Douglas - The CIA Covenant-Nazis in Washington - preterhuman.net

Thursday, 1 December 1949Notes made on the train.Well, I must say there are times when one is pleasantly, even happily, surprised by the turn ofevents. Last evening started out with dull formality and ended up as a genuine pleasure for me.First, we met the aunt in the drawing room. Old furniture and dim portraits of ancestors. Minecould never afford paintings. Some in solemn black, others in uniform and a number of uninterestingwomen in period costume.The niece was upstairs dressing and I gathered from the aunt that she was not pleased to beentertaining the neighbor. We were sitting on very uncomfortable but expensive old chairs when the auntsmiled over my head and stood up. “Here, my dear is your fan club.”She is not ugly at all. Rather on the short side with a long, solemn face, dark brown eyes and avery firm chin and mouth. Very decently dressed and carries herself very well. Figure? Small and certainlynot fat. Couldn’t see her legs but the rest of her seemed in good proportion. Hair was pulled back into aknot at the back of her head, neatly framing her face.I bowed, kissed her hand (a disgusting Viennese custom) and managed to introduce myself by theproper name. Remarks were made and I said some sarcastic things about a popular pianist that got a quicksmile. We had about twenty minutes of social conversation and she said, “I suppose you would like to hearme play something’”“The Bach you were assaulting the other day would be excellent.”Up went the eyebrows. “Assaulting?”“Oh yes, a firm, very determined effort. And I might say, successful.” An excellent evening, shortthough it was and with the aunt ever present.Analysis: A young woman of character and appearance who is a very strong, almost masculineperformer. She certainly understands Bach as well as Schubert, which she plays with both strength andfeeling. She attended Julliard School, loves the piano but will not make a career of it, (which she certainlycould) because in her family, women do not go into the professions.She has an excellent sense of humor, very dry and sometimes sharp.I wanted to show her how to make a transition in a Bach piece and while she very politely gaveme the keyboard, I could see that, at first, she was not happy. I think I made my point and she asked me tokeep on playing for her and warned me she would be equally pedantic. “Actually you are rather good,” shesaid and from her omnipresent aunt’s expression, I assume that this was very rare praise.She would do very well on the concert stage but at this point, all is too soon for anything but theenjoyment of the moment.When I come back from Florida, I have invited them to my house for a little dinner and somemusic afterwards. This may go nowhere, as so many new things do, but I did enjoy the evening andapparently everyone else did too. They think I am Swiss but that my German is “ever so much better thanthe Swiss dialect.” A bit of Munich Bavarian mixed up with military and police, all overlaid with BerlinerPrussian does not sound Swiss but most Americans cannot speak their own language, let alone someoneelse’s.This trip is interesting as we penetrate deeper into the southern United States. Really appallingpoverty seen from the train windows and many shabby old houses, millions of very poor and equallyshabby blacks, not too many automobiles. One reads about the high civilization of the pre-Civil War southbut if all of that was true, the country has lost everything.I recall (Frank G. ed.) Wisner calling (Ralph, ed.) Bunche a “saddle-colored coon” which had tobe explained to me. We had such in the Ruhr after the French had quartered their own dark ones on us. Idon’t ride but I know what color a saddle is and the image is entertaining.Miami, I am told, is being filled up with illegal refugee Jews being smuggled in from theDominican Republic and Cuba but no one seems to care very much about it. Africa above and Palestinebelow.I read somewhere that there was a terrible hurricane twenty years or so ago and there was arailroad which actually ran down to Key West. There was so much damage that the tracks were ripped upand the causeways were turned into a highway. That should be an interesting scenic trip.I am going to take up advance photography and I brought my Leica along but taking pictures froma train window is only fit for trippers. Pictures of yourself and your friends in front of the Eiffel Towerduring the war. I do not wish to be photographed these days but one can never be too insistent, merelycareful to avoid the possibility.