Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Title

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Creator

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

Identifier

WWP23190

Date

1931 September 6

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

Sunday Sept. '31

Dearest;

I shall be back home sooner than I expected, for this morning I received a letter from Mr. Lochner from Brussels, saying that Kent Cooper had sent him on a further mission to Brussels, the Hague, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, to report on how the depression was affecting those countries! So he thought I’d better get back at once. It happened however that Adolf Hitler is staying at this hotel, so I am laying siege to him. After telephoning with the Office, it has been arranged that I resume work Tuesday morning. . I had thought of Monday night, but it is desirable that I shall be on the desk in the daytime, altho’ Brockmann has now been doing night work for several weeks.

I don’t quite see why the Berlin office should be depleted with the AP having correspondents of their own at these various capitals, but there it is! How much longer LPL will be away, no one knows.

So I shall leave here tomorrow afternoon, be home for supper and then go for a couple of hours to the office to read up. Any letters will be sent on from here, should anything be on the way.

I do hope you find Eva improving, although your card said she was very weak. I wonder if she suffers any pain? Please give her my best, with all good wishes.

This is a card of the market place where the hotel is. Puzzle – find the Elephant. Next door was the house of Johann Sebastian Bach, and you see the Cranach House too. There is the inevitable Schloss, with many choice pictures and this afternoon I went to the Belvidere, 3 miles out of town which is a sort of country schloss, full of fine old Meissen china. These old dukes certainly knew how to surround themselves with art!

I also telephoned home and spoke to Betty and Mary. All OK there. Mary seems to view the sack very philosophically and talks about going to Paris. We shall see. At all events she is getting her holiday now from Sept. 17. I suppose she has written you fully.

Weather here is very changeable, with occasional heavy showers, and pretty cold for the time of year. I saw in the German papers that there had been heavy downpours in the Midlands, too. Fortunately there is plenty to see here indoors, altho’ I should naturally prefer more settled weather so as to be in the open air.

So the next you hear from me will be from home: I hope you are keeping well, dearest, and with love to all who know me,

Thine,
Jack

Original Format

Letter

To

Bouman Family

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1931-09-06.pdf

Citation

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958, “Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family,” 1931 September 6, WWP23190, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.