143
A singing Party. The Vanity Fairians.
presently sending out for two and a half
gallon s of Optimus ale in a gigantic demi-john.
Cahill fetched it.x A good deal of mirth and
melody, Rondel doing the Marseillaise &c, Bow-
eryem his vocalizing, Cahill his, I mine, and
Hayes some amusingly cockney, plebeian ones.
It was a very amusing impromptu jollifica-
tion. I thought Haney went into the humor of
it with just a spice of recklessness, and in connect-
ion with it, of his ordinary drudgery, Irving Maga-
zine depletions, his bachelor-hood and of a
disappointment not yet quite got over. And I
understood it and sympathized with him. Sally s
rejection may not have cut him deep, but he has
felt it sadly enough, at times. There
are rumors that Vanity Fair is coming to grief;
the fellows are not paid up regularly; neither editor
not contributor got any money last Saturday.
A projected spree to Clover Hill, at the back of
Brooklyn, organized by Gayler, who puffs the
place in the Courier, didn t take place, in
consequence of lack of money on the part of the
Bohemians, to Gayler s growling dissatisfaction.
Nobody came to eat the op expensive dinner order-
ed. O Brien is in a bad way, drunk four
days together, subject to delirium tremens. He got
turned out or had to leave the Hone House, where
x He asked, gravely, at first, for a pint (!) at the bar!| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twelve: page one hundred and fifty-seven |
| Description: | Describes a singing party at his boarding house and the financial troubles of ''Vanity Fair.'' |
| Date: | 1860-04-14 |
| Subject: | Boweryem, George; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Cahill, Frank; Edwards, Sally (Nast); Gayler, Charles; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Hayes (engraver); O'Brien, Fitz James; Rondel; Songs; Vanity fair. |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-01-29 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twelve |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of boarding house living, his freelance writing and drawing work, antics of the New York literary Bohemians, visits to the Edwards family, the activities of London detective Arthur Ledger who is staying in his boarding house, Thomas Nast's courtship of Sally Edwards, two masked balls at his boarding house, a visit to Lotty Granville at Fordham, the state of Charles Damoreau's marriage, and a visit to the ''Phalanx'' in New Jersey with George Boweryem. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Detectives; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Fordham, New York; New Jersey |
| 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. |
