62
Ted Conworth.
to her. Anon we drove to Martin s, to find John
Conworth, saw him and sat, of course in a dark-
ened room, talking with Martin and an old man,
his relative; an American; who in spite of his
eighty years was moved to temporary enthusiasm,
when I got excited at George s covert disparagement
of the great republic, and blazed out in its de-
fence. Returning to Conworth s, John invited us
to remain and I, demurring at a cold night-
ride to George s, accepted the invitation. George and
I slept together. Ted Conworth was present
during the evening, of whom George has fifty stories
to tell, illustrative of the boy s being the incarnation
of cunning and meanness. I record some of them, on the
Balzac principle before-mentioned. The lad (al-
ways according to George s account,) was a spy
and a suggestor of all sorts of mean things to his bro-
ther John, a rebel to and tormentor of his sister,
a bad son. When the poor, old man died, Mrs. Mar-
tin had the ordering of the funeral; when Ted attached
himself to her, following her from shop to shop, contriving
that it should be solemnized cheaply; ruling
a pine coffin, instead of a more costly one. I asked
if George supposed this done by John s direction. He
said no, declared that John was naturally a good and
liberal fellow, but from his coming hither, in his youth,
falling into narrow, colonial, money-grubbing, copper-
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen: page seventy-one |
| Description: | Describes his visit with George Bolton in Canada. |
| Date: | 1861-07-20 |
| Subject: | Bolton, George; Conworth, John; Conworth, Ted; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Hewett, Susan; Martin, Joseph; Martin, Joseph, Mrs. |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Paris, Ontario, Canada] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-06-09 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of the scene in New York at the commencement of the Civil War; his visits to military camps in and around New York City as a reporter for ""The New York Evening Post;"" boarding house living; a bridal reception at the Edwards family's residence in honor of the marriage of Sally Edwards and Thomas Nast; a visit to the Heylyn and Rogers families in Rochester; and his trip to Paris, Ontario, to visit George Bolton and the Conworths. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Military; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada ; Rochester, 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. |
