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at our table for some time, and the woman has an ex-
tensive outer reputation. A friend of Arnold s went to her
and came back perfectly converted said she told him all
his life gave him hell &c for his misdeeds. Well, one
evening I went. It was a dead failure, and I formed a
very unequivocal opinion as to the woman s character. The
business consists of incoherent nonsense, guess work, free love
jargon and outrageous obscenity spiced higher or lower
according to the auditor. Well, I let out enough, at table,
of the result of my visit to convince Mrs P. that it would
n t be proper to simper and cut jokes about such a woman
as that so, ever since, she has decared with an air of
great wisdom that her mind s quite made up about Spirit-
ualism! Your very proper, respectable people like a
taste of the nasty occasionally and especially to snuff
about the edge of it. As for superstition there s not a woman
in this house (except perhaps Mrs Church) that hasn t
had her fortune told. Mrs Gouverneur went to, I don t
know how many fortune-tellers, and Mrs Potter with her.
5. Wednesday. A letter from Hannah. How love has
developed and deepened her nature. She writes womanly, ear-
nestly, with strong sense and judgment of those about her. She
has been at books too, at my suggestion no less than her own
inclination. For news that chit Edwin Bolton has got married
to unknown to his friends to a poor young Banbury dress-maker
who is likely to become a mother. In doors all the misera-
bly wet day, writing, doggedly. Out of sorts.
6. Thursday. Wet again continuously. Down to to the
Post Office, coming back all-bemired to work. A repetition of
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page one hundred and forty-one |
| Description: | Regarding the women in his boarding house visiting a spiritual medium. |
| Date: | 1858-05-04 |
| Subject: | Arnold, George; Bennett, Hannah; Bolton, Edwin; Church, Mrs. (Andreotti); Gouverneur, Mrs. (Gill, Griffin); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Porter, Mrs.; Spiritualism; 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. |
