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(NEW YORK--BROOKLYN.) Diary of a Brooklyn youth as a college student, amateur ballplayer, and newspaper reporter. [126] manuscript pages. Folio, contemporary 1/4 calf, moderate wear, rebacked; lacking free endpapers, minor wear and dampstaining. Vp, 1 January 1873 to 13 June 1878
This diary begins with our narrator a junior at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He wrote long regular entries, but with a couple of long breaks in the action, skipping his graduation between May and August 1874, for example, and there are no entries for 1875. To compensate, the author transcribed his 1867 juvenile diary after the 1874 entries. After graduation, he returned to live with his parents in Brooklyn, and apparently did not work for more than two years. His life was filled with social visits, occasional drinking, and especially baseball. He was apparently a member of the Nameless Base Ball Club in 1874, which ended badly: "Went to Prospect Park to play ball. When I arrived I was given a note which told me I was suspended because I had not played up to a fictitious mark" (29 August 1874). He later played in 1876 with the Union Base Ball Club: "To Paterson with the village ball club. I played 2 innings. I had one bat and made a home run. Our club was beaten 11 to 10. . . . After the game came lager beer. I ran away to bed about 11" (1 August 1876). "Played ball in New Utrecht. I played first base. Our opponents were the Resolutes of South Bklyn. We won 16 to 7. Enjoyed myself as I always do playing ball" (16 August 1876). He makes frequent mention of his father: "Papa here in the evening. He has not received the nomination for Congress. It is a shame the way he is treated" (22 October 1876). Papa apparently grew tired of the college graduate living rent-free and playing ball every day: "For the one hundredth or one thousandth, thought of getting work, and tried to carve out a path for myself. I wrote seeking position as office clerk in answer to advertisement in NY Herald. Papa dreadfully down and low spirited. No wonder. I feel meanly but what am I to do? He won't try to get me a place worth anything and I do not know where to look" (10 November 1876). Our author soon found work as a reporter with the New York Herald, his first story running on 17 December 1876. His entries after that point are filled with interviews with artists, horse car superintendents, criminals, and judges, with nights often spent in taverns with other reporters. The life wore on him: "My dismal birthday. 22. Getting old. Gray hairs &c." (26 October 1877), but he remained with the Herald through the conclusion of the diary. The diary is unsigned, but the author was a Catholic, born on 26 October 1855, and was the son of a minor local office-holder. This fits the narrative of William C. Breen (b. 1855), son of Irish-born Brooklyn assessor Martin Breen (1828-1915). Unfortunately, few reporters received bylines for their work in those days.
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