August 6, 1889 |
Fahrlander Family | ||
| Freiburg, 6 August 1889 Dear Brother! I received your precious letter just when I was on leave at home, in order to find out once again whether I could still manage to do the harvest, but everything went quite well and I did like it considerably better than all this military training, but Father will probably have written all this. I told him I intended to write you. In othert respects I can not complain at all. Thank God I am well, which is the main thing. Last week we were at Kaiserstuhl for three days for a regimental training exercise. I was quartered at Oberbergen. That is about five hours from Freiburg. On the 28th of August we will go into maneuvers which are scheduled to take place in the Unterland, as far as I know, in the neighborhood of Lahr (umlaut over the a). Indeed, if I could get away for sure now, then it would be possible for me all right to participate for those few days, but that is still far afield. I do have hope, but perhaps in vain. (Meaning that if he could be sure his military service would be over after these maneuvers, he could tolerate them, with this in mind.) Well, let us wait and see. On the 18th of September some will be released. Then I want to write you immediately how things have gone with me. I guess it is probably best to endure everything as long as possible. There is not much you can do in the military. In our company one man went into town about two weeks ago in the evening and put on civilian clothes; changed clothes there, left his military uniform lying there and "steamed off". The tailor did not quite trust things much and came to the barracks right away to denounce the man. The next morning a non-com took the train immediately up to the Oberland and got hold of him all right in Schaldtstadt where he had wanted to get off in order to go to Switzerland. His home is near the Swiss border. He only joined on the 7th of November. Now he will probably be sentenced to more than a year of imprisonment in the fortress. He had incurred a lot of debts over the city, which all now adds to his situation. Therefore caution is the Mother of Wisdom. Therefore I believe it is better to just endure it. I also learned from your letter that you have been sick a lot this summer. Well, that is pretty bad all right if one is so far away, among strangers; being sick is probably not good. Well, I have to stop now. I can not see anything anymore since I do not have any light. I now wish you much luck and health above all. Kind regards from your brother, Franz Anton The address is always the same. |
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