Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23080
Date
1919 December 14
Description
Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.
Source
Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler
Subject
Correspondence
Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)
Contributor
Rachel Dark
Denise Montgomery
Language
English
Requires
PROOFREADING
Provenance
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.
Text
Sunday afternoon
Dec. 14 ‘19
Dearest;
Tomorrow the Big Chief is supposed to arrive, so I shall know my fate very soon; whether I may go home and live like a Christian, or whether I am to spend the rest of my life roaming among this unhappy world. Talk about freedom and liberty! Why people are just as much slaves as ever; perhaps they don’t deserve any better. What I should like to do is to put on my hat and say: I’ll come back if you like, but when it suits me! Instead of which, one has to be humbugged about. However……
I was glad of the news about the bairns. I wish you would buy for them (unless by some coincidence you already done so)
The Outline of History
by H.G. Wells
(Geo. Newnes)
Twenty s
Which is is sold in ½ parts. I think it is just the thing for them, and I see Betty curled up with the book, and an apple, devouring both. Your local newspaper will have it. I have seen the first two parts here, and I think we ought to go in for it. Let me know in case the first number is sold
out – I may then be able to get this at Brentano’s here.
I will send you your draft tomorrow or Tuesday, as anyhow could not take more than 1000 francs over. It will be a pretty tight squeeze to get over before the 25th owing to the accounts, but Roberts seems to see the inhumanity of keeping a man from his home at Xmas when a holiday is due him.
Last Friday I dined with a man on our staff named Waden, who claims Dutch ancestry although he is an American. He worked at the front for us, and since at the Peace Conference. He is about 50 and married a young Frenchwoman 2 years ago and they have now a baby of about 1 year; the style of Billy at that age, but not such pretty hair. They seem very happy although his French is not 1st quality. I had never before been to their home, a long way out by tube, and as I was nearing it on a foggy night, it looked exactly like Lissenden Gardens, five floors lit up, where you saw the back part with the lift. The rooms are very tiny; the dining room reminded me also of ours at Lissenden G.; the other rooms are of the same size. Of course fearful quarrels with tyrants of landlords and concierges, it is extraordinary what people have to put up with here, and they bear albeit grumbling like bears, but this being a “democratic” country, one understands why it should be so. Swindling is rife on all hands. What a world!
I think I shall wire when the decision comes about my going to London. As I told you, I wrote to Mr. Stone when he arrived in London, stating my case, so that he would have an opportunity for talking it over with Collins, before encountering Roberts’ arguments for keeping me here. Anyhow, I think I am safe for Xmas in London, unless some stroke of bad luck intervenes.
Extraordinary dirty weather here, gloomy and wet, just London weather. And cold with it.
Much love dearest to all
Thine
Jack.
Dec. 14 ‘19
Dearest;
Tomorrow the Big Chief is supposed to arrive, so I shall know my fate very soon; whether I may go home and live like a Christian, or whether I am to spend the rest of my life roaming among this unhappy world. Talk about freedom and liberty! Why people are just as much slaves as ever; perhaps they don’t deserve any better. What I should like to do is to put on my hat and say: I’ll come back if you like, but when it suits me! Instead of which, one has to be humbugged about. However……
I was glad of the news about the bairns. I wish you would buy for them (unless by some coincidence you already done so)
The Outline of History
by H.G. Wells
(Geo. Newnes)
Twenty s
Which is is sold in ½ parts. I think it is just the thing for them, and I see Betty curled up with the book, and an apple, devouring both. Your local newspaper will have it. I have seen the first two parts here, and I think we ought to go in for it. Let me know in case the first number is sold
out – I may then be able to get this at Brentano’s here.
I will send you your draft tomorrow or Tuesday, as anyhow could not take more than 1000 francs over. It will be a pretty tight squeeze to get over before the 25th owing to the accounts, but Roberts seems to see the inhumanity of keeping a man from his home at Xmas when a holiday is due him.
Last Friday I dined with a man on our staff named Waden, who claims Dutch ancestry although he is an American. He worked at the front for us, and since at the Peace Conference. He is about 50 and married a young Frenchwoman 2 years ago and they have now a baby of about 1 year; the style of Billy at that age, but not such pretty hair. They seem very happy although his French is not 1st quality. I had never before been to their home, a long way out by tube, and as I was nearing it on a foggy night, it looked exactly like Lissenden Gardens, five floors lit up, where you saw the back part with the lift. The rooms are very tiny; the dining room reminded me also of ours at Lissenden G.; the other rooms are of the same size. Of course fearful quarrels with tyrants of landlords and concierges, it is extraordinary what people have to put up with here, and they bear albeit grumbling like bears, but this being a “democratic” country, one understands why it should be so. Swindling is rife on all hands. What a world!
I think I shall wire when the decision comes about my going to London. As I told you, I wrote to Mr. Stone when he arrived in London, stating my case, so that he would have an opportunity for talking it over with Collins, before encountering Roberts’ arguments for keeping me here. Anyhow, I think I am safe for Xmas in London, unless some stroke of bad luck intervenes.
Extraordinary dirty weather here, gloomy and wet, just London weather. And cold with it.
Much love dearest to all
Thine
Jack.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1919 December 14, WWP23080, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.