File:Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries- Volume 8, page 111, December 3, 1856.jpg

Transcription:

New York. Mark Lennon’s cockney farce the “School for Tigers” was played afterwards, and Lotty [Kidder] appeared in it.

She looked very pretty in a simple white dress, with bright ribbons at the shoulders, and a little scarlet apron. I think she was rouged, though not much so; her hair arranged, as of old, in thick clustering curls. She played well, too, though I don’t think she’ll achieve much celebrity on the stage.

What a dreadful reality is this girl’s life in contrast with the buffoonery of the piece in which she took part. Wilful and perverse daughter of an indescribably base and false mother [Rebecca Kidder] and a most contemptible father [William Kidder]; reckless wife, unnatural mother, adulteress and God knows what beside — oh, Lotty! Lotty! who could have guesed all this horror on that night when I first looked on your arch, innocently-wilful-childish beautiful face. Yet it all lay there then, in thy nature — undeveloped.

Damn that accursed mother of hers! Much — very much of the sin lies at her doors — if not all.

I shall yet write a book with Lotty for one of its heroines, and do justice to her both in good and evil. She has good in her. She might have been worthy of a good man’s love. —

I’ll flay that mother of hers! I’ll tell the