Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23120
Date
1922 April 10
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
April 10, 1922
Dearest,
Sunday evening is really the appointed time for writing, but I thought I would wait and see what the Monday post would bring, and I was not disappointed.
Before I forget, my cold went to my head as far back as last Tuesday and got out of my system very quickly; since when, I have not been troubled any more.
I have only been here a week now, yet it seems a very long time. When I walk along Unter de Linde to the office, it seems as though I have never been away from here – the same surly crowds and the same shopwindows, only with prices twice or three times they were last time.
I have already seen some remarkable sights, one was the socialist congress which was held in the Reichstag building. The bolshevists were strongly represented, and I never saw such a queer lot of long haired males and shorthaired females before. And the talk!!! And the unwashed smells!! Ramsay Mcdonald, Tom Shaw, Gooling and others were here for the congress which included all races nations and tongues, Japanese included. Next day I was asked to tea with the foreign minister D. Rathenau, along with all other American correspondents, and we were treated to a harangue in preparation for Genoa, whither he departed the next day.
You would have laughed if you had seen a part at the hotel this evening. I was dining there and watching folks come in. What fearful fools some people look coming into a room! They fidget with their hands and remind me of poor Blount walking up to the royal presence of Queen Elizabeth in Kenilworth. A little group came in of five women, one tall and thin, one short and thin, one tall and fat and one short and fat and one with a hunchback. The clothes they wore were a scream, and behind them trotted a little woe-begone downtrodden looking man. They looked so killing that everyone laughed after they passed on, blissfully unconscious. I imagined it must have been a Mormon with his five wives!
I am glad you and Bill enjoyed the play. Tell Betty I am again fearfully hotelly. I could tell her about some ices I have had – some with strawberries stuck all over them – Then there is macaroon cream, with melted chocolate poured over it – mmmmmm !
Sunday morning I attended a first production of a film based on one of Gerhart Hauptmann’s dramatic works. It was at the opera house, and the palce was crammed, at 1130 a.m.! I should like to know what film would fill Covent Garden at that time of day, and on Sunday! But it rather disappointed me, and I am gratified to find that most critics agree with me. It was an exceedingly difficult subject (including a child’s dream of Heaven) which turned out rather too earthly on the screen. The “gates of Heaven” looked like those of some big hotel or bank!
Enderis has to go to Hamburg for a day, so I am on my own tomorrow, Tuesday. It is rather a problem how to keep the service down, seeing that Geneva is in full blast. We are picking up some of the repercussion here.
With all my love,
Thine,
Jack.
Dearest,
Sunday evening is really the appointed time for writing, but I thought I would wait and see what the Monday post would bring, and I was not disappointed.
Before I forget, my cold went to my head as far back as last Tuesday and got out of my system very quickly; since when, I have not been troubled any more.
I have only been here a week now, yet it seems a very long time. When I walk along Unter de Linde to the office, it seems as though I have never been away from here – the same surly crowds and the same shopwindows, only with prices twice or three times they were last time.
I have already seen some remarkable sights, one was the socialist congress which was held in the Reichstag building. The bolshevists were strongly represented, and I never saw such a queer lot of long haired males and shorthaired females before. And the talk!!! And the unwashed smells!! Ramsay Mcdonald, Tom Shaw, Gooling and others were here for the congress which included all races nations and tongues, Japanese included. Next day I was asked to tea with the foreign minister D. Rathenau, along with all other American correspondents, and we were treated to a harangue in preparation for Genoa, whither he departed the next day.
You would have laughed if you had seen a part at the hotel this evening. I was dining there and watching folks come in. What fearful fools some people look coming into a room! They fidget with their hands and remind me of poor Blount walking up to the royal presence of Queen Elizabeth in Kenilworth. A little group came in of five women, one tall and thin, one short and thin, one tall and fat and one short and fat and one with a hunchback. The clothes they wore were a scream, and behind them trotted a little woe-begone downtrodden looking man. They looked so killing that everyone laughed after they passed on, blissfully unconscious. I imagined it must have been a Mormon with his five wives!
I am glad you and Bill enjoyed the play. Tell Betty I am again fearfully hotelly. I could tell her about some ices I have had – some with strawberries stuck all over them – Then there is macaroon cream, with melted chocolate poured over it – mmmmmm !
Sunday morning I attended a first production of a film based on one of Gerhart Hauptmann’s dramatic works. It was at the opera house, and the palce was crammed, at 1130 a.m.! I should like to know what film would fill Covent Garden at that time of day, and on Sunday! But it rather disappointed me, and I am gratified to find that most critics agree with me. It was an exceedingly difficult subject (including a child’s dream of Heaven) which turned out rather too earthly on the screen. The “gates of Heaven” looked like those of some big hotel or bank!
Enderis has to go to Hamburg for a day, so I am on my own tomorrow, Tuesday. It is rather a problem how to keep the service down, seeing that Geneva is in full blast. We are picking up some of the repercussion here.
With all my love,
Thine,
Jack.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1922 April 10, WWP23120, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.