, 1884-02-08

HAMILTON7S HOME.
or West India Observation-Disclosures
Childhood, Early Work and
Ambition.

t"Gath'sS Letter in The Enquirer.l
Bald /: How many Of those smaller Islands
Of the Lesser Antilles are therel"
"There are a very great many of them, and
they are divided up amongst the Swedes,
Danes, Dutch, French and British. Some
very distinguished men came out of those
Islands, like Alexander Hamilton, Judah P.
Benjamin and the father Of Vice President
Dallas
what island did Hamilton como FRONT"
II came from a little island named Nevis,
which is a volcanic island, made OF a single
eonical mountain which rises to tho height of
$500 feet, and has fertile land around its
borders, an area Of only twenty-one square
miles, and a population OF perhaps 10000. 1t
exports about S250,oo0 a year OF sugar, rum
aud molasses.s
-How did Hamilton originate thoroi-
II was born there in 1857 in tue month OF
january. His mother was the daughter of a
West India doctor named Fauoette. She
was OF French Protestant origin, aud had
drst been married to a Dane named Levine,
who is said 10 have been a jew. Levine was
rich, and she hated him and got a divorce
from him and married a young Scotch.
man, who wns a trader in the
island of St Christopher. This Scotch
man, Hamilton, made a badfailute
In business and never got on his feet
again, and lived obscure. That is not to DO
wondered at considering tho small opportuni-
ties in those Islands for a career. Alexander
Hamilton left in the island OF Nevis might
have been Of no consequences. / saw people
there who impressed me as strong and brill
iant, but they had merely colonial opportuni-
tics, and In that hot climate the energies OF
men soon decay.
Hamilton's mother died unhappy, when he
was a child, but she had soma respectable
kin in the island of Santa Cruz, who took
charge of the orphan boy, who was the only
child to survive her. Hamilton was, there.
fore, brought up in st. Croix, aud his EARL.
est letters are dated from that island. He
wrote one to a friend named Edward
Stevens in 1769, which says: Med,
my ambition is prevalent, 30 that /
oontemn the groveling condition Of
a clerk or tue like, To which my fortune con-
dennis me, and woull willingly risk my life
though not my character, to exalt my sta
ton. l wish there was a war" Hamilton
was n good French rs well as English scholar.
His first friend was a Presbyterian preacher
at st CroiK. Though no despised a clerkship,
In that position he developed the abilities
which made him a great fnancier. He was a
newspaper writer, aud a description OF a hurri-
cane in the island of st. Christopher, which
was published in one OF the West India news.
papers, was talked about so much that his
friends concluded TO send him TO New York
to be educated. Ho went to school at Eliza
beth, N. j., and then at Kings college, IN
this city, and thought he would be a physi-
clan. He had only been in the country about
n year or two when he addressed a public
meeting aud wrote articles for the New York
n~ewspaper against tho British government
His precocity may be ascribed to his French
and Scotch nature, and to an ambition
which never ceased. The French element
ave him his brilliancy, and the Scotch his
eractness and Judgment