The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-22
Gertrude Atherton and Her
 New Book The Conqueror"
By Paul Dry

and enemies alike. Even Jefferson, that
 idol of the present as of the past
 Democracy, had timidly declared against
 separation in 1774. while Hamilton, boy of seventeen, had been first to suggest the resort to arms, and incessant In
 his endeavors until the great result was accomplished. Not only his formidable
 energy, but his unqualified honor and
 integrity, his unquenchable optimism, his extraordinary nimbleness of mind
 and readiness of resource, his gay good
 nature, high spirits and buoyancy his light philosophy effervescing above un-
 sounded depths, his remorseless indus try, his hard common sense his care less generosity, his aptitude for detail and mpatience of 1t, his reckless bravery
 in war and intrepidity in peace. even his highly strung nerves and excitability
 raise high above history as the genius of the American race.
 The reverse side of the national char acter she portrays in his greatest rival; although the description will read strangely to those familiar with Jener- sons personality and his accomplish ments Of him she says, Jefferson was
 in far less enviable position than Ham,
 iton. He neither wished for war. nor dared he machinatc for 1t; but with all his Democratic soul he loved the cause which was convulsing the world from It's ferocious center in France. Had Jef- ferson come of stout yeoman stock, like
 John Adams. or a long line of patrician ancestors like Hamilton, and to lesser degree like Washington, he might. Judg- ing from certain of his tastes and his love of power have become or been as aristocratic in habit or spirit as were
 most men of his wealth, position and i importance in the young country. The plebeianism of his father showed itself in the ungainly she'll in the indifference to personal cleanliness and In the moral spirit which drove him to acts of phy- sical cowardice for which his apologists i blush. But his mother had belonged to ] the aristocracy of Virginia, and the : knowledge induced a sullen resentment l that he should be so unlike her kind, so different in appearance from the courtly
 men of his State
 Yet, with 1t all, I would say to every
 one who Is level headed enough to dis criminate and hold steadily to personal
 convictions by all means read and read carefully "The ConQueror." It Is be- yond question a most extraordinary piece of work.
 While these comments have been made
 upon the character portrayals of the book and its violent partisanship and
 lack of judicial boise, at the same time
 Mrs. Atherton has followed the incidents
 of actual history in her story with a f. delity to details. and a precision that is
 most marvellous. And In consequence 1t Is incomparably more ilumining than any mass of details collected by the plodding historian So conscientious
 was she in the performance of her task that she begins the story of the life of
 Hamilton with his grandparents on the
 little West Indian island of Nevis And l in the recital of events connected with the life-story of his grandparents and his parents, which only consumes some fifty pages, is evinced in a pronounced | degree the great fascination and vigor of | the work. She follows the career of the l young Hamilton from his home in the
 West Indian island after the death of
 his mother to New York, where he Is
 soon in the very midst of the stirring
 events of revolutionary times. Aside | from the vivid character sketches of the
 story and the flashing epigrams of It's | pages, the one dominant characteristic Is
 the authors extraordinary grasp of her
 subject Not a page. but bears this fact
 to the reader with such power and in-
 sistence as to continually demand ex-
 pressions of wonder. All the famous | characters of revolutionary times pass
 and repass upon It's pages. Washington,
 Gouverneur Morris, Madison, Jay, Mar | shall, Laurens, Burr. all play to the life | tnelr parts. Tier treatment or Aaron | Burr is nothing short of frank detesta- | ton, and she does not hesitate to say, | "He was the author of municipal cor
 ruption In New York, the noble grand
 sire of Tammany Hall" Her theory | which attributes the fatal deed of Aaron | Burr to French gold in the hands of
 Mrs. Jumel, formerly Mrs Croix, Is 1 unique and has raised a spirited discus-
 sion upon the subject which proves rath- l or ha | wife of the wealthy Frenchman Jumel
 was for several years prior to the duel
 the petted favorite of Napoleon in Paris | Mrs. Atherton possesses one very pe-
 culiar and unusual article of faith, and | in "The Conqueror" she has enjoyed to
 the fullest it's exploitation.
 | She says ito expect a man of Hamil-
 tons order of genius to keep faith with
 one woman for a lifetime would be as
 reasonable as to look for such genius
 without the transcendent passions which
 are its furnace" Notwithstanding her
 monstrous theory, however she tempor-
 izes much in the life of Hamilton and
 mnimizes the intrigues with which ru-
 nor credits him. Over the Mrs. Croix
 affair she throws a halo of intellectually
 and friendship which places the entan-
 element in a very different aspect and
 makes really pitiable excuses in the mo-
 torious and dsgraceful Reynolds affair
 and constantly insists that he loved his l wife devotedly and above all other wo-