Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Title

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Creator

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

Identifier

WWP23110

Date

1921 September 23

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 23, 1921


Dearest,

Charlie Chaplin and I are sleeping under one roof; he came in today almost unobserved, as he has not been the rage here as he is in England and France; in fact his films are only now being put up here.

Enderis came out of the nursing home on Wednesday, still pretty shaky and troubled with swallowing. Today he insisted on going to the dentist to have a tooth out, despite my advice to leave it for another week, so he is a pretty “miserable monkey” today. Moreover he has only just found out that the doctor who treated him has a fearful operation for “operating at once” which makes him think he hadn’t needed to go through all this business after all!

I enjoyed the Strauss concert very much on Monday evening. The big Philharmonic Hall was crowded with a most attentive audience – you could have heard a pin drop. There were two symphonies by Mozart and two of his own compositions, one being a very weird one: “Thus spake Zarathustra”. It began with a very low gust from the grand organ. Being well in front, I could observe the orchestra, mostly violins. One little man reminded me very much of D. Morison, the same watery-blue eyes – I was sure his name was Heinrich – you know, in “Mr. Britling sees it through”. But he played like an angel; they all did, in fact. It was a real joy;

I wished you had been there. I was much amused by a haughty Prussian dame; a real one of the old regime; she came alone and complained of not being able to find her seat, for which she blamed “this republican state of affairs.” She was certainly one of the old “die-hards”.

Today I went to see Edwin Wilcox’s proteges, the Russian refugees who have a workshop and sale room here, where they have the most wonderful hand made things of which I bought some for you. No, I won’t tell you what they are, but they are made by princesses, countesses, generals, and high functionaries of the court who are all on their bean ends and gain a precarious living by hand-made articles. Some of them are exquisite – wait till you see them!
Russell turned up here this week to replace Wilcox. He has brought his wife; his children are older and he had a reliable person to take care of the house. We recalled the time when we met him in Southwood Lane; neither of us imagining that we were so soon to meet again in Berlin.

I see by yours of the 18th that little Arthur has gone home and the bairns are back at school. I hope all is going well. Thank Mary for her letter; I will write her in a few days’ time.

I sent Bill a postcard for his birthday and I will write to him too. It is a good thing the rubbish heap is under the swing! Are the apples ripe yet?

The weather here continues fine and quite warm for the time of the year. The hotel is now awfully crowded because a “guarantee commission” has just come from Paris in connection with the German reparation payments.

The people here are just as grumpy and discontented as ever; nobody is satisfied; everybody chasing after money by hook or by crook and blaming the government. Of course they would blame any government: they can’t expect to be so well off as before the war which they lost!

What a queer couple the Grundys are; your tale amused me vastly. Just like them! Goodbye just now. With much love to all,
Thine ever,
Jack.

Original Format

Letter

To

Bouman Family

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1921-09-23.pdf

Citation

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1921 September 23, WWP23110, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.