September 4. Aquaria at a premium. Ever since I read Gosse’s book* three summers ago, I’ve been predicting that they would become fashionable and trying to find a workman who would undertake to construct them. The obstacle has been the want of proper cement. Now they are announced on sale at several places and are destined to be the fashionable plaything of next season. I got a small tank yesterday and have stocked it with George Anthon’s surplus that had been lying in jars since his return from Newport (soaking in putrescent sea water) and with a few fish from his aquarium. Results tonight are better than could have been hoped.
* Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888), English naturalist, had published a book called The Aquarium (1854)
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
September 14. News in town not much, except the money panic, which is farther than ever from relief. Wall Street stocks panting and trembling under a pressure that reminds one of the financial tragedies of 1837. Prophets of evil say that if it last a week longer everything must go down in wreck, that this is but the beginning of trouble, and that a general smash is certainly close at hand. Things look very blue, undoubtedly. There have been several most startling apprehensions of old houses in the best credit; for example, G.H. Swords, and Allen of Providence, whose wealthy manufacturing concerns are brought down by the failure of one of the Swans (!) and will make a very bad show of assets, it is said.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas