Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23108
Date
1921 September 15
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
Sept 15, 1921
Dearest;
Yours of the 8th I received of course some days ago; I am glad little Arthur’s visit seems to have been a great success, at any rate for the girls. What an extraordinary thing to leave dirty dishes &c. when going on a longish holiday; surely four people would do such a thing!
My hat? Oh my hat is “Marengo”, which is neither blue nor black nor green nor gray but something in between; so it can never discolor very much.
Enderis has had to go to a nursing home for 4 or 5 days to undergo an operation on his nose – cartilage having grown in some peculiar way. He was operated yesterday and then said to be progressing well. It is quite a simple affair but of course he has to keep quiet for a few days, but he can be seen already today. They have some splendid institutions here, large, spacious and airy, with large lifts and I should think excellently equipped and staffed. Nevertheless I have no desire to try them; I fancy they might exert a magic fascination upon Grundyesque people. Mentioning the name, I received one of F.B.’s letters Canards here straight from Paris – I imagine the news that I was here reached Frank through a member of the Havas staff.
The weather has changed: we have had a couple of wet days and today its variable but not cold. We have had one of those sporadic strikes – was an electricians’ strike with the result electricity-lit streets were plunged into darkness and all shops hotels &c., which depended upon outside electric power, were ditto. The Adlon has its own generating station so we were not inconvenienced. It was odd to see people lighting themselves home with electric pocket lamps late at night. But it’s all over again; outbursts of all sorts are common, and always threatening; it is symptomatic of the feverish state of the body politic. Easterling and I are carrying on the job; I fancy Enderis will need a couple of days to recuperate – he wants to make a short visit to Switzerland to visit some aged relatives.
Give my love to the dubbies and much thereof to yourself
from thine,
Jack.
Dearest;
Yours of the 8th I received of course some days ago; I am glad little Arthur’s visit seems to have been a great success, at any rate for the girls. What an extraordinary thing to leave dirty dishes &c. when going on a longish holiday; surely four people would do such a thing!
My hat? Oh my hat is “Marengo”, which is neither blue nor black nor green nor gray but something in between; so it can never discolor very much.
Enderis has had to go to a nursing home for 4 or 5 days to undergo an operation on his nose – cartilage having grown in some peculiar way. He was operated yesterday and then said to be progressing well. It is quite a simple affair but of course he has to keep quiet for a few days, but he can be seen already today. They have some splendid institutions here, large, spacious and airy, with large lifts and I should think excellently equipped and staffed. Nevertheless I have no desire to try them; I fancy they might exert a magic fascination upon Grundyesque people. Mentioning the name, I received one of F.B.’s letters Canards here straight from Paris – I imagine the news that I was here reached Frank through a member of the Havas staff.
The weather has changed: we have had a couple of wet days and today its variable but not cold. We have had one of those sporadic strikes – was an electricians’ strike with the result electricity-lit streets were plunged into darkness and all shops hotels &c., which depended upon outside electric power, were ditto. The Adlon has its own generating station so we were not inconvenienced. It was odd to see people lighting themselves home with electric pocket lamps late at night. But it’s all over again; outbursts of all sorts are common, and always threatening; it is symptomatic of the feverish state of the body politic. Easterling and I are carrying on the job; I fancy Enderis will need a couple of days to recuperate – he wants to make a short visit to Switzerland to visit some aged relatives.
Give my love to the dubbies and much thereof to yourself
from thine,
Jack.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1921 September 15, WWP23108, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.