Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23065
Date
1919 September 15
Description
Letter from Jon Bouman to his family, mentions watching the Austrians sign the Peace Treaty and seeing Clemenceau.
Source
Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler
Subject
Correspondence
Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)
Contributor
Rachel Dark
Denise Montgomery
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 Sunday eve
Sept-15
Dearest;
Well, if I wasn’t at Versailles when the Germans signed, I was at St. Germain when the Austrians did, much to my content. Three of us went in the office motor early in the morning and I saw all the bigwigs, except of course Wilson and Lloyd George. Balfour was the dandy of the whole bunch; I also had a good view of Clemenceau, that wonderful old chap. He is a rugged and virile type and looked as pugnacious as Balfour looks mild and benevolent. Paderewski’s mop is the most enchanting colour, quite pinkish; I thought I must be colourblind surely, but one of the French papers also said the same, so I was right.
The new man, Evans, has just arrived; he is quite likeable, I think; a young man with wife and two children about 7 or so. He had great trouble finding apartments and is only temporarily somewhere, where he has to pay 800 francs (!) a month. Still that is cheaper than the hotel where he first went to, where they charged him fr 50 per day! Now of course with the Austrian treaty out of the way and Evans here, we were able to start on holidays; Moroney the night man has gone away for 3 weeks; but fortunately I have got out of the night work; the other three men will take one week each of it, so that I only continue doing the Saturday nights; which gives me all Friday off and this suits me O.K. I had another lovely trip on Friday which was supposed to be a two hours walk but I took half a day; it was to Marly - le – Roi where Louis XIV had a castle; I sent you a p.c. There is a lovely park there, with century old trees, the shade of which was most grateful – it was as grilling day, I see you have had the same in England. You go through a village called Louveciennes where there is a picture in the church of St. Genevieve by Vigee-Lebrun. Then after Marly I walked to the Seine and took car along past the place where I lunched with the cocks and hens and then got off at Malmaison and had dinner at the Pavillon Josephine on the veranda. The sunsets nowadays are gorgeous; but tonight we have had the first rain shower, and the hot spell may break up now.
This afternoon I went to the Exhibition of Decorative Art at the Louvre; those shows are free on Sundays; you would have enjoyed all the treasures there.
I have just re-read your letter; I am sorry you think it is muscular rheumatism; I have an idea that is very difficult to get rid of; tell me if the rubbing does it any good. I am glad to hear the good news about the girls. I confess I was rather worrying about their hearing. So the Grundys want to come back to town again – no doubt they are getting tired of the country. So Edwin Wilcox is going to the central empires or what remains of them; the situation is very interesting there but extremely difficult. The A.P. has sent a man to Vienna who doesn’t understand a word of German, so his expense bills are swollen by salaries he has to pay people to read the papers for him! However, that’s their affair, and I don’t know that I would care very much for that job; it’s a most hopeless muddle.
I hope to send you a cheque for pound 50 in the course of the coming week. A pound costs nearly 35 francs now so where it will end I don’t know. The financial position of France is very much compromised; unless they start producing very quickly or unless help comes from the allies the outlook is pretty bad; yet people throw their money about recklessly and there is the same wave of laziness. Tis a crazy world surely.
With all my love to yourself and the bairns,
Thine Jack.
Paris Sunday eve
Sept-15
Dearest;
Well, if I wasn’t at Versailles when the Germans signed, I was at St. Germain when the Austrians did, much to my content. Three of us went in the office motor early in the morning and I saw all the bigwigs, except of course Wilson and Lloyd George. Balfour was the dandy of the whole bunch; I also had a good view of Clemenceau, that wonderful old chap. He is a rugged and virile type and looked as pugnacious as Balfour looks mild and benevolent. Paderewski’s mop is the most enchanting colour, quite pinkish; I thought I must be colourblind surely, but one of the French papers also said the same, so I was right.
The new man, Evans, has just arrived; he is quite likeable, I think; a young man with wife and two children about 7 or so. He had great trouble finding apartments and is only temporarily somewhere, where he has to pay 800 francs (!) a month. Still that is cheaper than the hotel where he first went to, where they charged him fr 50 per day! Now of course with the Austrian treaty out of the way and Evans here, we were able to start on holidays; Moroney the night man has gone away for 3 weeks; but fortunately I have got out of the night work; the other three men will take one week each of it, so that I only continue doing the Saturday nights; which gives me all Friday off and this suits me O.K. I had another lovely trip on Friday which was supposed to be a two hours walk but I took half a day; it was to Marly - le – Roi where Louis XIV had a castle; I sent you a p.c. There is a lovely park there, with century old trees, the shade of which was most grateful – it was as grilling day, I see you have had the same in England. You go through a village called Louveciennes where there is a picture in the church of St. Genevieve by Vigee-Lebrun. Then after Marly I walked to the Seine and took car along past the place where I lunched with the cocks and hens and then got off at Malmaison and had dinner at the Pavillon Josephine on the veranda. The sunsets nowadays are gorgeous; but tonight we have had the first rain shower, and the hot spell may break up now.
This afternoon I went to the Exhibition of Decorative Art at the Louvre; those shows are free on Sundays; you would have enjoyed all the treasures there.
I have just re-read your letter; I am sorry you think it is muscular rheumatism; I have an idea that is very difficult to get rid of; tell me if the rubbing does it any good. I am glad to hear the good news about the girls. I confess I was rather worrying about their hearing. So the Grundys want to come back to town again – no doubt they are getting tired of the country. So Edwin Wilcox is going to the central empires or what remains of them; the situation is very interesting there but extremely difficult. The A.P. has sent a man to Vienna who doesn’t understand a word of German, so his expense bills are swollen by salaries he has to pay people to read the papers for him! However, that’s their affair, and I don’t know that I would care very much for that job; it’s a most hopeless muddle.
I hope to send you a cheque for pound 50 in the course of the coming week. A pound costs nearly 35 francs now so where it will end I don’t know. The financial position of France is very much compromised; unless they start producing very quickly or unless help comes from the allies the outlook is pretty bad; yet people throw their money about recklessly and there is the same wave of laziness. Tis a crazy world surely.
With all my love to yourself and the bairns,
Thine Jack.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1919 September 15, WWP23065, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.