175
His Conjugal Inferno.
that, and the day after that. It lasted a month,
two, three, it was continued five or six years.
You could stand a little of it, but when it became
the rule, it was horrible. What could be done?
Tradespeople would always send things as long
as he (the hypocritical sufferer) lived in a hand-
some house you couldn t go to every one of them.
with caution against giving your wife credit for I
had suggested this. Hire rooms, I said, go
to a hotel or boarding-house; provide all things
handsome and necessary, give a weekly allowance
and insist on having things on a ready money basis;
if she would get into debt allow no false shame
or pseudo-generosity to induce you to become a
partner to or tolerate it. But if she locked
the street-door to keep you at home? hid your
shoes and hat? tried to cut you off from your
friends, everybody? if, when, stung to exaspe-
ration, you went off for a day or so, she sent
messengers all over the town after you? you
couldn t break out of your own house like a bur-
glar or make your exit by the window. Still
I counselled the having and rendering of justice.
I could not, of course, tell him that such a match
brought forth fruit according to its origin, but
I said it should never have been contracted. How
could you tell? he asked. You knew you
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eighteen: page one hundred and ninety-two |
| Description: | Regarding Frank Bellew's marriage. |
| Date: | 1862-01-26 |
| Subject: | Bellew, Frank; Bellew, Frank, Mrs.; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-06-14 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eighteen |
| 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 life, the shooting of Sergeant Davenport by Captain Fitz James O'Brien for insubordination, and Frank Bellew's marital troubles. |
| 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. |
