We are all migrants. Part 3 Fragments from some of the letters.
Many letters gave advise to family members, which was very useful while planning a journey.
Advice for a better trip:
– Remedy for seasickness:
My wife brought along for the trip, a basket with a half a pound of sugar, 15 lemons and half a pound of tea, they will be useful when children will get seasick. Then you will dip the lemon in sugar,… buy yourself 3 bottles of wine.
– Remedy for lack of appetite:
When you get to Bremen, buy yourself 2 quarts of good vodka, when you have no appetite, you will have a few drops
– Sleeping on the boat:
Get yourself and children on the top bunk beds – it is not a pleasure to be vomited on from the upper beds.
-Restrooms facilities:
Buy yourself a tiny toilet (pot)– you will not have to go out with children to the outhouse.
Advise on what to bring with them:
Feather quilts, holy paintings, crosses, scapulars, prayer books, women’s woolen scarves, clothes, irons, knives, silverware, double-barreled shotguns, clocks, Turkish vodka, and tobacco, Hofmann`s painkiller drops, fruit and vegetable seeds, and children’s` books.
Descriptions of “Promised lands” of North and South America:
“America is a golden country.”
“We sang the old Polish song; Boze coś Polske… it is like in paradise.”In terms of life in New York City, it is the same as at home.
“There are more rabbis here than in Poland.”
“I speak (here) only in Yiddish and Polish.”“It is not true that there are not (Catholic) churches and priests in Brazil.”
“Brazil is a huge country; it can accommodate all Poles, and there will be still room
left.”