No matter how zealous patriots we may become in our adopted country, we
should not forget altogether our native country. As I did not venture to
visit Lithuania under the czar in 1910, when I was visiting other parts
of Europe, I had a great desire to see my native land after the horrible
war. Anyone would be anxious to visit his native country after
thirty-six years' absence.
It was not an easy task for me to get a passport, as the United States
government objected to letting me cross Germany. There being no American
consul to Germany, our government would not take the responsibility of
protecting me in that country. To avoid crossing Germany I was advised
to ask for a passport through Denmark, Switzerland and Libow, which I
did. But the consul at Denmark refused to put the visa on my passport
unless I would send a cable to Denmark and get the consent of the
government. I went to Washington to see the ambassador of Denmark
personally, and he told me the same as the consul in New York. I then
went to the State Department asking to have a change made in my
passport which would permit me to go through France. This the State
Department refused to do. Finally I went to Mr. Walsh, the Senator from
Massachusetts, who sent his secretary with me to the State Department,
and the change was made immediately. I then went to the French
ambassador who put his visa on my passport, and I was ready to go by way
of France. It took me about two months to get the passport.
On August 30th, 1919, I embarked from New York, West Fourteenth Street,
on the ship Transatlantique La Lorraine, to Havre, France. The second
night of my trip was very foggy. Our ship sounded fog horns all night. I
felt that the ship was standing still and went on deck to see what had
happened. I saw lights flashing in two places, as if two ships were
sinking not far from each other. On making inquiry from the sailors I
found that our ship had collided with a fishing boat from Canada,
cutting it in two. Fortunately all the fishermen were saved by our ship.
I saw them struggling in their small boats against the waves near our
ship, till they came close and the ropes were let down, by means of
which their small boats were pulled up to our ship and the men were
saved. Next day a collection for the fishermen was taken up among our
passengers which amounted to 3000 francs, and they were carried to
Havre.
All the voyage to France was very stormy except one day at the beginning
and one day near France. Eight days' trip from New York to Havre. Sunday
night about eight o'clock we reached Havre, but we were obliged to sleep
on the ship because Monday morning the inspectors came to examine all
passports and luggage. It was after one o'clock in the afternoon when I
reached Paris, where I called at the Lithuanian Legation to get
directions for going by way of Switzerland and Libow to Lithuania. They
directed me to cross Germany, assuring me that two Lithuanian priests
just before me had crossed Germany without any trouble. They were
ignorant of the fact that one of those priests lost in Germany two suit
cases valued at about five hundred dollars. This priest told me this
later, when I met him in Lithuania.
After remaining in Paris for three days, trusting the advice of the
Lithuanian Legation, having seen all authorities of France and England,
I started for Lithuania by way of Belgium, Cologne, Berlin, Eytkunen, to
the first station of Lithuania, called Valkaviskis. My baggage was
addressed by the same route and was carried on the same train. The train
left Paris at 9:30 P. M. I had a chance to see some of the ruined cities
of Belgium only in the morning--at night there was no possibility of
seeing. When we came to the first station in Germany, Herbesthal, the
German inspector of passports and baggage came to examine all trunks. I
was told that the train would wait there at the station till all the
trunks were carried back to the baggage room and the same train would
carry them together with the passengers. But it was just to the
contrary. When I returned from the station after unlocking and locking
my trunk the train was gone, and my trunk was left in Herbesthal and my
two suit cases were carried away to Cologne. I was obliged to take
another train to Cologne. On the first train we were supposed to arrive
in Cologne about 11:00 a. m.; on the second train we did not arrive
until very near four p. m. I was afraid of losing both my suit case,
portable altar and the trunk. The suit case and the portable altar I
found in Cologne, with the help of the British soldiers, but my trunk,
worth about five hundred dollars, is lost forever in Germany.
In Cologne I tried in vain to get breakfast about 4:30 p. m. If you do
not drink beer you can get nothing to eat. Those who drink beer get some
herrings without bread. Bread you get only once a day--two small thin
slices, for supper. There are no dining rooms on the trains any more in
Germany.
At 9:30 p. m. the train left Cologne for Berlin. Near Berlin the
British inspector of passports told me: "I allow you this time to pass
this way to Lithuania if you promise me not to return to America the
same way." I said: "I will return by way of Libow." At 8:30 a. m. the
train arrived in Berlin and left for Koenigsberg and Eytkunen at 9:30 p.
m. The evening trip from Berlin was a regular torture to me which I
shall never forget. It seems to me that on that evening there must have
been some sort of revolution among the German parties. No matter what
the classification of the ticket of any passenger, whether first,
second, third or fourth class, there was no distinction in the service
on the train. There was such a multitude of people flocking to the
train, the stronger ones trampling over the weaker--especially the
women. Even after the train was filled there were many left to stand and
wait for another train. I had a second class ticket and was obliged to
sit in the corridor on my suit case all night and the greater part of
the day.
On the train were many armed German soldiers going to Latvia and a part
of Lithuania. I heard them talking about Littau and Mittau Shauliai.
After we passed Koeningsburg near the Eytkunen limit of Lithuania, some
persons, one of them in the uniform of a soldier, began to speak the
Lithuanian language. I asked them who they were and they told me they
were Lithuanian officials returning from Berlin.
As soon as we arrived at Eytkunen, the German inspector asked to see our
passports, and seeing on mine no visa by the German authority, I was
told to return to Berlin for the necessary signature. I informed him
that the consul of Switzerland in New York put the visa on my passport,
permitting me to cross Germany. This was not sufficient as the Swiss
consul had lost this authority at the termination of the war.
Fortunately the Lithuanians whom I met at Eytkunen appealed to the Mayor
of Virbalis, a city of Lithuania, who came to Eytkunen and obtained my
release.
What a joy it was when a German soldier came to me while I was
preparing to return to Berlin and told me to proceed to Lithuania. He
led me to the train leaving for Vilkaviskis.
I was very anxious to see that part of the country for I was well
acquainted with it thirty-six years ago. I saw that Lithuania is more
devastated than Belgium. The Germans crossed through Belgium once only,
while Lithuania had been the regular battlefield for the German and
Russian armies. It was alternately captured and recaptured by the
contending armies. When the Russian army was fleeing it destroyed
whatever opportunity afforded, likewise the German army in its retreat
carried everything in its wake, pillaged, burned and destroyed whatever
it could not take. I noticed in particular one village which had been,
only a few trees were visible. Numerous farm houses had been destroyed
and burned to the ground. People now live in huts made partly of straw,
old boards and clay. Not only the war, but nature has made changes in
Lithuania. Rivers, such as the Seimena and Sirvinta, are only brooks. As
we approached Vilkaviskis, my native town, the passengers called my
attention to the station. My imagination failed to picture the rudely
constructed hut as the same station of former years, which had been
entirely destroyed by the invading army.
When I descended from the train, my sister's son-in-law, whom I had seen
in Germany ten years ago, recognized me and conducted me to his home
nearby. After spending a few happy hours with my friends and relatives I
proceeded to the rectory. The next morning I was fortunate indeed to say
mass for the first time in the church in which I was baptized. That
afternoon at a meeting of the Lithuanian Sales Corporation, I lectured
on American Lithuanians and Americans in general. Monday I went to
Kaunas, or Kovno, to meet the [A]President of Lithuania, Anthony
Smetona, to extend to him the congratulations of the Lithuanian Total
Abstinance Organization of America.
[Footnote A: When I presented to the president of Lithuania, Mr. Anthony
Smetona, the said recommendation of the Lithuanian Total Abstinance
Organization in America, which is indeed a suggestion to introduce the
prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks in
Lithuania--in other words, to imitate the American government in this
respect, he expressed himself sufficiently in favor of it, but it is
quite self-evident that he, as the President of Lithuania alone, cannot
accomplish it. In our conversation he made a suggestion to me that I
should strive to get a chance to speak publicly in Kaunas and in other
places as much as possible on the subject of total abstinance, to which
I expressed my hope that some of the priests of Kaunas, no doubt, would
give me a chance there. Then the President said to me: "I have read in
the Lithuanian American newspapers so much of you as the apostle of
total abstinance among Lithuanians in America, I wish you would do the
same here." In Lithuania the opportunity to speak to the people is
offered only on Sunday, and in that case it is better in the church. So
I had an opportunity on Sundays and delivered sermons in seven churches.
In one a good number of priests as guests were assembled and listened to
my sermon. They were pleased and at dinner table were discussing about
American prohibition. A great many of them are boldly opposed to it;
some even expressing their doubt about total abstinance. But they all
were curious to know what those Lithuanians will do who were arrested
and punished for manufacturing at home and selling intoxicants without
the license of the government, after hearing of that sermon in the
church. Lithuanians in Lithuania have learned from the Germans when they
were in occupation, not only how to make intoxicants, but also soap,
sugar, etc.
At first I considered it might be an insult to speak about total
abstinance in Lithuania, after the horrible war; that those people could
not get any attraction to intoxicants having witnessed such horrors of
the war. But I was soon informed by some good souls of the necessity of
total abstinance and of the dangers and temptations of many to
intoxication. So I could not part with Lithuania without making an
effort to sow the seed that might produce some good effects in the field
of total abstinance.
As soon as I came to Boston and Worcester the Lithuanian Total
Abstinance Central Committee held its quarter-annual convention and
caught me unexpectedly and cross-examined me on the situation in
Lithuania. I was obliged to give an account of all I had done in
Lithuania for total abstinance and prohibition. I told them that the
President alone could not introduce prohibition, and that they will wait
until a general convention of Lithuanians will take place. Then they
appointed me to write to the President for an official answer to their
communication, and that I should strive to find some way by which the
Total Abstinance Organization of America could unite in co-operation
with the same organization in Lithuania. So I undertook to do so, and am
trying now to perform my obligation, but at present the correspondence
with Lithuania is very slow.]
The President of Lithuania was very thankful to the Americans and
Lithuanians for the help they so generously extended to alleviate the
sufferings of the people committed to his care. I visited the
institution for teachers, called "Saules Namai", the Home of the Sun,
which was almost miraculously saved from the devastations of war. While
speaking of this institution I must also say a few words about the vast
difference in spirit of the Lithuanians of the past and present. In
former years the parents were free to send or not to send their children
to school under the regime of the Czar. Few parents grasped this
opportunity for they despised education, saying our forefathers were
very good people without education, so we and our children will remain
without it. I was very much surprised to see the spirit among the
Lithuanians today. The young and old are eager to learn, to educate, to
build schools and institutions of learning. The larger cities have
gymnasiums or higher schools for girls and boys. They are creating new
organizations to support these institutions and are exerting to the
utmost to preserve them.