274 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



letters too wide a circulation for, I confess, that I should 

 not like them to go outside of the circle of your or my 

 friends. I am convinced that the "sympathy" displayed 

 by other outsiders does not amount to much and all they 

 care for, is to hear something interesting from the other 

 side of the globe. Would you like to satisfy yourself as 

 to the truth of my assertion? Just go and ask one of 

 those sympathizers if they are willing to let me — the poor 

 fellow— have the loan of five hundred dollars to start a 

 business! I do not think you will try the proposition. 

 I know all about such interested sympathy, it disgusts 

 me! "Donee eris felix, multos numerabis amicos, tem- 

 pora si fuerint nubila— solus eris." (As long as you will 

 be in luck, you will count many friends, at the time when 

 there will have been clouds — you will be alone.) I write 

 for my loved ones, not for the public! You, my dear 

 mother, have aroused my curiosity, for, what in the world 

 has made your sweet soul so angry against Grunhagen's 

 father? Is there really any cause for it? Because he 

 does not want to hear anything about the return of his 

 son? Now listen to me, my dear, dear mother, and I shall 

 try to explain that matter to you as I see it. Heinrich 

 Griinhagen and I went to California under very similar 

 conditions. Our position was the same, our education, 

 both at school and afterward in business, had been the 

 same; in our ages there is only a difference of a few 

 months; our dispositions, our inclinations are about the 

 same (though our character may differ very much). We 

 both were poor boys and did not want to let our best 

 years pass by without making an effort to better our con- 

 ditions. We both realized that we could not very well do 

 so in our old home surroundings and so it became nat- 

 ural for us to look abroad for greater possibilities. Thus 

 we came to California with the intention of making a 

 fight for prosperity. The fight began, we started in with 

 stout hearts, but we were beaten. Grunhagen's heart 

 failed after the first reverses and he actually had the 

 intention to run away, to retire again into the safe, yet 

 anything but brilliant surroundings, he had left at home. 



