The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-13
GAIL HAMILTON'S HOME.
Where, just Before Death, She Mis-
took Dreams for Reality.
New York Times.

took Dreams for Reality.
New York Times.
Gail Hamilton's home was a big, old
house, standing well up from the main
road, about half a mile below the village
of Hamilton, which lies just beyond Sa-
lem near the rocky eastern coast of Mas
sachusetts. This had been the home Of the
Dodge family for many years. Mary Abb
gail Dodge was one of several children.
While still a young woman, she began to
write, and chose for a pen name Gail
Hamilton" taking the last syllable of her
middle name, and the name of her native
town. She never afterward liked to be
called Abigail. She always wrote her
name Mary A. Dodge and preferred to be
addressed in that way. In her home she
was Ably To the townspeope and
her neighbors she was always Miss Abby
Dodge to distinguish her from Miss Au-
gusta, her sister, who also never married
and who remained at the old house to keep
the home.
The Dodge house is big and roomy. 1t
was built by the father of the famous
writer. Mr.. Dodge had a fondness for
brick fireplaces. He built many of them
into the house. and they have never been
disturbed. The house is filled with beauti-
full and interesting furniture, some of it
hefrlooms, the rest picked up here and
there by Miss Dodge in her long and busy
life. The hall is a large, square room
with odd, square-turned stairs. The walls
are hung with portraits of famous men and
women, who have been Miss Dodge's
friends. From the arch which springs
above the room, there hangs an old Syrian
bottle, on which has been inscribed: mo
win inf oil
1t was to this home that Miss Dodge was
brought, over year ago, after a stroke
of paralysis in the Blaine mansion in WASH
ington. Here she remained until her death
tenderly cared for by her sister and
trained nurse. During much of this time
she was dangerously ILL., Later she rallied
enough to walk and ride out. but at no
time was she able to write. Such literary
work as she did during the year was die
tated, a scrap at a time, 10 her sister, who
was the most patient of amanuenses. She
herself said once: Il suppose 1 ought to be
willing now to drift. like a wornout hulk
down the stream, but 1 afraid l cam
not For, weak and ill as she was, the
habits of lifetime and the instincts of a
born champion would not down. and words
would come to her which commanded utter
ance.
At another time she said: THE pen has
fallen from my hand. can only sit in the
sun and play with two little black and
white kittens. Well. L never before had
time to play with kittens, as much as I
wished, and when come out of doors and
see them come bounding in long light
leaps L am glad that they leap toward me,
and not away from me-"
The little book which Miss Dodge brought
out privately just before her death and
which made such a stir account of it's
treatment of certain phases of what she
called spirit life is dedicated to Miss
without whose efficient devotion even this
slight record could not have been made
Miss Dodge, with characteristic indie
DenQpnce. and following 10 Of
her nature, said of this book. which she
called * Rays: II have not offered it to
the publishers, because it is too slight q
handling of too great a theme to lay claim
to be literature, and / do not wish it
pushed by advertisement upon an unwit-
ting and necessarily indifferent public l
have published it myself because / have
found that there is much interest in the
topic, especially on the part of those who
mourn their dead. The great joy of nv
own experience desire to share as widely
as possible, and. because it is experiences
L am not without hope that it may attract
the attention of science and help to solve
the problem of life.
Il have manufactured the book as cheap.
ly as was consistent with the least ex-
pense to eyesght. but 1 have paid all its
cost and shall not be embarrassed if not
a copy is sold hope, therefore, that none
will buy it except from interest in the nat,
ural and cosmic. as well as in the per-
Sonal and religious, relations between this
world and the next"
The beginning of this work was a paper
which she called The Valley of the Shad-
sions when she lay apparently dead in the
Blaine mansion. 1t the first work to
which she turned her mind after her i'll
ness, and was dictated from her couch, a
sentence at time, often with days be-
tween them. It was written to be read on
Sunday by the pastor of her church in
Hamilton, in place of his regular sermon
and intended as a sort of message of
greeting to her old friends and neighbors
none of whom she had yet been strong
enough to see 1t was intended to be
strictly private to them. but it excited
so much interest and inquiry that It was
finally elaborated and made the basis of a
volume.
OF her reason for writing Miss Dodge
said: "A new page in the book of life was
opened to me- AT first the question arose
Why has God given US such eagerness
to know. yet withheld all knowledge? Then
has He so withheld knowledge? Has
He not rather in this, as in all other mat
tiers, given us hints and helps, but left it
to human will to use them?
OF her own experience. she says: at be-
fell me to be tented in the valley of shad.
ows. My experience there L am sure that
you, dear neighbors, will be glad to learn,
chiefly because it experience, little
also; perhaps because it was mine.
the darkness fell that ] have always
thought of ii as evening.
ITO myself 1t seemed, and it seems still
as IL my spirit were partially detached
from the body-not absolutely freed from
it, but floating about; receiving impressions
with great readiness, but not with entire
accuracy, as if the spirit were made to re-
ceive impressions through the bodily
ganS, and without them could not rely inn
plfcitly upon its observations.
Much of my experience is perhaps triv-
ial and possibly insignificant but it does
show that not only the mind. but the habit
of mind in life outlasts the shadow of
death. May we not, then, approximately
infer that 1t outiastS death. and gives to
life its supreme Importance?
IF any there be who through fear of
death, have been all their lives subject to
bondage, be of good cheer. For seven weeks
| lay encamGed on the further if not the
furthest. side of the valley of the shadow
of death. and it a pleasant valley
Miss Dodge's funeral was a fitting close
to her life. She had never felt death to be
a dread thing and for her she had wished
it to mean light and air and flowers. Her
coffin was covered with silver-gray cloth
and heaped with flowers. The services were
held out of doors beneath a clump of pine
trees where she had loved to sit when
living Under the softly murmuring
branches and with the sunbathed hills of
one OF the most beautiful landscapes in all
New England spread around. friends and
neighbors stood uD to pay tribute to her.
DIR. w. NJ. Barbour, of the Congregational
College of Canada, told of Miss Dodge's in
f1uence in the abolition movement when
she worked with Whittier. Phillips and
Peabody DR. Cyrus Hamhn said: James
G.. Blaine was the greatest statesman this
country has produced. and Gail Hamilton
his peer" Another told of her espous-
al of the cause of the Arrnenfans.
At this funeral the echo of politics and
the clash of arms mingled with prayer and
bVmn and other