happy and iubilant.
and the monster inconsistencies was
forever shut out in the cold. After
this there came a dance, in which
your humble servant, of course, did
not participate but. like many others,
enjoyed himself chatting with friends
or made new acquaintance, as Oppor-
tunities presented. And thus the
happy moments sped like winged birds
until the "wee sma" hours of night;
and the ''wee sIna" hours waxed old,
and still we sat and chatted, and
graceful feet beat time to joyful mu-
sic, but my friends, we all went home
at three O'Clock in the morning.
And now | perceive my letter is
getting very long, much longer than |
hads intended. Indeed, there are
many things that l should like to tell |
you, that must wait for some future |
letter. L know you will all be pleased |
to hear how l was locked in at night |
on Goat Island in the Niagara River; |
and how four jolly Americans jour |
neyed through Scotland and England, |
and what they did in the big city of |
London; how finally your friend reach |
ed Leipsic and became a student. |
think you will be pleased to hear what |
the students do in Germany. How |
for the sake of bit of good natured /
tnn they slash one another S faces and |
call It Monsieur. and are proud of the /
ugly scars that they carry to their
graves. You will want to hear how a |
companionable dog swallowed the nose
Of a pugilist that was slashed off dur
ing a little fight for fun, and many
other paI ticulaIs, that l will commu-
nlcate at some future time.
NOnTs truly,