Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

WWP23145

1927 September 16

Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.

Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler

Germany--History--1918-1933

Correspondence

Transatlantic flights

Rachel Dark

Denise Montgomery

English

PROOFREADING

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.

Sept. 16, evening
1927.

Dearest;

Herewith draft for £ 30, and I will send you another £ 30 at the end of the month which I expect will see you over the next rent payment.

Thanks for sending the Maple dividend; I am glad I can get rid of that at once as Gerfalk sent me another month’s cheque which of course I shall have to hand over to Patrick or whomever has done the work, in its entirety.

I had a postcard today from W. Aumonier asking to write to Salzburg, Austria, where he will arrive on the 20^th which I have done.

Just destroy all those Copenhagen papers; I shant want to see them but I don’t like to call them off yet.

Enden’s has written to Smith pointing out how I am situated, and we will have to discuss the matter again as soon as I get to London. Lochner goes on his vacation on the 25^th barring accidents so I ought to be in London some time in the second half of October – nice time for a holiday!

I am very delighted that your holiday has gone off so well from your own accounts.

You had some good reason I presume for not consulting David Croal about Bill; I doubt whether Palmer will have anything concret to propse, but you will see.

Lochner invited me to dinner on Monday last as I could not go on Sunday, because I had to go the Tempelhof Flying Field to see some flying demonstrations. There was a terrific crowd. I was nearly squeezed flat in the underground. I saw some hair raising stunts, also saw one crash to the groung; the airman broke one leg and his pelvis – nasty business. Fortunately the machine didn’t catch fire.

Of course I was much interested in the Lochner family as this was the first time I visited a real German home. He lives with his parents-in-law who own the house, or really the apartments. Mrs. Lockner is German, she was a war widow with one little girl, Rosemarie, and Lochner himself was a widower with a girl called Betty (16) and a little boy. They have no children of their own; they married in 1920. Betty is a big lump of a girl something like Kathleen Croke (unbobbed) and she plays the violin very well. She is taught by a Russian professor.

There were two other visitors, a newly engaged couple, Germans, the girl not unlie the Evelyne Grant type (also unbobbed) and a very serious bespectacled civil servant. They sat hand in hand, making goo-g—eyes, meanwhile discussing very highbrow subjects (she is a school teacher). They amused me vastly; they were the real Germany type which I hadn’t met before in an intimate circle, most respectable and romantic; one reads in old fashioned German novels about them.

The next day I went to a big function at the Berlin Townhall where the mayor gave a dinner in honor of the Fifth International Congress for Hereditary Science, where I met many very bearded and grave seigniors, professors etc. among whom were many Americans. I wrote a very thrilling story about the Problem of the Tortoiseshell Tom Cat; the Parthenogenesis of the Water Flea and the Occurrence of Yellow Fat in Rabbits. That ought to go well in our Feature Servise. I have had great success with my stories, with my name in big letters on the bottom line. I have also written a long and learned treatise on the Movement of Youth in Germany for which I went to see a great exhibition at the Bellevue Palace (once the Kaiser’s property) which was really a marvellous show, never before done so comprehensively and in such meticulous detail. You would have been interested in the old country dances on the lawn.

Tonight I have just returned from this concert (enclosed) of which I only heard the latter half as I couldn’t be there in time for th first. The lady was very dik.

No more tonight. Love to all,

From Dac.

Letter

Bouman Family