160
the site of the old Brick Church. Cahill, the
Mejor and Bellew s brother joine us here. Ottarson
was very lively and bibilous, trying on the hat or cap
of every man in the party, wrestling with Doesticks &c.
The Mejor looked seedy and half-shaven, and bored me
with details about a trial of guns, in which the one he
is to be agent for was defeated through the villany
and gross bribery of rivals, of course. He told me also
that he sailed for Europe next week that my bowie-
knife should be replaced to which I listened as if I believed
it. Bellew s brother is a tall, acquiline-nosed mustached
fellow who has been in Australia. I took my mug
of lager and seeing the company were in for a very indefi-
nite number of cock-tails, left. Cahill reported that
most of em got rather toddied subsequently. To-bed
early, feeling ill and tired.
5. Sunday. To Parton s in the afternoon. Both Fanny
and Grace had got bad colds in Canada, especially the
former, inasmuch that she coughed very much. A walk
to Thompson s, with Grace and Nelly in the evening, re-
turning to stay all night.
16. Monday. Blazing hot. Called at Pounden s and
with him to New York, he entertaining me by the way
with the detail miseries of his household, sisters-in-law,
Biddies &c. He talked of nothing else. To F. Leslie s, then
up town. Afternoon to Doctor. Haney back from Jersey.
This day, or rather this night, the first messages crossed
the Atlantic by sub-marine telegraph. I put down this
as one of the greatest events that has occurred during my
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page one hundred and eighty-two |
| Description: | Mentions that the first messages have crossed the Atlantic by telegraph. |
| Date: | 1858-08-14 |
| Subject: | Bellew, Patrick Beckett; Cahill, Frank; Eldredge, Ellen; Eldredge, Grace (Thomson); Fern, Fanny; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Ottarson; Piercy, Major; Pounden, Frank; Thomson, Mortimer (Doesticks) |
| 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. |
