182
over the instrument, with her nice hair that
hair which looks ash-colored in the sun, and brown in
the shade so smooth and soft, her kind, household
face and fresh color, her pleasant voice and unaffect-
ed manner, I felt very Colonel Newcome-ish towards
her, and thought what a delightful figure it was, and
how the rest of the picture harmonized with it. There
was the mother opposite there Mr Edwards, with his bald
head, white hair, and jolly English visage, spectacles on
nose, writing a letter, and, subsequently, at my request
the recipe for brewing his famous punch. John s honest
sensible face completed the group. The work table, the
boxes (containing any amount of baby finery) the screens,
and dimly seen front show room formed a background.
I had previously visited an American home this was
an English one. Matty & John went off to bed,
I drank a glass or two of ale with the papa and mama,
then returned to Bleecker St. The card players were
still at practice in Leslie s room, in an asphyxiative
atmosphere of tobacco smoke and respiration. Ending
with the result of Kendall muleting the others of
nearly $2 each, he invited the party to oysters. Out o
doors within half a minute s walk we met Cahill, ex-
tremely drunk. He declared his intention of joining us.
Seeing his condition we were for getting him to bed, and
after a little persuasion Gun led him back, promising
to follow us to the oyster saloon. This he did not do.
Half an hour subsequent, when Leslie and I returned we
found Cahill fast asleep on the door step. We took him
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page two hundred and five |
| Description: | Describes an evening spent with the Edwards family. |
| Date: | 1858-09-17 |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Cahill, Frank; Drunkenness; Edwards, George; Edwards, John; Edwards, Martha; Edwards, Sarah; Gun, Robert; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Kendall; Leslie, William |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Bleecker 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. |
