112
per, he came in, with Chips looking as pretty
and innocent as ever, in her bright little bonnet and light
spring dress. A very pleasant evening ensued and at 10 1/2
we all set off to convoy Chips and Wells back, she wal-
king with me. I felt very big-brotherly, with just a dash
of sorrowful envy of Doesticks deserved good fortune, when I
felt the other little creature s arm in mine. (Yet I know
too, that my Hannah I wish she were my Hannah! is the
nobler woman knows more thinks more.) Marriage
gives a certain amount of self-confidence to the simplest, most
timid of girls. It was at once pretty and amusing to no-
tice this in Chips. Speaking of it subsequently to Grace;
Yes said she, she s only two months older than I am, and
don t she give herself airs! It was spoken in a good sense
and affectionately. Back; Grace and Nellie with me,
Parton and Fanny preceding. Scotch ale and to bed by 12.
I sat up a couple of hours longer, reading Holmes Autocrat
of the Breakfast table and other matters.
23. Friday. Breakfast, newspapers, cigar, talks with
Parton, Grace and Fanny, separately, severally, and promis-
cuously, then off by 11, with pleasant thoughts in mind of
the pleasant house and pleasant people in it. New York: Pic
Office: up town. Thinking Haney manifested a little coolness
towards me at dinner, walked into his room and asked him
about it. He had supposed that I had been backing up
Mrs Levison s mean suspicions with some loose phrase of en-
couragement! I suspected so.
24. Saturday. Tailor; boot-maker; down town; met Gun;
to Pounden s store (didn t see him); loafing among the shipping;
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page one hundred and twenty-nine |
| Description: | Describes walking Mort Thomson's wife home from the Parton's house in Brooklyn. |
| Date: | 1858-04-22 |
| Subject: | Bennett, Hannah; Books and reading; Clothing and dress; Eldredge, Ellen; Eldredge, Grace (Thomson); Fern, Fanny; Gun, Robert; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Levison, William; Marriage; Parton, James; Pounden, Frank; Thomson, Anna (""Chips""); Welles, Edward; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, [New York] |
| 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. |
