After my trip as lover’s postman to Meppel in August 1907 I went from Deventer via Zutphen and Arnhem back home. In Zutohen I could come to the conclusion that Lotje was well housed with the cousins, at least she was cheerful and according to her own words “ very content”, a shame that this favourable situation only lasted a short time, because one fine day Betsy Kerlen came purpusely to the Hague to ask me to take Lotje as soon as possible away from her sisters because lately she was unmanageable and depressing to the nervous system of the three sisters. So Lotje came home again and we had to look for another board for her once again.
Once a week I had an omber party in the Trompstraat and since Carey didn’t like playing cards at all I usually looked for a haven in de Witte for the other evenings of the week or also in the Zuid-Hollandse coffee house, where I met an old schoolmate of mine, Mr. Soek, who was of the same strength as I and thus played regularly with him.
In the morning I always played in de Witte with the retired General Knel, old chief of the remount depot. We practised then preferably on the large Matchbilliard and achieved a nice avarage. My afternoons I dedicated to playing pool.
When we arrived in the L.v.Meerdervoot we got retired capt. of the Ind. Army van Baarle as neighbour, who was a great lover of hunting and delivered us serval times nice wild ducks for our dinner table; however he was being replaced quite soon by the civil engineer Paul, with whom we often associated and with whose daughter Maartje I played duets after her engagement to Joh de Jongh. With named Mr. Paul I usually visited the meetings of the Royal Society of Engineers in Diligentia and we also attended the festive meetings in Rotterdam, which took place in 1908.
It was a highly interesting day for us, at 11 o’clock we were received by one of the aldermen of the municipality, who offered us a boattrip past all the harbour works under the guidance of personnel of the public works, we had the pleasure to get the sub director of the harbourworks, Mr. v. Cool as mentor, who explained everything in detail and at the same time also looked after the neccessary refreshments.
The end of the trip was a visit to the SS. Nieuw Rotterdam, where all the engineers were the guests of the management of the Holland-Amerika Lijn, who after the inspection of the for that time large and tasteful ship, offered us an extremely fine buffet lunch; everywhere the most tasty dishes stood ready and we only had to serve up. I saw amongst them cooked salmon of more that 1.5 m long and this one was so delicious, that I ate it for my whole lunch.
In the evening there still was a payable dinner in Hotel Weimar, though we didn’t use that, we were still full enough.
In the meantime I was another grandson richer since the birth of Frits ( Frederic Henri ) van Heel born on the 2nd December 1907; his older brother Gerard Louis, whose birth I forgot to mention, saw the first light on 15th July 1906.
The year 1908 was noticeable by 2 weddings in the family of de Jongh; the first one was that of Henk with Annie Hoevenaar on the 28th March, the next was that of Jaques with Berry Eeltjs on the 17th July; both weddings were celebrated with old Dutch parties and wedding dinners; however I do not remember much about them.
Our troubles to find Lotje a good home were crowned in the same year by the offer of Regina Wybrandts in Heelsum, who lived in her boarding house managed with Opa Naessens and had an empty guestroom, and she imagined to be able to steer Lotje in the right direction; she was in this point as optimistic as every other person, who only got to know Lotje in a short time and through her nice appearence and quick conversation was charmed.
So in the beginning it really went very well and Lotje even kept going for 16 months. I visited her in July 1909, on the return trip from Deventer, where I was invited to attend the funeral of Gerrit Nikkels, who had passed away on the 24th that month, leaving his business to his eldest son and namesake and besides leaving the other children quite a nice amount of money.
Both younger sons were employed with the Ned. Ind. Handelsbank, the eldest who was born on the same day as Lotje and had the name Rein, had already quite a good position in the Dutch East Indies, the youngest Ben was still a young worker.
From both unmarried girls Mies and Cor, the last one was engaged with a youngster from Amsterdam.
I stayed in Heelsum several days at villa Medan, after having stayed for 2 days with Renate in Arnhem, and played an omber game with Opa Naessens in the small social club, at which also an old aquaintence from Atjeh took part, namely the retired Colonel v.d. Dussen.
The rest of the time we made some decent walks with Lotje, who looked very well and who didn’t let us expect in the least the sad finish of her stay, about which later.
When I got home from my trip I found the lovely Suze de Jongh in a highly critical situation; alreadt for quite some time she was suffering T.B.C. though she had been written off, nobody had expected that the end was so near; after a painful and patient suffering she succombed on the 23rd of August 1909, deeply saddened by all her family members and friends, she was the spitting image of her mother Mina.
Before going on I have to note here, that the festive meeting, mentioned at page 281 was not the first one that I attended with my neighbour Paul; already in 1907 we enjoyed the pleasure of a similar meeting in Delft. It was a very pleasant day on which nearly all memebers of the Company were present; it started with a nice meeting in the Stads Doelen, which was finished with a dressed up slice of bread and a few tasty cups of coffee; after that several excursions were organised, of which Mr. Paul and I attended the one in the Artillery Construction shop.
It started with a friendly meeting in the Stads Doelen, which ended with a nicely filed sandwich and delicious cups of coffee; after that several excursions were orgenised, of which Mr. Paul and I attended the one of the Artillery Construction shop.
Afterwards was a large reunion in the Student Social Club Phoenix, and there quite a few bitters were swallowed, and after that we enjoyed a fine dinner in another establishment of which I have forgotten the name.
During this dinner, which was attended by several Delft authorities Engineer van Konijnenburg held a lecture with painted images about the history of the Institute, which attracted much applaus as well because of the artful paintings as the pleasant lecture.
The atmosphere was so jolly that everyone went back to the Phoenix afterwards and there joined in the singing of “Io Vivat” and many old student would have gotten home a little bit tipsy. Paul and I returned home and although late, still decent.
At the end of 1908 Johan resigned from his employment with Mr. Peter and got a job at the administrative office of Mr. v. Haften, through which he progressed financially and shared a large house with some other youngsters, kept a riding horse and had even fallen in love.
After a couple of years van Haften even considered him able to fill his place temporarily and left due to health reasons with his wife for Europe, where I met him at the end of 1909 and was very pleased to hear such good reports about my little son.
That the little boy had fallen in love was clear from a picture, which he sent me of a small group at a masqued ball which had to be a group of cooks and kitchenmaids, and had indicated one of those kitchen princesses as the one whom he wished to be his wife.
That wish came true in the beginning of the year 1910, at least I got a letter about this from Mr. van Zanten Jut, that he in view of Johan’s favourable position had given permission to an engagement of his eldest daughter Lien, nicknamed Muis, and convinced that I wouldn’t have any objections, the engagement had been set for the 3rd of March 1910.
Semarang. late 1909 / 1910.
Front row:
Frank van Zanten Jut, unknown, unknown, Johan Kerlen.
sitting:
Suze van Zanten Jut, Erst Frederik van Zanten Jut, Maria Frederika van Zanten Jut- Schot, unknown, Carolina van Zanten Jut.
From John came at the same time an exciting letter, in which he summed up all the good things about his parents in law and called the Mrs. a tip top lady, amongst other things.
Of course I hurried to give Mr. Jut a confirmative answer, since I saw an excellent solution for the happiness of my son in a good marriage.
As already mentioned here above the engagement had been set on Johan’s birhtday, at least the reception took place on that day; the loverboy actually had been so stupid as to fall off his horse and break his ankle and so appeared on his own reception on crutches.
Before I will step of my memories of the year 1909 I still have to remember, that Betsy Kerlen celebrated her 25th anniversary as director of the Drawing school of the working class people. The school, which had been established during my leave was situated in the topstory, 88 steps high in the building of the Community and had been moved into a beautiful buildingblock designed by Berlage in the Gabriel-metzu-straat where the festival would take place.
I received an invitation from Betsy to attend the festival to which I answered that I would be very pleased to come, if I could bring a friend so as to also spend a nice time outside the festivities, which Betsy of course found excellent.
As companion I took my friend Pennington de Jongh along and I think I know that my cousin was very impressed by the choice.
In the morning of the 1st of May we both went to Amsterdam where we, after first having booked rooms in the hotel “Poolsche koffiehuis” and had dressed for the occasion, immediately went to the beautifully decorated schoolbuilding, where also the home of Betsy was situated.
In view of the commencement of the festivities meeting at 2 o’clock we were asked straight after the introduction to the personnel and the family members to take a seat at the lunch table and spend a few happy hours, to which the humor of my friend contributed.
The meeting was opened by the mayor of Amsterdam in presence of quite a few authorities and guests.
His Excellency spoke praisingly about Betsy and her work, of which the blossoming of the school was the living proof.. Many speeches followed, for as much neccessary answered by the administration and by Betsy herself.
Not until 5 o’clock everything was finished and I went with my friend to town and amused ourselves greatly that evening.
Under the amusements I also still have to mention a delicious dinner in Parkzicht, which Betsy offered the family members and my friend, which didn’t last long, but which brought us both in a high festive mood.
The next evening Betsy was offered a party in the grand hall of Artis; we both had been first to town all day and visited several remarkablilities; by chance there was a billiard match in the Cafe de Karseboom at the Weesperzijde and being real billiard fans we had to be present there; we saw the wellknown player Robyn there winning the first price and afterwards make a particular arty hit, which I have only once been able to copy after long practice.
The party in Artis started with a nice play performed by the students of the school and followed by lots of funny shows and living pictures; the hall was beautifully decorated and all of it, ending in a ball, looked like fairyland.
It was very late when we returned to the hotel and since we had no transport, we both had to walk, although we didn’t know the correct way and as a consequence made a large detour, so then we arrived dead tired in our hotel and slept in the next morning .
After saying goodbye to Betsy whilst having a nice cup of coffee, we both returned to the Hague, completely satisfied about our Amsterdam Anniversary excursion.
At the end of 1909 the Governor General of the Dutch East Indie van Heutsz had requested his first discharge from the national service and so for me there was no reason to fear a biassed opinion from the East Indies Government for me to obtain the titular rank of General Major. So on the 4th of January 1910 I handed in a copy as attachement on the back of the request to H.M. the Queen, pleased that I could refer to the memos I had sent to the Minister of Colonies when leaving the Army.
Such a decoration is usually only awarded by H.M. the Queen on the 31st August and since the advice from the Indies would not have arrived in time or at least not dealt with, I had to wait for an answer till the end of August.
Did the year 1910 start well because of the engagement of Johan, not long after that I got a telegram from my cousin Co Weenink with the question if I knew that Lotje had come to visit him in Utrecht, to look for a job.
I hurried the next morning with the first train to him and found her simply waiting for me ; it was clear that she secretly had run away from Heelsum and had sold her nick nacks to pay for the trip to Utrecht.
I took her back to Heelsum the very same day and learnt there from Regien Wybrandts, that she had been particularly unmanageable lately and could not stay with her any longer.
I asked for advice from her treating doctor in Renkum, who adviced me to request a placing for her in the mental institution Rhijngeest near Leiden, to which he would take the neccessary steps.
I returned to the Hague and arranged that Regien would take Lotje to Rhijngeest as soon as permission to admission would have been obtained I would then meet her in Leiden. So it happened that way and several days later Lotje was admitted in the institution. I visited her there several times and then drank a cup of coffee regularly with my brother in law Willem Naessens, who lived in a neat villa on the Oegstgeestsche weg near the station in Leiden.
As usual Lotje did quite well in the beginning and at my visits to her we took walks in the beautiful park of the establishment, during which she knew how to tell me all kinds of stories about different male patients in the institution; the female ones she entertained with songs and acting and she was as it were the clown of her dormitory.
This soon went too far for the director of the institution Dr. Oort and at my last visit he told me that such clownish behaviour in a mental institution was not tolerated and he made it clear that I had to take my daughter away as soon as possible; he further advised me to get a placing for her with a small family under decent supervision.
To an advertisement in several newspapers I got quite a large number of offers, of which the one of the wife of the painter Koot in Voorburg seemed the most suitable.
She had been a nurse before in a mental home and had as far as the care for a mental patient was concerned the best references.
We also came to an agreement on fiancial grounds and on the 1st May I took Lotje to her new boarding house.
It was remarkable how she made her entrance with the family, she commenced with the words:”I will call you Uncle and Aunt” and did immediately as if she had been there for years, content as usual with the new change. She stuck to it for nearly 3 years, thanks to Mrs. Koot and perhaps also the closeness of her parental home, through which she was immediately in the opportunity to celebrate her 24th and als my 60th birthday with us.
Besides this was a crown year for me, the party atmosphere was especially heightened by the presence of Jop; Gerard namely had received one year leave from the N.I.S. and had sent his wife and the 3 children in advance, because they could indeed stay with Papa van Heel in the Theresiastraat and so she just arrived here on the 4th June whilst her husband only arrived on the 1st August.
By the Royal Institute of Engineers again a festive meetig was organised to be held in Brussels; that meeting would take 4 days and one was requested to choose a partner with whom one could stay; the management would then in view of the large busstle and lack of space take care of a decent sleep location.
I would have loved to have taken my neighbour Paul again as companion, though he was unavailable through family circumstances, and so as companion I got civil engineer A.K.J. Schill a wellknown perso from the billiards hall in de Witte, who only had the fault of drinking too much; for want of better I accepted however his company and we travelled on the appointed date of the exposition.
In Brussels we got given a room in a for this purpose furnished old house, for which we had to pay 6 guilders a day; the house was located nearly opposite hotel Cecil, so in the city’s centre and thus well located.
After we freshened up after the trip we went straight away to the Exhibition ground and stayed there as long as possible, to be able to get used to the amazing husstle and busstle for the next day; when we returned to the city we still sat for an hour at the Boulevard du Nord enjoying a delicous glass cold Munchen beer and went to bed quite late.
The next morning the official meetings were held, not much was dealt with in those, it only was established what would be paid by the institution during the following four days.
That day we visited the pavillion of Germany and Canada besides the military part of the Belgian Section; in the last one I saw a lot what would be suitable to the technical service of the engineer troops and for me still completely new.
From Germany their priority was noticeable in nearly every aspect, especially on the point of railway technology, whilst Canada excelled at her agrecultural products.
In the evening the members of the organisation were the guest of the Society of Belgian Engineers in a Mediaeval building, close to the large church of St. Gudule, which grand way of building and renowned pulpit we admired when passing by.
The reception from the Belgian engineers was remarkably heartly and ended with an invitation to make a boattrip 2 days later through the Brussels canal which was being constructed and promoted to sea harbour.
It was remarkable that at this gathering only 2 ladies were present, namely the wife of the president of the society and a Russian civil engineer, who had been invited especially out of curiosity.
We spent the next day was spent completely at the exhibition and I saw in the pavilion of the several nations which I hadn’t visited, under which that of our own country which cut an excellent figure, to give a description of all the interesting stuff what I was shown would go far above my head; it was in one word smashing.
In all departments one found opticiens, who, if one would wear a pair of glasses, the wearer was enticed inside to have his eyes tested; I also let them do this in a Swiss stand and after I was obeserved through a viewer, they established that my glasses were a little too strong and they proved this by letting me try a better one. On top of that he knew how to convince me to buy a bi focal pair of glasses, which in those days were not yet known in Holland and which is used for normal use as well as for reading.
I ordered such a pair with golden frame, which costed 45 francs, whilst the lenses in my own pair of glasses were immediately changed.
