Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Title

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Creator

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

Identifier

WWP23109

Date

1921 September 18

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 eve, Sep. 18, 1921

Dearest;

Many thanks for the letter enclosing the other W. Dispatch clipping which Moloney received with glee; only he will not trouble you to send any more, as he thinks no doubt Lady S. will have them published in book form and then he will be sure to get them all.

I don’t think I referred (?) my previous letter to what you said about father recovering his hearing – this is excellent news, and I do hope it will be confirmed and that it isn’t merely a child’s notion. Let me know when you hear from N/C.

Edwin Wilcox left today for a holiday in England; he said he would look the old folks up in N/C. He didn’t say anything about looking up his own family….??

I would advise you to look up your bank book to see if the Easterling cheque passed through allright. If it did not, the bank just might charge it up and you might find it among your paid cheques. I think the banking rule is that customers have to look out for the goodness of their own deposits.

I am curious to hear what tales Mrs. Mac will tell you about their holidays , and whether they were treated as people who have reached “the top of the tree”. By the way, you can’t be surprised at the goaty smell now that the goats are back!

Enderis is making good progress towards recovery and the doctor says he will be out of the nursing home on Tuesday. I went to see him this afternoon; it is a very finely equipped place but he is ill at ease because of idleness – like a flea in a bottle. He had his tonsils removed and a bone cut out of the bridge of his nose, so he has been kept on slops, but was able to have some boiled chicken today.

On Thursday evening we had a terrific rain storm here, with thunder & lightning. I had been to the office and was on my way back to the hotel, and was caught in it. Fortunately I had my umbrella but I had to take shelter in a doorway until I was able to get a cab. There are still thousands of one horse cabs, open vehicles, and with the mark equal to one American cent we are always using them. The office is about 20 minutes’ walk from the hotel and with a liberal tip it only costs us sixpence, or if the three of us are together, tuppence each so that we always ride in state, instead of taking trams which are always dirty and overcrowded.

This morning I attended a session of the international conference of sexual science of the institute of that name here. There were several English, Dutch, and other specialists, also authorities on laws affecting such matters. The lecturer was one of the foremost authorities on the subject and I was shown, and told, of so many extraordinary cases foreign to my simple philosophy, that it made my brain red to think of the existence of such abnormalities.
I want to hear the final lecture on sexual education tomorrow evening; this is what interests me rather; only I have a ticket for a Richard Strauss concert at the Philharmonic, with its wonderful orchestra and I think after all I will go and hear the music.

Now that Enderis is away I have to go every evening to the office and see what is going on. Of course the Wolff agency people in whose building we are, work all around the 24 hours, the same as Reuters and ourselves, in London. We have not started a night service again since I did it for a spell last year. I think it would be a good thing but I am not going to offer to do it. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

With much love to yourself and the bairns,

Thine,
Jack.

Original Format

Letter

To

Bouman Family

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1921-09-18.pdf

Citation

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1921 September 18, WWP23109, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.