The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1895-05-25
THE GIFTED GAIL HAMILTON
Her Active Life Is Rapidly Drawing to a

Washington, May 2l.-Miss Abigail
Dodge Gail Hamilton) is spending the
last hours of her life in a room of the
house which James G. Blaine built, in
tending to occupy it as secretary of
state. The bullet of Guiteau cut short
his service as premier. The view from
the window includes the beautiful Du-
pont circle, and a long vista of towering
shrubs and trees. 1t is the place which
Miss Hamilton would have selected in
which to end her life if she could have
had her choice. The dying hours of
Gail Hamilton-for that she can recove
the doctors insist is impossible-are
not unlike those of the late James G..
Blaine. Mr.. Blaine, from an upper win
dow, cooked out upon the white house.
which was always SO much in his mind,
the white shaft Iof the Washington
monument and the serpentine sheet of
the Potomac beyond. And about his
sick chamber and in the house always
were Mrs. Blaine and his children, anN-
ious, attentive, and faithful. So 1t is
low. Mrs. Blaine has scarcely left the
side of Miss Dodge, and about the house
constantly are her daughters, Mrs,
Beale and Mrs. Damrosch, and her only
surviving son, Jamie Mrs. Blaine
shows the anxiety which she feeis.
Miss Dodgeh has alwaysbeena as a emb
of the family, and her death will bring
another sore bereavement to a family
which has been so terribly pursued by
SORROWS.
Gail Hamilton's name was Mary ADJ
gail Dodge, but few knew her by that
designation, for everything she has:
ever written has appeared oVer her ia
miliar nom lie plume made up of part oil
her name united to that of the town
in Massachusetts where she was born
in 1880. Her first experience was as an
instructor in the Institute of Physical
Science in Hartford, beginning in 1851.
From there she went to Washington as
the instructor of the children of DIR.
Gamaliel Bailey. antislavery agitator,
and it was her connection with him that
first melted ner ambition for literary
achievement. He was the editor of the
National Era. She contributed a great
many articles TO the columns of that
a~ntislavery organ. During the war She
continued her work in this line. At the
close oil the war she went to Boston,
where she became the editor of Young
Folks, a children's magazine. In 1873
h returned to Washington, where She
i've almost constantly with the fam
lily of James G.. Blaine, Ito whom she vas
drawn, mot only by intellectual ties but
by the ties of relationship, through the
fact that Mrs. Blaine was her cousin.
plunged into political discussions
with the ardent interest of a trained
man of affairs. The articles she wrote
for the newspapers during the Greeley
campaign created a sensation.
T.. fn-- -. -. NJ
York Tribune a series of articles on
civil service reform which attracted ma
tional attention. Her literary criticisms
We're always on political subjects. She
was Of great assistance to Mr.. Blaine
in the preparation OF Twenty Years
of Congress-" and 1T was ever said that
she wrote a large part of 1t. This was
d~iSproVed.
Hen latest effort was in the cause of
Mrs. Maybrick, for whose release from
a British prison she labored with an en-
r and enthusiasm rarely seen. The
sentiment she worked up in England
and America for the release of the
woman convicted of poisoning her hus-
band was due almost entirely to her
persistency and the effectiveness of her
methods of agitation.
Few American writers have been so
prolific, although there is no work from
her hands of any great length or pur-
posely ambitious. Not a year has
passed since 1861 that has not seen a vol
ume of her collected writings on the
market.
Her published works consist almost
exclusively of reprints of contributions
to the newspapers and magazines.
Among the best known titles are
Twelve Miles From a Lemon "Skir-
mishes and Sketches "Gala DAYS.
and Sermons to the Clergy bur the
list is almost as long as her years.