The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-04-20
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GAIL HAMILTON.

Uau hamilton Is pseudonym takeT
from the abbreviation of her first name
Abigail, and the place of her birth, Ham
ilton, Mass; her real name being Abigail
+. Dodge. Like so many New England
women, she began practical life by teach.
I ing, and though she has not taught q
regular school for years, she still lecture:
through the public prints on any subject
that comes into her bright mind. About
the time the war broke out, she broke out
as writer, contributing to the Congrega-
tioRdtist, National Era, Independent and
other weeklies. There was freshness
crispness, force and individuality in hel
style that attracted early and favorable
notice and rendered her pen-name con.
spicuous. People inquired who is Gal
Hamilton and their curiosity was soon
satisfied by learning that she was very
spontaneous and extraordinary clever
young Yankee woman, so overfowing with
opinions on all topics that she must either
express them in ink or explode them in reti-
cence. Andexplosion from reticence is not
one of the perils to which she in exposed.
In little while she gravitated to the At
Ldntic, and her essays therein were much
and deservedly admired. She had a
novel and vigorous manner of treating her
subjects that commended her to readers.
Evidently orthodox in training, she had a
spirit of independence which refused to be
bound by ancient authority and worn
out traditions. Several collections of her
writings were made and they appeared in
volumes entitled "Gala Days" "Wool-
Gathering" Country Living and Coun-
try Thinking" "New Atmosphere" "Wo-
mans Worth and Worthlessness," etc., and
had large sale for books of that kind.
Her publishers were Fields, Osgood & Co.,
who issued her satirical volume devoted to
Rev. John Todd He had undertaken to
define woman's sphere and duties from the
standpoint of evangelical Puritanism, and
Gail rendered him and his position so un-
tenable and grotesqne that every liberal
mind enjoyed the clergyman's discom-
future.
Long regarded in New England with a
reverence almost superstitious, it was droll
to see how the witty woman assailed him.
She used him up completely, and so COW
cred him with ridicule that some persons
suggested the propriety of arresting Gail
on charge of cruelty to animals. The
Rev. John lost no little of his authority
from that time, and went to his grave with
his sacerdotal reputation sorely punctured
Gail had reason to Selieve, after many
years dealing with her publishers, that
they did not treat her fairly. She
frankly told them so, and had an open
quarrel with them, choosing the Harpers
in their stead, and issuing through them
her "Battle of the Books, in which she
made out an excellent case against the
Boston firm, and cast upon it a deep
shadow of suspicion, as well as stinging it
with her sarcasm into very uncOmforta-
BILE condition.
Since then she has not written much
for the magazines, and has made hardly
any books. She appears occasionally in
the Bdzdr and Hdrper's Monthly, and
contributes her satire and wit to the col
umns of the Tribune No one doubts her
pungency, and her intellectual temper is
not of sort that it is safe to defy. She
has excoriated many politicians, who as a
rule, stand in wholesome awe of her. In
Washington, where she resides during the
sessions of Congress, she may be consider
ed a political power.
Few men in public life like to offend
her, for they know her to be formidable
antagonist. She is a cousin of Mrs.
James G. Blaine, and great favorite with
the Senator, whose house she makes her
home, drawing thither many bright minds,
of which she is the sparkling centre. To
man as ambitious, politically and other
wise, as Blaine is, Gail Hamiltons pres
ence and influence are of no small value.
Her political prejudices are doubtless on
the side of the Senator, as her Tribune
letters on civil service reform would indi-
cate. Nevertheless, she has her own
opinions, and does her own thinking.
When somebody told Blaine that he was
suspected of inspiring, if not of writing
her political diatribes, he replied ;-"Yo ou
remind me of the woman who went before
justice of the peace to sign legal paper
The justice asked her if she signed with
out any undue influence or coercion on che
part Of her husband. Placing her arms
akimbo, she said, bridingly II see, sir,
your not acquainted with this family"
Gail Hamilton is small and slight,
brown haired, gray-eyed, and though not
at all handsome, has a mobile, expressive
face and such a fund of bright, fluent
speech that she is generally regarded as
very interesting and piquant. She has
talent for epigram and repartee, and one
is constantly hearing of her smart, pointed
speeches at the National Capital. Despite
her sharp tongue she has a host Of friends,
and even her enemies (and she has made
many cannot help admiring her intellect
and caustic wit A California Congress
man said recently that he loved to hear
her talk, but he always felt in her society
as If he were playing with a torpedo which
might explode at any moment with terrible
effect. If one may guess at her age, she
must be in the neighborhood of forty-four
or five, but she looks considerably younger,
owing doubtless to her slight figure and
ipcessant vivacity.
She has none of the outward or inward
signs of the typical old maid. though she
is always pleased to speak of herself as
such. She is very fond of jesting about
her celibacy and herself anticipates all
the jokes that may be made at her expense.
In word, she is armed at all points; there
is no weak place in her armor through
which the most vigilant foe could strike
One reason assigned for her maiaenhood
is that no man in America has courage
enough to marry her She would porcu-
pine her husband with satirical arrows
before the first week of the honeymoon
was over. Marriage is the furthest thing
from her thoughts She is in no sense
oonnubial. Her mind is masculine, and
her heart of the neutre gender. While
she has no amorous sentiment, she is
kind, sympathetic, benevolent, as ready to
assist anybody who is down as she is to
mock and puncture anybody who is up.
Full of good qualities, she is an eccentric
creature and seldom understood, but un-
questionably one of the most brilliant
women on the continent of North America
Washington correspondence of the San
Francisco Chronicle.
{ If the limner has drawn the above sketch
with anything like fidelity to the original, he
has failed to specify some Of the more promi-