117
backer is a more dangerous scoundrel, the more so that he is
clever. He has a sort of Jonathan Wild connexion with the police
in past years, edited a Police Gazette devoted to criminal news,
lives of forgers, thieves and prostitutes, and got extensively involved
in the notorious torpedo case which formed a notable chapter of
New York villanies, including forgery, stool-pigeoning, theft, and an
attempt at murder by means of an infernal machine. Then he
went to California. He has his crowd of hangers-on or fighting
men, who d do bravo work at a word or a nod. It may be
the knowledge of this that deterred O Brien from any attempts
at retaliating his licking though I think O B would have let
it slide without.
29. Thursday. Down town early to Harper s. Took notions
to Bonner four they were good ones, above the average, but
none of them were accepted. Back to Phonography. Wrote letter
to Boutcher. This and Phonography the rest of the day. Leslie
up in my room at night.
30. Friday. In doors all the morning. Phonography and
writing. The day oppressively close. Horribly lethargic, so that I
could only keep awake by continual washing face. Down town
to the Post Office in the afternoon. Promise in the atmosphere of a
storm which didn t come off. To the new Pic Office a big room
back second floor in Spruce St. Up town with Gun. He and
Leslie in my room at night. Leslie talking of the Scottish Ame-
rican Journal, of Finlay and Latto and of himself with
that abominable minuteness of ta detail of trivial incidents
which Swift has attributed to his countrymen. Most men of
little culture are guilty of this. It was very dreary. I took
refuge in scissorization and silence. Altogether a very
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page one hundred and thirty-four |
| Description: | Mentions the feud between Darcy and Ullmann. |
| Date: | 1858-04-28 |
| Subject: | Bonner, John; Boutcher, William; Crime; Finlay; Gun, Robert; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Latto; Leslie, William; O'Brien, Fitz James; Police; Wilkes, George |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Spruce 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. |
