Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Title

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Creator

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

Identifier

WWP23114

Date

1922 February 5

Description

Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.

Source

Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler

Subject

Correspondence
Hague, Netherlands

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

Hotel Twee Steden
The Hague
Sunday eve. 5/2/22

My dear wife and bairns,

The boats don’t sail Sunday nights, so this will reach you probably Tuesday; I could not write at length any earlier, because there was so much work I had to make up arrears for.

Well then, I think I told you I landed at the Hook on Friday morning; the weather was almost balmy though dull. The crossing had been excellent and I like the Harwiich boats quite as well as the Flushing ones except that the latter have a rather more attractive saloon. But I think the G.E. cabins are more spacious & comfortable. The country between the Hook and Rotterdam looked awful under lowering skies; one wonders whether people who live in those little houses flush with the water are eaten up with rheumatism and ague. When I reached The Hague it was raining in good earnest. I taxied it to the Hotel where the only person of the old staff, namely the head waiter, immediately recognized me and I got a very nice room at a reduced price because of me being an old customer. It is a nice sised apartment, really a double room, overlooking the Hofspui, first floor, with running water h & c. and a writing desk in it. Of course the radiator was going on merrily and dispensed grateful warmth.

Old Wolff the cashier I also encountered, full of gloom and anxiety; it appears the hotel has been closed for 9 months and only reopened in November so they have lost most of their old customers, and everything so vreeselijte duur! Oh it is a veritable slump here! The same doleful song by Piek later in the day according to whom everybody in the dumps and fearful shakings of heads everywhere. Yet all things of decent quality I find are frightfully expensive, but rather than sacrifice a cent of profits, the shopkeepers prefer not to sell at all, and then grouse because they find trade slack.

Having had tea + toast at 6 a.m. I was ready for breakfast and after having that at the hotel, I got on line 8 to the Peace Palace where I found as press secretary a chap who applied to us for a job when I was in Paris! What a dream of an office! Lofty, richly paneled in oak, lovely paintings, splendid desks and chairs; every comfort; I told him I envied him not a little. Curiously presently entered Del Vayo, the Nacion’s Berlin correspondent whom I vainly tried to meet there, he being away at the time. Together we interviewed several international judges & got some good stories. He had just come from Amsterdam for the day and cannot get back to Berlin owing to the German railway strike.

Meanwhile it got colder and colder, I stood Vayo a lunch at Van der Pyls and he afterwards went back to Amsterdam. Presently a biting east wind started and with it a snowstorm. My window being due east, there was quite a bank of snow in my room on Saturday morning although I had the window only about one inch up.

The Hague looked lovely in its mantle of snow; it was freezing hard: the Vyver frozen over completely. I spent most of my time again at the Palace, most comfortably heated, and the sun shone gloriously. In the evening I had an uitsmijter at the Gouden Hoofd and also visited the tearoom in Spuistraat and the Centraal for a glass of punch before bed time. These places, besides the picture theatres still seem to do well, although one notices that there are far fewer people about the streets than when we were there.

This (Sunday) morning I walked to Scheveningen through the Boschjes, a lovely sight; the snow was hard and now pretty well trodden down; ideal for sledging. I passed several jolly strings of them, hitched up to motor bicycles; also one or two real horse-drawn sleighs, with their cheerful tinkle of bells. Later I went to the Emants straat; there is no name on the door, but the house is evidently inhabited, the same curtains with the chicken pattern at the windows; I couldn’t see anything else because they were covered with ice flowers. The barracks have gone, and the site is offered for sale as building ground, likewise a plot next to No. 23. At the back however it has nearly all been built up with good class, even pretentious, houses; I saw the number of the year, 1920, on their fronts. Passing Manfields yesterday, caught sight of Mrs. Reed who asked me in. Enquired most kindly after you all & wished to be cordially remembered to you.

It has started snowing again, and last night I had to get some help to open the window which was frozen tight. It is bitterly cold but healthy weather and the sun has been shining all day. I haven’t had the time yet to see Mrs. Wilkie, Mrs. Vermaat, nor the American legation people; I shall do those probably tomorrow. My room is beautifully warm and comfortable with the central verrwarming. The charge is six guilders per day which is pretty stiff, everything considered, yet my old room for which I paid 5 now costs 7. There are only about 20 people in the hotel, and they are glad of new, and especially of old, customers. Lunch costs fl. 2 and dinner fl. 3 and fl. 4; the food is good and abundant. I wonder if you have been having another cold snap too. Now this will have to do for today; I must have another talk tonight with the American delegate, so goodnight everybody, hope you are keeping fit. Will write again soon.

With all my love,
Thine,
Jack.

Original Format

Letter

To

Bouman Family

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1922-02-05.pdf

Citation

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1922 February 5, WWP23114, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.