LAST ARTICLE ABOUT AUSTRALIA, STORY TOLD BY MRS. EMMA KRIEWALDT

DEPARTURE OF THE SHIPS

Breaking Up of Home Ties, When Band Plays and the Great Crowds Sing Songs

 

‘You see,’ said Mrs. Kriewaldt, ‘after a boy has enlisted in the army, had received training and had shipped to England, it was easily six months from time of enlistment before he saw any fighting. No wonder the boys had the spirit of adventure. When the troops left Australia a demonstration was always given the boys. Great crowds gathered at the wharves. The soldier boys had long paper ribbons rolled up in a roll. One end of this was held by the soldier’s sweetheart, and the other by the soldier on board. As the ship steamed away from from the dock, the ribbon was let out it’s [sic] entire length and still the two held on, until the ribbon had stretched to the breaking point. Thus were the love ties broken in allegory. The crowds sang God Save The King and Rule Brittanica and the bands played patriotic  march tunes.”

“My own boys caught the inspiration, and in all seriousness began to talk of enlisting, and the oldest one, you know, might easily pass the age limit. Well, I tried to show him that what he had seen was only the grandeur of war, that the awfulness of it was something remote, but most terribly real. I then proposed to him that if it were adventure and a trip that he wanted, we would come to American,” said Mrs. Kriewaldt, “and here we are.”

“We have a farm and some other property back there, which I have left in the hands of a good Christian friend until the war is over. No German can sell property there, no one with German blood even three generations removed can sell or buy property without the permission of the government. The reason for this strict rule is that they fear that the money received from the sale might fall in the hands of the enemy. I could have secured permission from the commission I think, but all I would have been allowed to take out of the country was two hundred fifty dollars. So, what was the use?

“Rather than make such sacrifice out of my property, I preferred to leave it with this friend and run the risk of it surviving the war. One of our neighbors went away to fight the enemy and left a wife with ten children. When I think of this, I am so glad that we had this dear America to come to. Naturally my heart is back in that land that meant so much to me, and to my husband and children, but the boys are fast acquiring American ways and I think they are going to like it here, and of course it is easy for me to resume the manners and costumes that I knew in my childhood, in this my native land.”

The End.!

Source: Photocopy of article from the Shawano County Journal, hand-dated Jan 1917; paragraphs added. In the Frederic C. Eberlein genealogical files.