scouring, all the morning. Finding carman, half hour s
stoll by the water. Then after dinner, carman arriving, box lif-
ting, ferry crossing, farewell to longer abiding in Jersey.
Arrived at Duane 168. Coffin in the hall poor German boarder
whom the whips and scorns of poverty had tempted to burst ope the
gates which all would willingly slink by he had taken laudanum
yesterday. Life and Death jostle each other by the elbows. / A
quarter of an hour spent in porter s work, dragging horrid heavy
boxes up; then fixing room, stove &c. Room 12 feet by 6,
just able to open door for bed. Lavation, repiration, cogitation
till about 6; then decent into sitting and spitting room. Hot
stove, boarders besieging it and uttering newspaper topics. Bell rings
all troops to long room in the rear. Long tables, stools, stove again.
Supped. Back to sitting room talk with old gentleman about Emer-
son; then strolled to Christopher Street. Joe daily expected back
again. An hour s talk, then back to Duane. Little compli-
mentary badinage with the good tempered Irish girl who shewed me to
my room; then to bed in New York for the first time.
27. Sunday. Up, and down early. Breakfast ; then buying
Atlas of newsboy at door, sat and read awhile. Critique on
Emerson, and a fine one in Tribune. A walk down Duane and
up Bowery. Got Police Gazette and there read fine expos of Hawkins
hope, if true, that the fellow will get Blackwell incarceration for a
twelvemonth, and so an end who can touch pitch without being
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume One: page seventy-nine |
| Description: | Describes his first day at his new boardinghouse in Duane Park. |
| Date: | 1850-01-26 |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Emerson, Ralph Waldo; Greatbatch, Joe; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Hawkins; Imprisonment; Suicide |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, [New York]; Jersey [City, New Jersey] |
| Coverage (Street): | 168 Duane Street; Christopher Street |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-07 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume One |
| Description: | Details Gunn's first year living in the United States, including his experiences with boarding house living in Jersey City and New York City, looking for work as an artist and a writer, publishing his first book ""Mose Among the Britishers"" and brief visits to Philadelphia and Boston. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Books and reading; Drawing; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Publishers and publishing; Theater; Travel |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Jersey City, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts |
| 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-two 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. |
