Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Title
Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family
Creator
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958
Identifier
WWP23189
Date
1931 September 4
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
Sept. 4, '31
Dearest,
Yours of the 2nd just received, so you see letters would take 2 days. I am glad to hear that the specialists are hopeful about Eva. No doubt she would be overjoyed to have you near her. Please give her my love and best wishes for a speedy recovery. I shall be interested to hear what sort of treatment she will have to undergo.
So once more you saw a fog, a rare phenomenon in Berlin! At moment of writing it is pouring like fury, so this is the time for getting off correspondence, have just written to Aunt Lena, who likes to hear from foreign parts.
The Leipzig trip came off in great style. I shall tell you all about the posh surroundings. My dear, even the bunch of keys I had to carry about were silverplated!! Some style, believe me. Of course I went to the evening party of the President of the Fair at his fine home of notabilities (Blokzyl and Jokisch were the only two others of our gang besides myself) and they never stopped eating and drinking from 8 till midnight when I went home, leaving the others still at it. No sign of any NOT here! But of course bitter complaints. No one would admit that the Fair had been anything but a rank failure. My feudal landlady Frau Heine simply didn’t believe me when I said that my impression was that the Fair had been a moderate success, if not a howling triumph. Oh no, that couldn’t be. But a couple of days later their own official report had to admit that in several branches there had been quite good business. That’s the Germans all over. They’ve got their NOT on the brain.
I think I shall go to Berka tomorrow or so where there is a “grove of honor” for those who fell in the country’s wars. Only about an hour from here. Work on it, I understand, was stopped for a time as there was no money. I don’t see the necessity for it anyway. But this will justify my week’s holiday.
Thanks for writing so soon. Take care of yourself too. I suppose the offspringers are writing you too.
Love to all the folks over there!
Thine,
Jack
Dearest,
Yours of the 2nd just received, so you see letters would take 2 days. I am glad to hear that the specialists are hopeful about Eva. No doubt she would be overjoyed to have you near her. Please give her my love and best wishes for a speedy recovery. I shall be interested to hear what sort of treatment she will have to undergo.
So once more you saw a fog, a rare phenomenon in Berlin! At moment of writing it is pouring like fury, so this is the time for getting off correspondence, have just written to Aunt Lena, who likes to hear from foreign parts.
The Leipzig trip came off in great style. I shall tell you all about the posh surroundings. My dear, even the bunch of keys I had to carry about were silverplated!! Some style, believe me. Of course I went to the evening party of the President of the Fair at his fine home of notabilities (Blokzyl and Jokisch were the only two others of our gang besides myself) and they never stopped eating and drinking from 8 till midnight when I went home, leaving the others still at it. No sign of any NOT here! But of course bitter complaints. No one would admit that the Fair had been anything but a rank failure. My feudal landlady Frau Heine simply didn’t believe me when I said that my impression was that the Fair had been a moderate success, if not a howling triumph. Oh no, that couldn’t be. But a couple of days later their own official report had to admit that in several branches there had been quite good business. That’s the Germans all over. They’ve got their NOT on the brain.
I think I shall go to Berka tomorrow or so where there is a “grove of honor” for those who fell in the country’s wars. Only about an hour from here. Work on it, I understand, was stopped for a time as there was no money. I don’t see the necessity for it anyway. But this will justify my week’s holiday.
Thanks for writing so soon. Take care of yourself too. I suppose the offspringers are writing you too.
Love to all the folks over there!
Thine,
Jack
Original Format
Letter
To
Bouman Family
Files
Collection
Citation
Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1931 September 4, WWP23189, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.