201
by 8 o clock. I think he s an honest fellow and am incli-
ned to take some of George s remarks about him cum grane
salis. George spake of his sister Sarah Ann s affair with
Conworth as though she had found herself so much his su-
perior &c &c that she had to break off. Bah! I know
better. (Bye the bye George got a letter from Dick some days
ago inclosing one from their sister Rosa, by which I learn
that Davids has offered to lend my brother Charley
money, to set him up in business, if a favorable opportuni-
ty occur.) George talks of and knows the utter selfishness
of William, palliates the sluggish and wasted life of Henry
(blaming his father for it) speaks affectionately, in a pas-
sive way, of his sisters, highly of Dick (who admires George
of all men) and eulogistically of John. John is making
money as a wool-stapler. I think Dick Bolton is the best
of all the family. William Conworth, my fellow voya-
ger, is simple hearted, reads Bunyan, and wants nothing
better than hard work all day. Ted the youngest is a
trifle monkeyish in demeanor, and seems to consider the
inquiry How d ye do Sir? the heighth of humor, repeating
in twenty times in the course of a day. George says he is
an habitual eaves-dropper, carrying everything he hears to his
elder brother, also that he tyrannizes in his boy way over
William and his sister. So much for a very
discursive family sketch. We live on pork, almost ex-
clusively but its pork of the nicest kind Sunday din-
ners consisting of sucking pigs roasted.
12. Tuesday. Good bye to the Conworth s. A dull
day threatening rain and eventually fulfilling the threat.
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page two hundred and twenty-four |
| Description: | Regarding George Bolton and the Conworth family in Paris, Ontario. |
| Date: | 1858-10-11 |
| Subject: | Bolton, George; Bolton, John; Bolton, Richard; Bolton, Rosa (Gunn); Bolton, William; Conworth, John; Conworth, Sarah Ann; Conworth, Ted; Conworth, William; Davids; Gunn, Charles; Gunn, Thomas Butler |
| 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. |
