Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23099
Date
1920 June 13
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
Sunday evening June 13
/20
Dearest,
Like last year, I will have to keep my birthday away from you all, but I certainly expect to be with you long before your turn comes. The new man, Easterling, was to be kept in London, so we hear, for a month and then come to Berlin, which would be about the third week in June. Enderis (?) concocted a telegram to Collins last Friday (?) (?) I wanted to return to London by the end of the month, and would he send Easterling as soon as possible to enable him to get his hand in while I am still here. He is supposed to know German, and may need less instruction than we think, but in any case in a fortnight from now I expect to be on the way home. You will hear of my departure through the office, and then I will send you a wire from Rotterdam or somewhere else in Holland telling you the time I expect to arrive in London. Most likely I shall come via Flushing again, and ought to be in London quite early in the afternoon.
Your letters still take 5 or 6 days, so you can calculate the time more or less.
I had a very nice letter from Roberts in Paris, telling me I was still “greatly missed” in the office there! He also told me that Frank Grundy was now doing the accounts!! What a job for poor old Frank! I laugh when I think of it, because if he adds up a column of figures three times, he gets three different totals. I wonder if he thinks life is worth living. At present he is away on his annual holiday. They have two more men in the Paris office now, much to the disgust of Enderis, who thinks – and he is right – that we ought to have four or five men here. He doesn’t like the idea of me going away or all, but I comfort him with the thought that Easterling may be a genius of the first water. But then he imagines E. may be a Jew, which wouldn’t be at all desirable!
However, he will have to get on the best way he can; I only hope there will be no revolt or social upheaval here that would interfere with my journey. Today Renwick came back with his wife from a journey to Munich, Vienna, Warsaw and the Polish front. They had awful tales of the dirt in Poland. A room in the best hotel however only cost tenpence halfpenny (English value) per day, but there were no comforts. He thinks we are not nearly at the end of fighting and disturbance in these parts. One part of the trip – not with his wife that time – he had to stand twelve hours in a railway truck next to a barrel of herrings boiling in a hot sun!
After a few pretty cool days, it is warm and sunny again today; this morning at 5.30 it was just lovely, clear sky and fresh breeze, with bright sunshine. I would enjoy the walk from office to hotel still more, if the streetsweepers weren’t busy at their trade just then.
All the people were out in the Tiergarten this afternoon, father pushing the pram, fat mother, and the usual crown which seems to be common to all big cities. It isn’t of course a dressy crowd at all, and even quite good class cafes are filled with people who order a glass of beerand eat black bread or sandwiches they bring with them in a paper parcel. I read an article in a newspaper the other day by an actor who had had the good fortune of a trip to Holland with a theatrical company. It appears they all fell like wolves upon the railway buffet at Olden – saal (the first station) and he writes: “Oh, lovely Holland! Beautiful Holland! Where the ham from ham sandwiches hangs in festoons more luxuriant than the blossoms in the gardens of Semiramis!”
Well, dearest, I think and hope my next will be my last, from here. If it is possible to get away from here earlier, you may trust me that I will.
With love all around,
Thine,
Jack.
/20
Dearest,
Like last year, I will have to keep my birthday away from you all, but I certainly expect to be with you long before your turn comes. The new man, Easterling, was to be kept in London, so we hear, for a month and then come to Berlin, which would be about the third week in June. Enderis (?) concocted a telegram to Collins last Friday (?) (?) I wanted to return to London by the end of the month, and would he send Easterling as soon as possible to enable him to get his hand in while I am still here. He is supposed to know German, and may need less instruction than we think, but in any case in a fortnight from now I expect to be on the way home. You will hear of my departure through the office, and then I will send you a wire from Rotterdam or somewhere else in Holland telling you the time I expect to arrive in London. Most likely I shall come via Flushing again, and ought to be in London quite early in the afternoon.
Your letters still take 5 or 6 days, so you can calculate the time more or less.
I had a very nice letter from Roberts in Paris, telling me I was still “greatly missed” in the office there! He also told me that Frank Grundy was now doing the accounts!! What a job for poor old Frank! I laugh when I think of it, because if he adds up a column of figures three times, he gets three different totals. I wonder if he thinks life is worth living. At present he is away on his annual holiday. They have two more men in the Paris office now, much to the disgust of Enderis, who thinks – and he is right – that we ought to have four or five men here. He doesn’t like the idea of me going away or all, but I comfort him with the thought that Easterling may be a genius of the first water. But then he imagines E. may be a Jew, which wouldn’t be at all desirable!
However, he will have to get on the best way he can; I only hope there will be no revolt or social upheaval here that would interfere with my journey. Today Renwick came back with his wife from a journey to Munich, Vienna, Warsaw and the Polish front. They had awful tales of the dirt in Poland. A room in the best hotel however only cost tenpence halfpenny (English value) per day, but there were no comforts. He thinks we are not nearly at the end of fighting and disturbance in these parts. One part of the trip – not with his wife that time – he had to stand twelve hours in a railway truck next to a barrel of herrings boiling in a hot sun!
After a few pretty cool days, it is warm and sunny again today; this morning at 5.30 it was just lovely, clear sky and fresh breeze, with bright sunshine. I would enjoy the walk from office to hotel still more, if the streetsweepers weren’t busy at their trade just then.
All the people were out in the Tiergarten this afternoon, father pushing the pram, fat mother, and the usual crown which seems to be common to all big cities. It isn’t of course a dressy crowd at all, and even quite good class cafes are filled with people who order a glass of beerand eat black bread or sandwiches they bring with them in a paper parcel. I read an article in a newspaper the other day by an actor who had had the good fortune of a trip to Holland with a theatrical company. It appears they all fell like wolves upon the railway buffet at Olden – saal (the first station) and he writes: “Oh, lovely Holland! Beautiful Holland! Where the ham from ham sandwiches hangs in festoons more luxuriant than the blossoms in the gardens of Semiramis!”
Well, dearest, I think and hope my next will be my last, from here. If it is possible to get away from here earlier, you may trust me that I will.
With love all around,
Thine,
Jack.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1920 June 13, WWP23099, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.