Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23181
Date
1928 May 22
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
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
28 Zimmerstr.
Berlin SW 68
May 22, 1928
Dearest,
Just a line to remember the 23rd, also the 23rd anniversary of the day when your frisky young cousins shoved handfuls of confetti down my innocent neck. Again fate has decreed we cannot keep this day together, worse luck, but I am happy to think that we are both well and as ready to face the world as we were then. To go no further than this Pension, one hears of so many cases of illness and operations and nervous breakdowns that one must be thankful for the great gift of health. Much younger people than me are, too! One lady from Vienna here had only been here for two days when she was run over by a motor car; fortunately it passed over her without causing more than abrasions, but she had a nasty nervous shock and had to lie up for days.
I am now beginning to look around privately for a furnished flat. The Foreign Correspondents Society is likely to hear of such, and I am to be told at once. Still good news of Mary; her tennis party last Sunday fell flat as it was raining all day. Today is bright and sunny.
The New York office has favoured us again with a long list of suggestions furnished by different papers in the USA. These are sent for our guidance and go to all AP correspondents. One was from some back-woods paper in Alabama, and they suggested an interview with all the crowned heads of Europe with the simple question to ask: How does it feel to be a king (or queen)? It is difficult to keep one's patience with asinine questions of this kind. Another one (affecting America only) was to ask Mr. Hughes: "Now that he is no longer in the run for the presidency on account of old age, what is he living for?? That's about the limit of damned Yankee impertinence, I think. Of course, they always want pictures of "good lookers," and we had to tell New York that women of prominence in Germany were rarely "good lookers."
I am off to catch the post. Hereby a kiss, although my front teeth are still somewhat rocky. Old age is creeping on very satisfactorily!
Love from
Dac.
Berlin SW 68
May 22, 1928
Dearest,
Just a line to remember the 23rd, also the 23rd anniversary of the day when your frisky young cousins shoved handfuls of confetti down my innocent neck. Again fate has decreed we cannot keep this day together, worse luck, but I am happy to think that we are both well and as ready to face the world as we were then. To go no further than this Pension, one hears of so many cases of illness and operations and nervous breakdowns that one must be thankful for the great gift of health. Much younger people than me are, too! One lady from Vienna here had only been here for two days when she was run over by a motor car; fortunately it passed over her without causing more than abrasions, but she had a nasty nervous shock and had to lie up for days.
I am now beginning to look around privately for a furnished flat. The Foreign Correspondents Society is likely to hear of such, and I am to be told at once. Still good news of Mary; her tennis party last Sunday fell flat as it was raining all day. Today is bright and sunny.
The New York office has favoured us again with a long list of suggestions furnished by different papers in the USA. These are sent for our guidance and go to all AP correspondents. One was from some back-woods paper in Alabama, and they suggested an interview with all the crowned heads of Europe with the simple question to ask: How does it feel to be a king (or queen)? It is difficult to keep one's patience with asinine questions of this kind. Another one (affecting America only) was to ask Mr. Hughes: "Now that he is no longer in the run for the presidency on account of old age, what is he living for?? That's about the limit of damned Yankee impertinence, I think. Of course, they always want pictures of "good lookers," and we had to tell New York that women of prominence in Germany were rarely "good lookers."
I am off to catch the post. Hereby a kiss, although my front teeth are still somewhat rocky. Old age is creeping on very satisfactorily!
Love from
Dac.
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1928 May 22, WWP23181, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.