Because of the interruption of my journey I came back more than a week later in Batavia than was planned and there were piles of work waiting to be finished, whilst the case Fischer and v. Steeden demanded my personal attention; so I was extra busy in those days.
General Boetje requested retirement not long after my return and was replaced by general v.d. Wijck, who in his turn was being relieved as civilian and miltary Governor of Atjeh & Subordinates by Artillery colonel G.C.E. v. Daalen.
It was under the administration of this Governor that the beautiful monument on Jos’s grave at the cemetery in Kota-Petjoet was unveiled.
Immediately after his death the making of this monument was organised by Jos’s friend captain Colijn; through the whole of the Dutch East Indies subscription lists were sent and Carey committed herself that, in case not enough would have been received she would supplement the neccessary funding.
It hasn’t been much and although the lists arrived quite late, they could still start to order the needed bust ( the footing was made of the kind like the already existing monuments ) with the wellknown sculptor Bart van Hoven in Amsterdam, who kept a duplicate of the bronze bust in gipsum.
My suggestions referring to major Fischer and ltnt.col. v. Steeden were completely agreed upon by general Boetje and so both gentlemen got notified of the unfavourable remarks in their reviews done over 1904, which they from the nature of the case each sent in a claim.
General Boetje felt with me that both had failed and suggested the State to sack them honourably, unless they’d rather requested their own resignation.
Governor General v. Heutsz, who as far as major Fischer was concerned went along with the suggestion but had in respect to ltnt.col. v. Steeden a total other idea, which gave reason to a sharp correspondence between the governor and me, which spoilt the last part of my service time completely.
On top of that Carey kept a good relation with general v. Heutsz and even when her youngest son Emile got seriously ill, she accepted lodgings for her and the children at the general’s estate in Tjipanas.
So for quite a while I was alone in the difficult time, besides in which I also was in different health and had no one to talk to at all.
The troubles with v. Heutsz ran so high, that on the 24th October I already handed in my request for resignation from the country’s service; in order not to arrive in the middle of the winter I asked it for the 5th March 1906.
I do know that Carey didn’t approve of my actions as she had always considered v.H. as a friend and had deep respect for him; however recognising the man’s great services, I experienced that he was extremely insincere and resentful and I regarded him as a real enemy ( page 224 & 225 ).
It would be too much for me to repeat everything that happened in detail and don’t know any better way than to refer to the request which I sent one day after my retirement to the Minister of Colonies, only to make my treatment by the Governer General be known to high authorities.
A copy of this request follows as attachment behind this.
Sometime before I got news from Holland that Johan had failed the second time for his preliminary exams; I answered, that, since I had requested my retirement, I could or didn’t want to finance a further study for him in Delft if he didn’t pass further exams; if he did succeed then I would by living very frugally still finance it.
Referring to Lotje I learnt that she had to be taken in fostercare following the advice of Dr. Jelgersma and that she had therefore moved to family Jongh under the cre of sister Marie; it was to be expected that this wouldn’t work in this large family with so many boys, which later on was obvious, when I received the news that she was treated by the neurologist Dr. Bolten in villa Dolphijn, where she was staying after my arrival in the hme country.
Had my latest period of my active service been embittered by the attitude of G.G. v. Heutsz, a great salve for my wounds was put on by the most sympathetic cooperation of all engineer officers in Weltevreden and of those at the headoffice in particular. I will not easily forget men like ltnt.col. de Voogt and captains van Tongeren and Slors; they supported me in the most loyal way and took much difficult work from me.
At Versteegh I was offered a wonderful farewel dinner and what was spoken there made a huge impression on me.
Family de Voogt again rendered us friendship service by offering Carey and her four children lodgings for the last days and I got a decent roof over my head with my brother in law de Graaff, who in the meantime had already gone up to Director of B.B. and lived in Parapattan. He was temporarily a grass widower as Tine had gone to the mountais for health reasons.
For the last time I also took part of the Friday evening games at the home of my friend Kerbert, to whom I had recommanded my son Johan, who in this case, just like I foresaw, again failed his exam and as a result of that, would go to the Dutch East Indies.
My farewell with my friend H. de Vries was rather sad; he had been in ill health for some time, though hadn’t taken the advice of the faculty and friends to leave as soon as possible to the Netherlands, which in the end had to happen anyway with the sad result that during his journey, a week after my departure, he died in Genoa.
I left for Holland with Carey and the children on the 7th of March 1906 under much interest of all the engineer officers and many friends in Batavia.
Herewith I close my Dutch East Indian career and will go on to my IVth and last chapter.
footnote:
The “attachment”, that long letter he wrote, I am not going to translate as we all know what had happened and it is in such official language, it is too much for me.
So will continue with the futher story.
CHAPTER IV
My life after my retirement.
As I had mentioned at the end of the last chapter, we left on the 7th March 1906 by steamship Goetoer of the Rotterdam Lloyd for Europe. The boats from the Lloyd then didn’t follow the route via Singapore-Sabang but landed in Padang and then sailed directly on to Colombo; so we didn’t get the opportunity to say goodbye to the aunties in Singapore.
On our journey we didn’t even stop in Colombo, sothat Carey who had planned to visit Jos’s grave in Sabang, couldn’t follow that up.
As co passengers we had Mrs. Smalt with her little daughter Manse, who later on became a schoolmate of young Carey; further Mrs. Overman, with whom I played duettes during our journey; she had a daughter and a son and was divorced from her husband, a captain with a liking for alcohol.
Further we counted: Mr. and Mrs. Ramond with 4 children, Mr. Stibbe with wife and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Westhoff and as grass widowers Mr. Duriz van Beest Holle, all together a nice group of passengers.
The children’s room was quite full at dinnertime and and our nanny Steenmeyer kept a strict watch over the four Campioni children.
At the table, being the eldest in rank and age, I had the honour seat next to the commander with Mrs. Smalt opposite and Carey on the right of me. The commander le Clercq was a real round gentlemanlike seaman, who hardly ever came at the table, as he usually had business on the bridge; when he was at the table he was the most sociable man.
During the last time of my stay in Batavia I had been feeling very unwell, didn’t have much appetite and in the night it felt like my guts were cooking: I refrained from drinking wine, beer and strong alcohol and since I imagined that this was helping I didn’t consult a doctor; at first on board I still felt not like I should be and maintained my abstinence; this and the rest after the nervous last days of my service did pick me up in such a way that at the height of Point de Galle I could not resist to have a pot of the nice beer from the vat, in which I saw my co passengers bite so nicely.
It did do me good, even so, that a week later I also dared to take a small bitter with the same favourable success.
So I was completely cured and amused me with playing cards, music and reading.
Of this last one I was well supplied , as Mrs. Overman gave me lots of cut out serial stories from several newspapers to read.
After we had passed Perim, where we loaded coal, it suddenly became much colder in the Red Sea, due to Northerly winds, sothat we started to think about putting on our winterclothes, however it was too late for many; the Goentoer was a lovely boat for the tropics, but had the lack for a cold climat, that people inside could not go through from the smoke and play rooms to the dining room and the cabins.They then had always to walk over deck where it was so windy to the large staircase and here nearly all passengers caught a cold and so did I get a heavy cold with a fever, sothat I got cabin arrest under the blankers.
When in Portsaid I had no fever anymore, sothat I could go ashore and win some francs at the roulette, whilst I could take part at the farewell dinner, which the commander offered the passengers in the Mediterranean Sea, which exactly fell on the 25th of March, Carey’s birthday.
When we arrived in Marseille on the 28th it was still cold and I was glad that I had brought my ulster with me, which I had received at the same time as my winterclothes from Mey & Edlichl; we were transported with a small steamboat from the Goentoer to the custom’s office, at which little Miel lost his sailor’s cap.
We had little trouble at the customs and so could soon go and leave to the hotel situated near the station of the P.L.M., where we could comfort ourselves at the radiator of the central heating.
I had hired a whole 2nd class compartment for Paris and in the evening at 6 o’clock we went there; it was a real jar with worms and sleeping was not easy at all, one person was too cold, and the little ones, who were lying on the floor, too hot because of the hot air grills; towards the morning the train stopped at a small station, where we could order a hot cup of coffee and this did us all good.
Around 9.30 we arrived in Paris at La Gare du Midi, where we hired a taxi, with which we took Miss Steenmeyer and the 4 children to the Gare du Nord, which immediately steamed through with the express train to the Hague, where she and both the girls stayed with aunt Joh, and the boys were dropped off at family de Jongh.
Carey and I went on with our taxi to the hotel de Malth where we each got a nice well heated room and after a good dinner soon went to bed. The next morning we went to town, first to the hairdresser, where C. had her hair shampooed and trimmed, whilst I sat there nearly 1.5 hours boring myself.
From the hairdresser it went to the Mansfield & Co. shoeshop, where Carey bought two pairs of neat boots, from which she several years later still had pleasure. Further we visited les Grands Magazins du Louvre, where C. did some orders and I amongst others ordered a silk high hat, because for my fat head no hat was big enough.
In the course of the day I bought two tickets for 10 francs each from the porter of the hotel for the performance of Robin au Bois ( Freischutz ), so we went there in the evening.
footnote: La Gare = the station
The performance was more than beautiful and I particularly enjoyed the two first acts and in the interval I could still admire the beautiful decor of the building of the Grand Opera with the luxurious drapes in the foyer; however I was surprisingly tired, surely the result of my influenza ( nowadays they would say flu ) sothat I could not keep my mind on the play and the excellent decor in the last two acts and even fell asleep to great annoyance of my daughter.
As I did feel less pleasant again the next morning and I didn’t feel like getting tired from walking through the streets and the visiting of several musea and other public buildings, we decided not to extend our stay in Paris, it would only been spending money in poverty.
Therefore we left on the first of April early in the afternoon for Holland in the company of a nice couple civilians, who had a fashion shop in the Piet Heinstraat and had been to Paris to purchase samples.
In Roosendaal we were welcomed by Piet, Milly and Johan, sothat we were with seven in our compartment during the continuation of the trip and together in the evening at 8 o’clock arrived at the H.S.M. in the Hague, where both my brother in laws Benard and the Jongh, my sisters Joh and Marie besides my daughter Lotje, were waiting for us. The last one, who was treated by the psychiatrist Dr. Bolten in Villa Dolphijn was free for the evening, but had still to be taken home the same evening.
It was a large company in the Trompstraat, where aunt Marie treated us to a less tasty beef steak with fried potatoes, after which I left with aunt Joh in the steamtram of the H.S. in the Anna Polowna Straat to the Loosduinsche Kade where I would stay for the time being together with Miss Steenmeyer and the girls. I was given the small room for lodgings and I can’t remember ever to have been housed so small.
In the meantime Carey had stayed with her boys in the Trompstraat.
The weather was very cold as if we were still in the middle of winter and this cold excercised influence on all of us; first Miss Steenmeyer who didn’t want to listen to advice to wear warm clothing got bronchitis, when aunt Joh also got sick Carey was obliged to take the miss to the deaconesse hospital Bronovo, both the girls were taken along by Piet and Milly to Arnhem, where they stayed for some time.
So I stayed by myself with aunt Joh who had recieved our future maid maid Anna Schalker as help in the household, tante Joh was all but pliable to this maid; she demanded much of her and gave her very little to eat, sothat Anna came crying and complaining to me about that; I calmed her down with the prospect that she would be better off with us in our new house and asked her to keep in mind, that the old aunt was not in good health.
The situation with aunt Joh meanwhile didn’t get any better, especially when her neighbour downstairs Mrs. Kleyn got seriously ill and died, which resulted in that I togetheer with brother in law de Jongh, hired a nurse for her and I moved to the Trompstraat.
In the meantime we had been looking for a suitable home for us and found one rather soon in the Laat van Meerdervoort no. 348; at the search for this home Johan was present, who depite the cold weather was walking around without any demi on and consequently had to stay in bed in his room in the Daguerre straat no. 35, where I visited him now and then.
The house on the Laan v. M. 348 was in the meantime rented by me of the builder Mr. v.d. Ham for f. 550 per year with a 3 year contract with 2 year’s option; all our belongings were piled up in cases in the living room of the new house and Carey could start with the furnishing of it; for the furniture she had on the advice of aunt Marie promised her clientele to Mr. Parels, chief of a secondhand furniture shop, who later on proved to be a real dud and not at al cheaper than anyone else.
Our furniture for the living room we took over from Papa vn Heel including the mirror and gas chandelier.
Every day Carey went to the new house, where she could only shelter herself against the cold by a kerosene-heater, she moved into the new domicile with Anna on the 26th April to organise the household.
I stayed in the Tromp straat till the 1st May and during that time I still had trouble with the influenza which I had contracted aboard the Goentoer, which symptom was heavy sweating of my top back in the night, sothat my bed was soaking wet in the morning.
Aunt Marie had a half mad maid, who comforted me with the words: “a person can sometimes have an accident”.
When I came in the new house luckily I was better and was planning to make a little trip to Zutphen and Deventer and after that to Arnhem; I left on the 13th May and paid a visit on the way there to Piet’s old blind mother, who just happened to have her birthday that day. It was striking how this lovely woman, who was excellently looked after by her two daughters, had kept her cheerfulness despite the fact that for more than 20 years she had been blind as a bat.
From Amersfoort the trip went to Deventer, where Gerrit Nikkels waited for me at the station and with whom I stayed a few days near the Vischpoort and from whom I received a lot of hospitality. He treated me amongst other things to a lovely riding tour to Gorssel, where we spent the day in the nicest summerweahter; on the return trip we were caught in cold spring rain, sothat I was happpy that I had taken my demi with me.
In Zutphen, where I stayed for a longer time I stayed with Nanning and Cor, where I it was also very good; Naning was still working in the business of his father, whilst his sister served in the shop and kept the books, a job which was as it were cut out for Rein and besides which she could keep up a valuable stamp collection; she lived with her sister Joh and her half step sister Naatje Weenink in a neat little house with garden at the Deventerseweg.
I daily paid a visit here as well as at Rein’s office; in the afternoon I took a walk with Cor, who then dropped me off at the social club where I could play some billiards or played domino’s with the Zutphen’s civilians; in the evening Nanning, Cor and I went somewhere for a drink of beer and ended the day with a game of omber.
The eldest of Nanning’s sons was employed in an upholstery and the youngest an ellenridder in Amsterdam, these were no beautiful jobs for well educated youngsters; their parents seemed not to have been too worried about it, although they were financially in good nick.Tthey lived in their own home on the IJsselkade, where Cor looked after engineer Molenaar’s household and so their own household wouldn’t have been too costly.
After a week I left for Arnhem and stayed with Piet and Milly, who had a nice groundfloor house with a garden in the Prins Hendrikstraat; I stayed in the basement floor and so I could step from my room in to the garden; their daughter Renny already went to primary school, the youngest Milly was born during their leave and not one year old yet.
Of course I got aquainted to Piet’s sister Renate and her husband Willem van Wessem’s family , which meeting was more than pleasant especially Renate and her sister in law Noor made a pleasant impression on me, though I also got to know the men as very friendly people.
I paid a visit with Piet to my father in law, W. Naessens in Heelsum, who lived there in villa Medan together with Regien Wybrandts, who kept a boarding house in the villa; the old Mr. Naessens received me real nicely and thankt me heartly for the happy years I had given his daughter.
footnote:
cannot find the meaning of ellenridder anywhere, so cannot translate that one.
Piet’s blind mother with Renny and Milly.
