INTERNATIONALE FRAUENLIGA FÜR FRIEDEN UND FREIHEIT DEUTSCHER ZWEIG
My dear Miss Addams --
Ever since our Flensburg Conference I had in mind to write to you about my impression of the 3 representatives of [Estonia] -- one on behalf of women of the [Estonian] majority, one of the German & ↑one↓ of the Russian Minorities -- as they seemed to be very much interested in our work though not yet convinced that war is not the only means to defeat surrounding "enemies." But that Conference on the Danish-German border lies so far back now that I am not going to bother you with it any more -- especially not in a Xmas letter.
I hope you are feeling well since you came home. We did not hear at all about your passage and how you are getting on. But our sincere and very best wishes [page 2] are always with you. -- Your beautiful leather clock has become my very best companion -- exactly like you suggested it would be. But it is more than a companion only: I call it "the Eye of my Conscience." It watches whether peace is being served in the right & consequent way. Even by night, when I jump up, it looks at me with its radiating eye. And every time a loving thought flies over mountains & the ocean across to you.
Just in the moment the "Eye" is very cross with me, for I am lazy since a few months already, trying to get over a complete nervous breakdown, which announced itself before the Dublin Congress already & which forced me to lie down since October first already. But I trust I am over the worst part of it by now, having left lovely, quiet & hospitable Switzerland to come down here to the Mediterranean in order to enjoy the sun, the colors and the flowers. As all the outer & inner parts of the body are all right [page 3] it really needs another few months only, to get the nerves rested which have been stepmotherly treated in many a regard since a long time. I like to be in France for a little while, especially in this part of it, getting acquainted with the laborious flower cultivators. The other part of mankind in these regions, the nothing doers, are not exactly a pleasure, but one tries not to worry about them. This place is fortunately very small & one need not see very many people at all. [page 4]
Let me finish up by sending you my love with all possible good wishes not only for a merry Xmas but also for a happy & healthy New Year.
Will you kindly remember me to Miss Smith and Mrs [Kohn], who, I hope, are well. Greetings to whole dear Hull-House with old & young.
Yours always gratefully & devotedly
Gertrud Baer
Comments