Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Title

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Creator

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

Identifier

WWP23100

Date

1920 June 20

Description

Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.

Source

Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler

Subject

Germany--History--1918-1933
Correspondence
Berlin, Germany

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 eve June 20

Dearest;

This is probably the last letter I shall write to you from Berlin, as Enderis got a letter from Collins today saying that C. was sending on Easterling to Berlin as suggested and that he had wired us to that effect. Only the telegram has not arrived; this is the second which has gone astray from Collins who used the address c/o Wolff Bureau instead of c/o Adlon as before, so I don’t know whether he mentioned a date at all but we are trying to find this telegram. Of course in a huge office like Wolff’s you can never find the person who is responsible. But the main point at any rate is settled.

I don’t think I shall go to The Hague unless I have a special reason, as it would be pure(ly) a pleasure excursion. I leave Berlin at about 8 in the morning and do not arrive in Rotterdam until about 10 PM – a long tiresome journey.

Just received a letter from Aunt L. who had been in bed with another attack of the old enemy – bilious colic – but she seems better now.

I have made haste to go to at least one theatre before leaving Berlin; this was the State theatre which one may compare to His Majesty’s only very much the worse for another coat of paint, but the piece was a dramatised version of Peer Gynt, with Grieg’s music as accompaniment. The acting was very fine and the scene of Aase’s death thrilling. Shall tell you all about it when I come. I had a seat in a box and afterwards mingled with the crowd in the foyer – to my great surprise everybody took a newspaper out of pocket or vanity bag from which they extracted pieces of bread (black) and presumably butter or margarine which they consumed soberly but steadily, male and female, walking in a circle round & round the foyer. The sight was absolutely killing! I’ve never seen anything like it.

I shall probably ask Enderis not to notify my departure for London until the day after so that you may receive my wire from Rotterdam and one from the office almost simultaneously.

My love to you all, bobbed and unbobbed heads, we will soon have a hug altogether.

I am looking forward to it with great delight.

Thine,
Jack.

Original Format

Letter

To

Bouman Family

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1920-06-20.pdf

Citation

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1920 June 20, WWP23100, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.