Youthful Cantankerousness

I never knew Carl Krausse, but I have heard stories about him. Indeed I have. The stories always involve the years when he managed Stommel's, and include the phrase "quite a character" or "something else." The specifics range from his yelling at people for parking on the public street in front of his store, to his refusing to sell a customer something if he found out the customer looked at it elsewhere first, to his keeping guns hidden under the merchandise displays so he could shoot any would-be robbers.

So I was amused when I came across this letter he wrote to the Gazette's editor from New York, where he was stationed with the army. He was only about 23 years old, but already we get a hint of that legendary cantankerousness.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette of January 24, 1919.