163
An Irishman and ashamed of it.
he was born in India. I believe it on the
following evidence: There came a man to the
Pic office, as I have somewhere chronicled, who
had known Bellew in some country town in England,
when he was in an architect s office, and he, who
had much to say of their spreeing, stoutly insist-
ed on Bellew s Celtic nativity, in opposition to my mild-
ly-put assertion of Anglicism. Then Bob Gun,
walking home one evening with Bellew s brother
Patrick, chanced to let fall some remark deroga-
tory to the Irish, which the other resented, declared
himself of them and said his brother Frank was
so, too, though he was ashamed of it! Gun
held his tongue about it. I suppose Bellew s
disgust at the behaviour of and the odium in
which the Irish are held in America prompted
this repudiation of his nationality. Only Irish-
men, indeed, are guilty of it and it s a tremen-
dously suggestive instance of how low a people may
become, that the best among them look upon
their countrymen with disgust and abhorrence.
Bellew detested the Irishy as Macaulay calls
em, and drew their physiognomy and characterist-
ics in the savagest manner always; he would call your
attention to the invariable prepondance of Irish
names in the criminal records and did no end
of caricatures of their ruffianism, treachery
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Thirteen: page one hundred and seventy-six |
| Description: | Describes Frank Bellew. |
| Date: | 1860-08-21 |
| Subject: | Bellew, Frank; Bellew, Patrick Beckett; Gun, Robert; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Irish |
| 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. |
