166
Reminiscences of Welden
of this diary. We had pleasant book-talks
and ale or spirits of evenings, all in moderation;
either at my poor cockloft at 270 Broadway
(the number comes back to me as I write five
minutes ago I should have recalled it with
difficulty) or at his home. He got a posit on
the Times, at its commencement. The wretched
vice that was to
wreck a life that might have been use-
ful and honored, had some hold on him then,
but not an omnipresent one. He was com-
paratively in good esteem, commanded a much
better position than that into which he sunk
of late years. He wrote editorials, did
a singular, thoughtful, semi-metaphysical series
of papers entitled The City-Hall Bell-Ringer,
which I read eagerly and liked immensely. They
were talked about at the time. He wrote a
good poem, now and then, too. I have heard
him speak of his Tribune experience in part;
though he neither liked the paper nor its editors.
I suspect he had been discharged, possibly in
consequence of his habits. His introduction to the
Tribune was as narrated in the subjoined ex-
tract from the Times ; he sent the poems as trans-
lations from the Swedish or Norwegian. I used| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Sixteen: page one hundred and eighty-six |
| Description: | Gives his recollections of Charles Welden. |
| Date: | 1861-05-18 |
| Subject: | Books and reading; Gunn, Thomas Butler; New York times.; New York tribune.; Welden, Charles |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | 270 Broadway |
| Scan Date: | 2010-06-07 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Sixteen |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of the scene in New York at the commencement of the Civil War, boarding house living, visits to the Edwards family, Mort Thomson's engagement to Fanny Fern's daughter Grace Eldredge, Frank Cahill's return to New York from London, Frank Bellew's dissatisfaction with living in England, Thomas Nast's engagement to Sally Edwards, the scene in New York during the departure of the 7th New York Regiment for Washington, attending the wedding of Olive Waite and Hamilton Bragg, a visit with Frank Cahill to the camp of the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers and the 2nd Regiment of New York State Militia on Staten Island, the death of Charles Welden, and his reporting work. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Military; 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 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
