15
her, but is aware now. There s been no divorce
or attempt at any on her or Whytal s part. He
can t sue, she says, as she did something towards
charging him with cruelty or abandonment. He was a
low, mean-spirited, malicious man, and would
punch her, in company, till she was black and blue
all over knowing her spirit was such that she
would not complain. (??) She has kept Alleyne for
two years, doesn t love him, has never loved any body
yet. He has had a good education, puts it to no use,
has that dirty English pride which inclines him to be-
lieve that it is less degradation to get in debt or sponge
than turn his hand to this and that. He is a drunkard,
too. She has now told him that he must reform, must
get something to do as she will keep him no longer,
granting six months as her ultimatum for washing
her blackamoor white. Thus Lotty. Of course there
are other sides to the story, yet I am inclined to
think the wretched girl as much sinned against as
sinning. The morphine story tallies a little with
what I have heard heretofore, though her waywardness
sometimes inclined her so towards Whytal that I should
scarcely have supposed he needed to resort to so odious
an expedient. (There was that squat little squirt of a
Dan Dodd too, whom she now mentions with contempt
contempt only there would be rage if no! Lotty
I can t suspect you there!) What is she like now?
Well very little altered from the time when I first
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eleven: page twenty |
| Description: | Describes a conversation with Lotty about her past. |
| Date: | 1859-06-13 |
| Subject: | Dodd, Dan; Granville (Alleyne); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Kidder, Charlotte (Whytal, Granville); Marriage; Whytal; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-01-31 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eleven |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of boarding house living at 132 Bleecker Street, his freelance writing and drawing work, the antics of New York literary Bohemians, Fanny Fern and James Parton's marriage, visits to the Edwards family, a Fourth of July excursion with the Edwards family and other friends, letters from Frank Cahill and Bob Gun's mistresses, Jesse Haney's proposal of marriage to Sally Edwards and rejection, Charles Damoreau's return from Boston to live in New York, and attending the Edwards family's 1859 Christmas party. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Christmas; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; Publishers and publishing; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York |
| 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. |
