25
About Cahill s Flight.
abuses. His connection with the Mercury, says
Haney, terminated in some such act. He rob-
bed Bob Gun, too, in like manner, as I think
I have recorded. Never was a fellow who had
more help shown him, whom it was more im-
possible to help permanently. And this last
wretched business is as foolish as wicked. He
got $8 weekly from Nick-nax, he would certainly
have soon attained a reporter s berth on the
Tribune. All gone for a miserable $400,
a sum he ll squander in a few weeks! How I
can fancy his hurrying aboard the ship, in
the sunny, busy morning, his curious, excited con-
viction that he had taken that great leap which
left all his past life behind and put his future
in shadow that he had cut himself utterly
adrift from friends and associates that he
yet had money in his pocket and was going
to England, which he used to speculate about
in a half-longing, half-hopeless way. How,
when fairly out at sea, he would be over-friendly
with the passengers, would invite them to drink
and how drunk he d be for the first day or
two and then how miserable. For he was
sensitive and won t be able to brave out the in-
famy of it. (I m a little inclined, by the by,
to attach some meaning to his I m going to do
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Thirteen: page thirty |
| Description: | Regarding Frank Cahill leaving for England with Mrs. Levison's money. |
| Date: | 1860-06-14 |
| Subject: | Cahill, Frank; Gun, Robert; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-01-29 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Thirteen |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of boarding house living, his freelance writing and drawing work, antics of New York literary Bohemians, Frank Cahill fleeing for England after spending money that was meant for ''The New York Picayune,'' visits to the Edwards family, the state of Charles Damoreau's marriage, a sailing excursion to Nyack with the Edwards family and other friends on the Fourth of July, a fight between Fitz James O'Brien and House at Pfaff's, witnessing a fire at Washington Market, the execution of pirate Albert Hicks on Bedloe's Island, an excursion aboard the ship Great Eastern, a vacation at Grafton with the Edwards family, his growing friendship with Sally Edwards, Lotty Granville's behavior with Brentnall and Hill at his boarding house, Frank Bellew's return to England, and visits to dance houses in the Fourth Ward with friends for an article. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Publishers and publishing; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Grafton, 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. |
