Regarding a discussion with Fitz James O'Brien, Henry Clapp, and Frank Cahill about rich men. Transcription: Some days back I lent Miss Lizzie Petit the novel of 'Guy Livingtone,' she wishing to read it. To-day I got it back, with penciled lines of attention or admiration of her doing. These occur especially where he girds at the virtue of women &c, and in one place, here a coquette's triumphs are spoken of, is a silly 'Ha! ha! ha!' Suggestive, I think of the writer's character! Literary ladies, and women who aspire to a sham Bohemianism ? which ought to be called simple impropriety ? are p
Regarding a discussion with Fitz James O'Brien, Henry Clapp, and Frank Cahill about rich men. Transcription: Some days back I lent Miss Lizzie Petit the novel of 'Guy Livingtone,' she wishing to read it. To-day I got it back, with penciled lines of attention or admiration of her doing. These occur especially where he girds at the virtue of women &c, and in one place, here a coquette's triumphs are spoken of, is a silly 'Ha! ha! ha!' Suggestive, I think of the writer's character! Literary ladies, and women who aspire to a sham Bohemianism ? which ought to be called simple impropriety ? are prone to this sort of thing. Mrs [Rebecca] Kidder used to do it, and I remember Lotty [Kidder] underscoring my copy of 'Esmond' where it condemned husbands. Unless a reader knows something above the average, or can offer pertinent information, it's sheer conceit, this sort of annotation. What do I care what the man who's preceded me in a book's perusal thinks of it? or what does he care for my opinion. I very respectfully, india-rubbered Miss Petit out of 'Gary Livingstone.' [Gunn's notation: I ?m not sure that they were her notes, after all. Feb 16 They were.] Writing for the rest of the day. 24. Sunday. To [James] Parton's. Found [Jesse] Haney there. He left in the afternoon, Parton accompanying him to New York, presently returning alone. I called at 'Doesticks' [Mortimer Thomson] at night. Found [Fitz James] O'Brien and [Henry] Clapp in Haney's room on my return, [Frank] Cahill with them. Got into a sort of discussion with the two former about money and rich men, they railing at 'em after a common fashion, and at the supposed deference paid to them: I holding that such railing did not good, might originate in envy and bosh ? that if you looked close enough you might find out a certain amount of right in everything, even in the popular respect for wealth ? money representing, tangibly, somebody's labor, intellect and ability. Let the rich have fair play in talk ? they do in
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