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employees the last one the barman I saw yesterday, who
invited prostitutes from Mercer Street into the place, at mid-
night or early morning and treated them to liquors had
been robbed right and left, yet he had made $200! I believe
the man hasnt a cent and is in debt for everything in the place.
Finally he borrowed my bowie knife and went away. Arnold
up the same morning. Afternoon reading Rousseau. Evening
to 14th street, to Mr Jewell s and to the Major s. Few people
there, a dreary show. The attempted assassin had come in and
apologized, upon which the Major showed him the knife and
told him he had procured it expressly for the purpose of ripping
his intestines out; if he hadn t apologized. Then the Major
told him to take the knife and hand it over the counter to the
bar-man, and so the quarrel ended. Three men came in for
drinks the Major asked em what he should charge for em, and
boggled about making change. An ill-looking fellow named
Finnigan was a good deal behind the bar and generally per-
vading the rooms. The Major said he was going to take him into
partnership! The man had scoundrel legibly written on his
countenance. He swaggered about, half bullying, half caressing
the Major, boasted of having nominated people and altogether
was an odious spectacle. Me he recognized, on hearing my
name, as an author. Came away at 11, or before. Was
their ever such a calling adopted by an ex-major?
18. Monday. To Dick Hutchings office, Chamber Street,
having a little drawing to make for him. He told me that
Alcock the old foguey Irishman so long on the Pic in its ear-
lier days was in New Orleans, where he, Hutchings, had got
him a berth on the Delta newspaper, with a good yearly salary.
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page fifty-eight |
| Description: | Describes Piercy's tale of a row with a patron and the resolution at the bar he owns. |
| Date: | 1858-01-17 |
| Subject: | Alcock; Arnold, George; Bars (Drinking establishments); Books and reading; Business; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Hutchings, Dick; Jewell; Piercy; Prostitutes |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | 14th Street; Chamber Street; Mercer Street |
| 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. |
