Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Creator
Identifier
Date
Description
Source
Subject
Contributor
Language
Requires
Provenance
Text
Sunday April 23
Dearest;
As far as I can judge, I shall be back in London on Saturday morning next, With the Pongs!
It seems that Collins telegraphed Smith in Genoa that he would like to have me back by the 29th because MacKenzie was going to America, and asking him when he wanted Day to come to Berlin. Whereupon Smith replied that he would like Day as soon as possible, whereupon Smith telegraphed us here all the foregoing , whereupon Enderis telegraphed Collins saying I could return by the 29th and when was Day coming…….
Why all this palaver, is beyond me. Why can’t they shoot Day over here and have done with it? However……
Who should I meet coming downstairs at the Hotel the other day but Mrs. Wilkie, who was as surprised seeing me as I was seeing her. She said she had come over for a few days to do some shopping, and see some of her friends. She said she hadn’t been at all well lately and had got much thinner, which was “an asset”, but too quickly to be healthy.
I met the American minister to Finland the other day; he was on his way to Helsingfors; much interested in the way I spell my name, because he explained he was a schoolmate of the sons of old Isaiah Bouman of Bouman, North Carolina – whose death, I think I told you, I saw in the Paris Herald when I was there in 1919 and I always wondered who old Isaiah was and where he came from. It seems he was “Pennsylvania Dutch” but where he first came from I couldn’t learn.
Many thanks to the Dubbies for their letters. I happened to read the F.B’s first and I wondered what the sack was on Hampstead Heath; whether you had to get into it, and also what the “pass wheel” was. Fortunately Mary’s letter explained that you kicked the sack and that it was a “jazz wheel”. This sounds fearful enjoyment!
But from all accounts the Heath seems to have been a great success, and everybody seems to have been “blowing” their cash regardless. From the Fair to Italian Renaissance and Raphael cartoons is some change, like from the “Butler’s Head” chop house to the Adlon dining room!
I have got another box of Castell pencils, and several other pongs, which must remain for the present a dead secret.
Today Enderis and I are invited to lunch by Mrs. Conger and we spent a pleasant time. She is a nice quiet type of American. She is going back to America in about a month, after going to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau.
In the afternoon we motored around the industrial suburbs where the big factories are, which was interesting, if not ‘actually entrancing. We went through the working class districts and saw their streets and workmen’s dwellings which are far superior to any I have seen in England. There are no slums here, as we understand it. They are mostly four-story houses but well and substantially built with all kinds of shops on the ground floor. We saw the big Siemens electrical works, employing 50,000 hands; everything spick and span – a model place, with workmen’s dwellings all around, erected by the company. They call it Siemensstadt. All possible conveniences in the way of shops, amusements &c. cafes, near at hand. I suppose the Cadbury and Lever establishments would be something like this; but the latter I have not seen except on pictures.
Next time I write I shall probably be able to tell you exactly about my homecoming. Only a few days more, dearies! only a few days more! And then – PONGS!
With love to you all, Jack.
Original Format
To
Files
