ghost_of_pushwood wrote:
wet wet wet wet wet
hey you cant be criticizing me about imitating a zit if your typing this!
A really arcane yet likely mistake by Lawson on Morphy
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i guess so
mariners234
The downside to living in the southwest is this: the summers are brutal. I once came in off the street (in Tucson) and got goosebumps immediately. When I checked to see how low the indoor temperature was, it read 85 F. It was so hot outside that 85 brought on goosebumps. The scary part of the southwest is the lack of humidity means you clothes never get damp from sweat. You can be sweating worse than you ever have and not know it because your clothes are always dry. You have to drink before you're thirsty or you have a good shot at heat exhaustion/heat stroke. The lack of humidity also dried out my nose tissues and I had constant nose bleeds for about three weeks, until I adjusted. The climate there is both impressive and oppressive, and you ignore it at your own risk. Other than that, it's ok.
Jun 12, 2019
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#25
Are you sure 85 F indoors felt cool?
85 outdoors can be nice, but indoors is oppressively awful, IMO. And sweating without getting your clothes wet would be really weird.
Thanks for sharing 
85 didn't feel cool, it felt cold! Street temp was probably 130; air temp was around 110 that day (it was in early June). That's what I mean by impressive and oppressive. The desert has it's own tricks to learn.
You're welcome.
Was there ever a Virginia?
Back in the day, I had found references to a Virginia Butt in Princess Anne County. Unfortunately it is no longer "first page" in a gOOgle search returning 54 million results. However, knowing the source of the material one can still access it at
http://cdm16450.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15419coll3/id/4
, but alas finding this new source document contains age information when married. It strongly suggests that Paul had a preference for very young girls or this isn't the Virginia Lawson mentions. You may remember that years ago I had looked at archives of the Newport Daily News where there was a listing of arrivals in Newport for the week Aug 30,1860 and that among those listed were "Mrs. Butt, Norfolk" followed by "Miss Butt, do" registering at Ocean House. Although it is the next year, the "Newport Summer Colony" is fairly consistent year after year. While Miss Butt could be Virginia it is possible it could also have been Martha Haines, both being daughters to a Mrs Butt. I mention this as not being able to find something does not mean it isn't, only that it is not provable. Without knowing the source of Lawson's information it is an assumption that he mistook the State as the name of the daughter but it is a distinct possibility.
This newly discovered article in the "Daily Progress" appears to confirm that Lawson's reference to Virgina being the daughter's name is very likely in error and very likely as you suggested. Also note worthy is that Paul was known to prefer to spend time with ladies of some social standing where it seems that Martha fits the mold and nothing notable is known of Virginia.
The suspicious and cynical side of me foolishly suspects that possibly Lawson may have disagreed with Martha's writing portraying slavery as compassionate treatment by a benevolent society and intentionally denying her any notoriety from her association with Paul similar to his treatment of Fine and the addition of "another" to a quote regarding Morphy's loss to Paulsen.
There are some things about Lawson's book not easily explained.
Jun 13, 2019
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#29
I figured this would be or particular interest to you. The New Bern paper confirms the identity of the lady at the Ocean House during Morphy's visit as Miss Martha Haines Butt. Given her public prominence, there seems to be little to suggest any error on the correspondent's part. It's not likely, in fact extremely improbable, that there was a Mrs. Butt with a daughter Virginia there at the same time. Perhaps the Mrs. Butt was Martha's mother, Mary Ann Morriss Butt?
(Mary Ann=Mrs. ; Martha=Miss)
Everything seems to suggest to me an error on Lawson's part (or on the part of his source, whatever that might have been).
Jun 13, 2019
0
#30
As an aside, while at Ocean House, Morphy attended the Reunion of the Sons and Daughters of Newport, R. I., on August 23, 1859:
"The procession, which was a mile in length, proceeded up Broad Street, to Marlborough Street, down Marlborough to Thames, through Thames to Cannon, up Cannon to Spring, through Spring to Broad, up Broad to Mann Avenue, up Mann Avenue to Kay Street, and through Kay Street and South Touro Street to the lot north of the Ocean House, at which point the escort filed to the right, and the guests of the day, preceded by His Honor the Mayor and the City Council, entered the tent and took their respective places at the tables. The seats to be occupied by different delegations were designated by tickets conspicuously placed at the end of each table, by which means all confusion was prevented. In the smaller tent, the ladies who were entitled to seats were congregated, and when the procession entered, they came forward and joined their husbands, friends and brothers at table."
"In the centre of the tent there was a large platform sustaining three tables; at the centre table, His Honor, Mayor Cranston presided, with R. J. Taylor, Esq., President of the Common Council, at the head of the table on his right, Ex-Mayor Cozzens at the head of the table on the left. At these tables many of the speakers of the day and of the invited guests were seated; amongst the latter, were numbered His Excellency, Governor Turner and Staff, Col. Magruder and Staff; the Rev. Clergy of the City; Rev. Dr. Balch, of Baltimore; Rev. Dr. Vinton, of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rev. James McKenzie, Judge Chambers, 'Hon. August. Belmont, Mr. LeRoy, M. Gourand, French Consul; Dr. Parsons and Lieut. Brownell, survivors of the battle of Lake Erie; Paul Morphy, Esq., Gov. Fisk, J. A. and James Brown, Esqrs., Prof. Mitchell, Hiram Fuller, Esq., the Mayor of Baltimore."
nice