56
have had our stand-points bettered by her
shifting of position, do. But Mort is shrewd
and politic. Grace has or will have money, too,
in addition to the incitements of passion which Mort
may be fairly presumed to feel for her. Mrs Thom-
son was greatly tickled by the honor of the proposed
connexion, citing Fanny s ways as precedents for
everything in the household, a little to Cahill s dis-
gust. She, wrapped up in her son, of course only
sees in the union of Mort and Grace, his rise in for
tune and the social position (?) The wooing seems
to have commenced on January, the month after Chips
death. Cahill has the same personal experiences
of Fanny s proclivities towards passionate attraction
as others; would, he says, on one occasion when
Mort was kissing and embracing Grace in one par
lor and he similarly engaged with her mother in
the other, have been tempted to venture perhaps as
far as she wished, but for sudden thoughts of Jim
and Haney. Touching her honesty he has come
to much the same estimation as we have. Mrs
Van Cleve, Chips mother, is expected to visit the
Thomsons, presumably to introduce as a candidate
for the position of her deceased daughter her youngest
sister Chips sister! Wheels within wheels! how
funny and how melancholy it all is. Talk of
Thackeray not understanding life and painting it
truly!
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eleven: page sixty-two |
| Description: | Regarding Mort Thomson's courtship of Grace Eldredge. |
| Date: | 1859-07-20 |
| Subject: | Cahill, Frank; Eldredge, Grace (Thomson); Fern, Fanny; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Parton, James; Thomson, Anna (''Chips''); Thomson, Mortimer (Doesticks); Thomson, Sophy; Van Cleve, Mrs. |
| 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. |
