Dessau, May the 11th, 1894

Dear Cousin and family!

Today on the day that I have put 72 ½ years behind me, & up to here as far as health & other circumstances are concerned have always fared tolerably well, I feel compelled to express my innermost feelings about your last two, by us greatly treasured letters, & it gladdens us all the more that you so far away despite all previous difficulties now see things going as you wish & may it continue so.

Wilhelm & we were overjoyed when you blessed him with the news of what you were sending him. Since you know what an old man is able to do you can imagine his situation for yourself he gets room & board from us but his income is not sufficient for latter as it gets less & less and just barely suffices to pay for meals. Which we all and particularly myself take into consideration particularly myself. He also knows he can 't never earn it not even in Hettstedt.

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Unfortunately he is still looking for it & it hasn't arrived up to today May the 11 which appears very curious & wondersome to us all. You would also agree to that & maybe look into it & get some information why the delay & set it to rights. Please do this dear Carl that we may recover from our uncertainty it is after all for the benefit of your own brother who sits here perplexed & has already run to the Post Office many times, but fruitlessly. Half Dessau was set on its ear 17 days ago by the joyous news as our Old Wilhelm is very well known here & everyone was happy for him that he has such a good-hearted brother in America. No one had believed him when he told of you in the past.

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We accept with pleasure your offer to send us some samples & would very much like to see further trade develop. Our situation here is in good order & can supply everything immediately. We have here on the busiest street [illegible] #34 a parcel of land we purchased 10 years ago with ½-acre garden at the rear which many are envious of, it cost us 20,000 Marks then & any time we wish we could sell it for twice the price any time we want but could not easily find another such good plot of land. We have a solid business & deal in untanned skins in addition to our hats & finished furs shop with a right brisk turnover. Everyone trades with us readily because everyone knows our good reputation. We have now lived in Dessau 32 years & in the beginning we had it pretty tight too but things picked up later.

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As to my family situation I and my wife of the same age are getting on. Hermann & Gustav my two sons owners of our business are unmarried, my three daughters Laura, Pauline, & Agatha, of whom the first two are married & namely the oldest Laura in Dessau the second in Bernburg & their bread is assured. Poldine my sister died in 1887 in Nassfurth, Eduard died 1890 in Lindenau (near) Leipzig he left a wife & 7 children who can support themselves tolerably, two sons working in shops assembling fox tail boas among other things, several daughters are married & getting along tolerably & can feed themselves well. And Franz at 76 is still alive of whom one would have expected it least, he still carries on, everyone around him is dead his wife & 2 sons.

Now I close with the heartiest regards from your brother & all of us

Leopold

[Written up the side of the last page:]

Emilie's daughter Riekchen is married to a Boettche in Beesenlaublingen & is doing very well.