In 1838, newspaper editor and blackface performer George Washington Dixon wrote in his "Polyanthos" that Hamblin was having an affair with a teen-aged starlet at the Bowery named Miss Louisa Missouri Miller. The girl was found dead within ten days of publication from "inflammation of the brain caused by the violent misconduct of Miss Missouri's mother and the publication of an abusive article in "The Polyanthos."" The allegation was not out of character, and many people believed it. Hamblin reacted in his usual fashion: