35
The Rawlings household.
alone by some country fellows who advised me to
seek convoy at a small house on the other side of
the road. Here I found an old dame, wife to Raw-
lings gardener, who piloted me to my destination,
along a winding path amid the trees, two large
dogs snuffing suspiciously in my immediate vicinity.
At the house, a spacious, wooden-built, country one,
Rawlings appeared in answer to my application
at the door and demonstratively bade me welcome.
He immediately ushered me into the sitting-room
and there introduced me to the company assembled.
These were his father and mother, his wife, his
brother (a lad of twelve or fourteen) and Quigg. Af-
ter lavation in an adjacent room, I sat down to a
meal extemporized for me and was presently inducted into an
arm-chair beside the fire, in which logs were burn-
ing on the old-fashioned iron dogs, and then had
leisure to observe my company. And here they are.
Rawlings senior appeared the worthy father of
his son, being an elderly Englishman, about the
age of sixty, with side whiskers, a bald head and
smooth-shaven chin. In features when younger he must have re-
sembled his son. But in lieu of
the loud, brassy, irrepressibleness of Gus (as all
the family called him) the old man s manner
was eminently British, being quiet, inordinately
self-satisfied and respectable. His wife, perhaps
ten years his junior, had a vulgar face, indica-| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One: page forty |
| Description: | Describes the Rawlings family. |
| Date: | 1862-10-25 |
| Subject: | Dogs; Elmendorf, Unadilla (Rawlings); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Quigg, John; Rawlings; Rawlings, Augustus; Rawlings, Fred; Rawlings, Mrs.; Travel |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Tivoli, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-10-18 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of his experiences as a war correspondent for ""The New York Tribune"" at New Orleans, Louisiana, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; boarding house living; a visit to the Rawlings family; a fight with Mr. Blankman at his boarding house; his journey on the North Star with the Banks expedition; the re-occupation of Baton Rouge by Union forces; a visit to a sugar plantation in Louisiana; and Fanny Fern's daughter Grace Thomson's death. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Military; Publishers and publishing; Transportation; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; New Orleans, Louisiana; Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| 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. |
