Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Title

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Creator

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

Identifier

WWP23029

Date

1919 March 28

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
Austin Shifflett

Language

English

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

13 Place de la Bourse
Paris March 28

Dearest,

    Herewith cheque for £30 as suggested; to cover till the end of April barring accidents. Tis a strange situation now and different from what it was in Holland; there the exchange was very much in favor of the country; here it is against it, so that when I wanted to reinforce my banking account last Tuesday, I had to pay 27.20 francs per pound which compares with 25 normally. On the other hand those of us – like myself – who are paid in dollars or sterling at current rates, are a good deal “in” this month.

    Yours of March 23 received; funny you should give me prices of shirts which I intended to ask you out of curiosity. No, I don’t want any, thanks, I want to wear out the cotton horrors I got in Holland. It will be nice to have linen shirts again, but not until I get back home. That may be early in June unless something big happens here, when it may be July, but I am pretty certain to remain April and May. Of course in the present circumstances one can never tell.

    On Wednesday I was with the Czechoslovaks. A brilliant dinner of course, and I had some talk with Dr. Kramariz, the premier of the new state. I suppose it is all good propaganda but it disgusts me rather when I think of the women and children starving in those regions around Poland and Hungary, and their people here feasting and junketing. Surely they could find some means to spread their views without their expensive banquets. Not a day passes but that there is some spread somewhere, with lots of wine and expensive smokes. It’s wicked, I think.

    The other day I saw on a restaurant menu the magic word kippers, so I ordered “some”. I got one, which was a good kipper, but price; 2.50 francs! Last Sunday evening it was the first time I have been to a picture show here; much the same as everywhere else. The Grundys were going out to dinner, so I was warned off there, and was rather at a loose end. Afterwards I felt like tea and on passing Appenrodt – yes, they are doing a big business here, of course only French and English stuff – I ordered a pot of tea with one biscuit. No milk, no sugar, pretty poor tea, price 2.50 francs. Good night!

    Shirts again: 18 to 20 francs that perhaps are 8/6 or 9/6 in London, so, nothing doing.

    Much interested in the party at the Aumoniers, the old lady must be wonderful; my special regards to her when you see her again. I am glad to hear your landlady is a decent sort, but I have often thought – you mentioned the point – how funny it must be for you to just live in a room like a bachelor woman, with your husband abroad and your babies under another roof – still it has its compensations and may make you fit for the old drudgery again when you take up housekeeping.

    At this dinner I was speaking about who should I find sitting near me but Professor van Hamel of Amsterdam who used to write the leading articles in that green weekly Amsterdammer. So we were mutually pleased. They played some Czech music delightfully, the melancholy strains common to Eastern Europe, by a native band on native instruments.

    Every day one meets fresh people, mostly interesting and some important. I lunched today with the Paris correspondent of La Prensa of Buenos Aires; another paper of the same standing as La Nacion.

    I keep suddenly remembering things I wanted to write to you - have you been to see Jimmy Thomson, and how are they? It would not be gracious to keep willfully aloof – he was always very decent to me when I first came to London.

    Just this instant your letter of the 26th arrives. What an awful job to find a house! Here hundreds of people of small means and without homes sleep in the waiting rooms of the big termini every night – it is not allowed, but the authorities are forced to close one eye. I shall certainly write to Estlin soon; I had an idea he had removed his offices elsewhere.

    I shall write again soon. Let me know when the cheque reaches you. Much love, dearest, and kisses, also to the babes.
Thine as ever,
Jack.

Original Format

Letter

To

Bouman Family

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1919-03-28.pdf

Citation

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1919 March 28, WWP23029, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.