File:Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries- Volume 9, page 205, September 17, 1858.jpg

Transcription:

over the instrument, with her [Matty Edwards’] nice hair — that hair which looks ash-colored in the sun, and brown in the shade — so smooth and soft, her kind, household face and fresh color, her pleasant voice and unaffected manner, I felt very Colonel Newcome-ish towards her, and thought what a delightful figure it was, and how the rest of the picture harmonized with it. There was the mother [Sarah Edwards] opposite — there Mr [George] Edwards, with his bald head, white hair, and jolly English visage, spectacles on nose, writing a letter, and, subsequently, at my request the recipe for brewing his famous punch. John [Edwards]’s honest sensible face completed the group. The work table, the boxes (containing any amount of baby finery) the screens, and dimly seen front show room formed a background.

I had previously visited an American home — this was an English one. Matty & John went off to bed, and I drank a glass or two of ale with the papa and mama, then returned to [132] Bleecker St. The card players were still at practice in [William] Leslie’s room, in an asphyxiative atmosphere of tobacco smoke and respiration. Ending with the result of Kendall mult muleting the others of nearly $2 each, he invited the party to oysters. Out o’doors within half a minute’s walk we met [Frank] Cahill, extremely drunk. He declared his intention of joining us. Seeing his condition we were for getting him to bed, and after a little persuasion [Bob] Gun led him back, promising to follow us to the oyster saloon. This he did not do. Half an hour subsequent, when Leslie and I returned we found Cahill fast asleep on the door step. We took him