Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

WWP23018

1919 February 2

Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.

Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler

Correspondence

Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)

Rachel Dark

Denise Montgomery

Austin Shifflett

English

Evelina Suhler is the granddaughter of Jon Anthony Bouman and inherited the family collection of his letters from the years of World War I. She and her husband gave the letters to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum in 2013.

Dearest:

    How delighted I was to get yours of Jan 22 with enclosures from the bairns! Please tell them how pleased I was with their letters: I have read and re-re-read them many times. I am wondering how many more letters I can send to the Hague as you think the house is to be let as from 15/2, and letters take about a week.

    Well, I think I shall be moving from this place in about a week’s time. I think I have found a better place; this is extremely dear and I think I prefer a smaller hotel. I have not had time to go about it properly; I did have a try last Sunday but only saw one place, and then came the snowstorm so I didn’t see the fun of tramping the streets chasing for a hotel. Since then the cold has been intense, hard frost every day. The Champs Elysees looked lovely the first day with the trees covered with snow but now they are bare again and the snow is slowly freezing away.

    I am generally at the office from 10 – 8 which is a good day’s work. Dinner over, say 9 o’clock and then there isn’t much to do as cafes are shut at 9:30. Today I went to see a new press club which the French government has placed at the disposal of friendly journalists. It is a former millionaire’s palace on the Champs Elysees. You never saw such a magnificent place in your life! Noble staircase, marble statuary, gilt chandeliers, writing rooms, dining rooms, billiard rooms, hairdresser manicure (!) pvt. telegraph, telephone all there; everything furnished in the most luxurious and elegant style. I have seen many places but this one beats all I have ever seen! And there is no entrance fee and no subscription so I made haste, parbleu! to enter my name.

    I went to see Mr. London the other day, and have great hopes of getting a story from him. He received me very affably and we had quite a chat. He is at a hotel not very far from mine.

  This morning, searching for hotels that weren’t full up. I went into Notre Dame and it was rather sad to see so many ladies in black and old men kneeling before the image of the Redeemer or the Virgin and Child with hundreds of votive candles around. I imagine they must all have lost dear relatives in the war.

    Now dearest I hope you are keeping well this cold weather. The children write that on a Sunday you didn’t get up until 11. I do hope that was not because you were ill or that you have been trying to do too much. Do be careful and don’t attempt too much at once.

    Tell the children that one sees surprisingly few cats and dogs in Paris. They may however be kept indoors a good deal this cold weather. Yesterday having my breakfast I felt something push my elbow – I looked and beheld a tabby kitten that was trying to make friends. She was pushing with her head to attract attention. Later she lay alongside the radiator and wanted a game very much, waved her paws about like anything. I must say this hotel, as also the office, is well heated. There seems to be no lack of coal. But I have just paid 17 francs (14 shillings!) for having a pair of boots soled and heeled, which is really awful.

    After dinner in town at one of the Duval places for 8. bo with tip = 7 shillings for soup veal & 2 veg and three little [sweet] biscuits[some nuts] and ½ bottle of cheap wine –no coffee—I went to Frank Lundy’s again who has given me a sort of general invitation to drop in. But as they go to bed at about 9.30 there isn’t much time except on Sundays, so this is only the second time I’ve been there. Old Frank is just the same – no balder, no greyer and no thinner than he used to be - I guess he’ll never change.

    I have just got through the job of disentangling the office accounts – it looked like an impossible maze, but I’ve found my way out at last. I am anxious to get settled down somewhere and unpack my things; I hope to get fixed up in a few days. Hotels have waiting lists!! However, as I don’t pay, I don’t worry.

Letter

Bouman Family