22
went into Haney s room subsequently. Cahill there. We
sat talking till 2. By the way O Brien said a characteristic
thing to me to-day. Doesticks wife was mentioned. Did he get
any money with her? asked he. I have rarely met an Irishman
who didn t think a man s marriage a failure if it didn t bring
pecuniary profit. Very few Englishmen especially young English-
men would have asked such a questin.
21. Saturday. Down town by 9 to post letters. Returned
to drawing. To Pic Office in the afternoon. Thomson, Wilbour
and O Brien there. Drawing and writing at night. Jolly
row to-day, after dinner, between Mrs Gouverneur and Mrs
she has, of course, dropped the name of Andreotti Church. I
heard all about it this evening, Mrs C narrating. Mrs Gouver-
neur with her two children (Rawson is quartered off at an inferior
boarding house in Bleecker street makes his mother look older
than she likes, I trow! ) at a tip-top establishment near to
the Fifth Avenue, where she pays something like $40 for fourth
story accommodation, in order to be in a gang, fashionable house.
Mrs Church called on her and met a certain Colonel or Mr
Fuller, a married man whom the widow had scraped acquaintance
with at Saratoga; and this married man was talking in the
most fulsome manner to Mrs G; she doing the exuberant, the
gushing, the jolly as usual and, of course overdoing it. The
Fuller went into a description of his introduction at the Springs,
upon which Mrs G exclaimed, in that pleasant-toned voice of hers
she has a sweet voice It was one of the happiest evenings
I ever passed! Whereupon the Fuller put out his hand,
she did the like, and they did a reciprocal squeeze. Now
Mrs G, dropping in to-day after dinner, as usual on one
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page thirty-one |
| Description: | Describes a row between Mrs. Gouverneur and Mrs. Church. |
| Date: | 1857-11-20 |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Cahill, Frank; Church, Mrs. (Andreotti); Fuller, Colonel; Gill, Rawson; Gouverneur, Adolphus (''Gladdy''); Gouverneur, May; Gouverneur, Mrs. (Gill, Griffin); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Irish; Marriage; O'Brien, Fitz James; Thomson, Anna (''Chips''); Thomson, Mortimer (Doesticks); Wilbour; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Bleecker Street; Fifth Avenue |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of boardinghouse living, a picnic at Hoboken with other New York artists and journalists, his drawing and writing work in New York, attending a lecture by Lola Montez, visits to James Parton and Fanny Fern and the Edwards family, a controversy over Fitz James O'Brien's story ''The Diamond Lens,'' artist Sol Eytinge's relationship with writer Allie Vernon, the suicide of writer Henry William Herbert, antics of the New York Bohemians, the interest of people living in his boarding house in spiritualism, a visit to his friend George Bolton's farm in Canada, a visit to Niagara Falls, and a scandal involving Harbormaster Willis Patten, who lives in his boarding house. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Farms; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Publishers and publishing; Suicide; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Rochester, New York; Elmira, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
