Produced by David Starner, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Thirty Days in LITHUANIA in 1919 REV. PETER P. SAURUSAITIS Being an Account of Personal Experiences and Observations Encountered in a Trip extending from August 30, 1919, to February 16, 1920 Printed by Call Printing Company EAST ST. LOUIS, ILLINOIS 1920 Exodium for All Americans I hope the American people will be interested with the information I have just brought from my native country. I am writing the story of my trip to Lithuania and return at the suggestion of some of my fellow citizens, to whom I have narrated some ideas of it, in which they took much interest as instructive information for anyone who prepares for a trip to any part of the world. As this country is composed of citizens and patriots of all nationalities, so every citizen may get attraction to visit his native land; and even those who are born in this country are sometimes tempted to visit the country of their fathers and forefathers. Exodium for Waterbury, Conn., Citizens Only. My Dear Friends and Fellow Citizens: I am glad to be with you again. Why am I glad? Because of the thirty-six years since I came to America, most of the time I have spent in Waterbury. Here I have lived for twenty-one years. Because in Waterbury I had time enough to make many friends, and if I did not do so, it is my own fault. In a word, in Waterbury my adopted citizenship must have rooted much deeper than in the other parts of the United States in which I have lived for a much shorter time. What I Saw in Lithuania 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.