Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23158
Date
1927 December 19
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
Dec. 19, ‘27
Dearest;
Yours of the 16th came in this morning; today I start on the 5 p.m – 1 a.m. trick, so have more time now to look after my own affairs. I have been to the Akademischer Studenten Austausch about Mary; saw a Miss Hirsch in charge who seems very helpful. I haven’t been able yet to get Niemann on phone, tried time after time, but Frl. Hirsch to whom I showed his note, agreed that Fruhjahr would mean March or so, but I will get Niemann personally soon. Tomorrow is my day off: I am going to an evening entertainment of the British colony and expect to see other people there who may be useful to me.
I have never given you yet a description of the Pension – it is in a high building, two floors occupied by wholesale cloth firms and two floors privately. The Pension is on the 4th. Street entrance is by a Kolossal glass and iron gate which weighs tons and is locked at night; I have a key. Then through a wide passage, up a stairway large enough to admit the biggest furniture ever made, everything vast, bare and utterly gloomy with about the ugliest stenciled
pattern on the walls I’ve ever seen. But even the stairs are warmed, and there is a lift, which however stops at 10 pm. Once the 106 steps are negotiated, it is all right. The Pension runs 3 sides of a square with windows on 2 streets and inside around a courtyard. I must say it’s perfectly clean although some of the furniture is rather awful. I have a room costing 9/_ (plus 10% for service) per day including all meals so this is some saving on a hotel. It is a good sized room, bed-sitting – round table in center, a sofa, 3 chairs, a so-called writing table and a huge white tiled stove in the corner, which never goes out and keeps a nice even temperature. I am just reminded of my hotel room in Vilna, where there were eight chairs but nothing to hang a coat on! or a toothbrush tray.
Good for you to beat Nan at bridge. What a blow!
What was Bill’s prize for? It was nice to receive it from a man like Macdonald.
I don’t think there’s any sense in sending any Xmas presents from here, but I always wanted to give the girls a little leather slipper case for evening parties; I saw them at the bag shop Gray’s Inn Road as you step out at the tram terminus to the right. They had them from 11s/_ upwards and if they would like that as a present, I would like them to have one each, unless you know something better. As for yourself and Bill, I don’t know, but I wish you would buy yourself something and also for Bill, in my first absence this Xmas.
I’m just off now to the office, 4 45 pm, so goodbye for the present and love to all,
Jac.
Dearest;
Yours of the 16th came in this morning; today I start on the 5 p.m – 1 a.m. trick, so have more time now to look after my own affairs. I have been to the Akademischer Studenten Austausch about Mary; saw a Miss Hirsch in charge who seems very helpful. I haven’t been able yet to get Niemann on phone, tried time after time, but Frl. Hirsch to whom I showed his note, agreed that Fruhjahr would mean March or so, but I will get Niemann personally soon. Tomorrow is my day off: I am going to an evening entertainment of the British colony and expect to see other people there who may be useful to me.
I have never given you yet a description of the Pension – it is in a high building, two floors occupied by wholesale cloth firms and two floors privately. The Pension is on the 4th. Street entrance is by a Kolossal glass and iron gate which weighs tons and is locked at night; I have a key. Then through a wide passage, up a stairway large enough to admit the biggest furniture ever made, everything vast, bare and utterly gloomy with about the ugliest stenciled
pattern on the walls I’ve ever seen. But even the stairs are warmed, and there is a lift, which however stops at 10 pm. Once the 106 steps are negotiated, it is all right. The Pension runs 3 sides of a square with windows on 2 streets and inside around a courtyard. I must say it’s perfectly clean although some of the furniture is rather awful. I have a room costing 9/_ (plus 10% for service) per day including all meals so this is some saving on a hotel. It is a good sized room, bed-sitting – round table in center, a sofa, 3 chairs, a so-called writing table and a huge white tiled stove in the corner, which never goes out and keeps a nice even temperature. I am just reminded of my hotel room in Vilna, where there were eight chairs but nothing to hang a coat on! or a toothbrush tray.
Good for you to beat Nan at bridge. What a blow!
What was Bill’s prize for? It was nice to receive it from a man like Macdonald.
I don’t think there’s any sense in sending any Xmas presents from here, but I always wanted to give the girls a little leather slipper case for evening parties; I saw them at the bag shop Gray’s Inn Road as you step out at the tram terminus to the right. They had them from 11s/_ upwards and if they would like that as a present, I would like them to have one each, unless you know something better. As for yourself and Bill, I don’t know, but I wish you would buy yourself something and also for Bill, in my first absence this Xmas.
I’m just off now to the office, 4 45 pm, so goodbye for the present and love to all,
Jac.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1927 December 19, WWP23158, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.