The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1895-06-02
IN HER YOUNG DAYS.
GAIL HAMILTON IN THE'DAYS WHEN
SHE WAS A TEACHER.

enc thoroughly Underntood Girls-In Ev.
cry Way Womanly woman-A splen.
did Teachsr-Her Advice to Girls Nhc;,
About to Graduate.
Hamilton, Mass. has been noted foi
many years and is still for it's Methodist
camp meeting every August ut Asbury
grove. 1t has also been famous for hay
ing produced Abby Dodge, known to
the American public as Gail Humil
ton, from the end of her Christian
name, Abigail, and her birthplace And
for many years Miss Dodge lived Mt Ham
ilton, and it WIS there sho wrote all he,
books.
No ono who had tho good fortune to
be assigned to her classes in those days
and the privilege of continuing gen.
erous hour darby for course of years
through grammar, rhetoric, English lit.
erature, logic. etc, could fail to apprc.
ciate the Unreasonable advantage or
cease to hold the teacher, lavish with
her intellectual treasures, in affection.
ate remembrance. That the regard was
mutual may we'll be believed if ono
reads between the lines in her Gala
Days" and can interpret her illusions
to the girls of that period, where she
Invokes them by name, land the rest
of you. dearly beloved and longod for"
-"Knowing you and from yea, oil, do
not know what girls can be?"
The course i'll English literature her
speciality. was very comprehensive and
declared on the authority Of Yale vale
dictorian to DO better than that of Yale
at that time. This was before everybody
was highly educated-before the day of
the college annex and tho woman's col
lego, and just before everybody was too
busy making history, marches or have
locks to think Of anything else.
Miss Dodge then was not above aver
age height. possibly under, not special
ly slender or petite, and certainly not
the opposite; hair not abundant, light
brown; eyes grayish blue; complexion
fair, where color came and went quick
ly. Her mouth was, generous and the
teeth oonspicuously fall. even and rcgu-
lar. She was modest, unaffected and
unassuming, essentially feminine in
way, manner and voice. Her habit of
mind being scholarly, she always seemed
stud1ous when not engaged in conversa-
ton. Any one surprising that she at al
suggested the self asserting. scroeching
amazon, with platform stride and voice,
or an untamed shrew clasping mus
tard pot would be vastly mistaken.
Earnest and intense, she was doubtless
frequently subject to misinterpretation,
as are all who relieve the tension by
dropping into badinage.
She did not put herself forward or
advertise herself in any way. She was
called forward because she could not be
hid, and in response she wont forward
and made herself speedily the mistress
of the situation. In ordinary converse
ton she was piquant and forcoful, and
she taught with some Of Miss Dodge's
vim, !" as they called the ineffable some
thing which distinguished her mode of
teaching. She herself might have called
it soul" as she one day reused n
pupil, listless for the nonce, with,
Cant you give us little Of that soul
Of yours. Miss Blank?'
She believed that "fun and frolio do
not lower the life they UNNECESSARILY
Tighten. Sho was revere t, deeply so,
where reverence was due, but she could
aim little arrows of wit betimes SO as
to pierce the dignity of dizziness and
leave it to collapse Mt leisure. She
dressed plainly, chiefly in blues, grays
and browns, without taste probably, for
dress was an incident with her.
1t was whispered that abe had the
largest salary ever paid to woman for
teaching, and that she had already lift
ed mortgage for her father. 1t may
have boon mere schoolroom romancing,
but it was believed by many who wor-
SHIPPED afar of, rs also the floating idea
that ahe had refused innumerable offers
of marriage from teachers, doctors, law
yers and priests.
One had to study the whole lesson
and gather information from all high
ways. byways and approaches not to be
caught empty handed in recitation Ono
was sure to have boen we'll drilled in
the uses of shall and will. and happy
the student, especially if natural low
er of literature, who WINS trained by her
to love and be loyal to the English
mother tongue.
Reading her earlier books, one almost
lives over again some of the red letter
days Of the classroom. 1t may havo been
In the moral science Monday class when,
something suggesting, she turned alb
ruptly with. III you are any Of you go
ing to be robbers-mind, I am not urg-
inc yOu tp rohhcrv INT 10 x-or, cbO,,Id