Würzburg, August 18, 1855

Beloved Brothers!

I received so much joy from the letter you sent to me. After reading it, I missed you both so much that I could do no further work. Since my present circumstances are of such interest to you, I will tell you what I am doing. There are two other apprentices with me in the company. We are at work from 7 o'clock in the morning until 7 o'clock at night. As long as we have customers, I am in the warehouse. If we do not have customers, I always have paperwork to do, which I enjoy most of all. Our company sells both wholesale and retail and our sales are approximately 120 to 139 thousand Gulden per year. The company makes from 7 to 10% profit. The company is among the most important in Würzburg. We carry the normal fabric lines of which the woolen fabrics are our main article. I have little time during the week to do anything besides work. Saturday is my only day to recuperate. As of now, I have had no time to study English. I will start in the next few weeks, however. I am rather proficient in French. I have not had time for much entertainment yet, but I will have more time for that later. I have scheduled the hours on Saturday for different things I must do. The Talmud receives a share of my time. I study the Gemora two hours in front of a mirror. I enjoy doing that. I also go each week for three hours to business school. I received a nice grade on my report card during the last quarter.

I want to congratulate both of you on the engagement of our dear sister, Regina to Feifer Gutmann from Karbach. I must admit that I am very pleased with him. He is a fine, orderly man. He has a good knowledge of business. He will treat Regina properly. We can see that God is with us. I would like to write you a long letter, but it is hard to do here at work since envy plays an important role here. I ask you to answer my letter as fast as you can. I wish you well and hope your business is doing fine. I send you my fondest greetings.

Your faithful brother,

Max

Please excuse the faulty continuity of this letter. It is hard to put so much on half a sheet of paper.