197
that troubled you that on the great question of
Christ s divinity you were by no means at rest it
would simply appal him. The whole family have been reared
in the narrowest of circles. Mrs Conworth, dead some two or
three years ago, was her husband s housekeeper before mar-
riage. She was religious and had one idea duty which in
her vocabularly meant daily immolation. This idea the daughter
has inherited, and now acts upon it. Only Englishwoman are
capable of this, and it s at once touching and horrible. They
have Protestantized the Papish idea that it s their duty to suf-
fer, they are timid, unresisting or almost so and invari-
ably believers believers who think all questioning shocking
impiety. Their affection towards the members of their family
are deep and morbid they submit to petty selfishnesses
and tyranny. I don t say Sarah Conworth has this to en-
dure, though what else I have just written applies to her. She
is painfully diffident, speaks but little and that in a low, timid
voice. Her desire to oblige, to be kind and hospitable, makes
one uneasy you would like to set her at rest, to see her
confident, cheerful to hear her join freely in conversation.
Some few times when she has warmed up into it, she tal-
ked sense and womanly feeling. Once, in a talk on slavery,
when George took the rascally inferiority-of-the-negro-and-
what s-to-be-done side, indulging in quiet, Boltonian, mas-
culine grinning at the girls natural, honest, sympathetic
convictions based in human feeling and abhorrence of injus-
tice, I delighted her and brought her out more than usual
by strong talk on the right side of the question. There,
George! said she. I hate to see a woman pooh-
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page two hundred and twenty |
| Description: | Describes the Conworth family. |
| Date: | 1858-10-11 |
| Subject: | Bolton, George; Conworth; Conworth, Mrs.; Conworth, Sarah (Bolton); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Religion; Slavery; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Paris, Ontario] |
| 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. |
