Show tt My Mv DEAR MRS FERN The coolness x of of you New Y Yorkers is astonishing You Your r are about to burn me at the stake and will I have the goodness to send on shavings and dry wood by the next mail mal l Thank you madam 1 I willI will I GAIL HAMILTON It r Gail Hamiltons re real l name is Mary Maryl l' l Abigail Dodge Her birthplace is in Hamilton Massachusetts She is unmarried unmarried unmarried un un- married and an authoress from choice Her father was a farmer that is sufficient as far as she is concerned I J l- l iV Gail was brought up as country gu girls I s r generally are simply healthfully purely t with plenty of fences to climb and with I plenty of romping companions Her pets were numerous numerous birds birds bees grasshoppers grasshoppers grasshoppers grass grass- hoppers and chickens She also had three cats of which very interesting stories are related One cat was named Molly after herself another poor little wr wretch which was abandoned by an Irish family was baptized Rory This cat one day crept into the oven and Mary l ignorant of the fact shut the thedoor thedoor thedoor door wishing to retain the heat Hearing Hearing Hearing Hear Hear- ing a stifled mew mew she opened it when out flew the cat and plunged into the nearest snow bank from which she emerged as good as new To little Gail Sunday meant baked beans and anda a big red Bible with the tower of Babel in t in it it full of little bills It meant too a lovely walk to church through a lane full of singing birds and sweet smelling flowers This is the brilliant tribute of her years to her New England Sabbath Sabbath Sabbath Sab Sab- bath O 0 Puritan Sabbaths doubtless you were sometimes stormy without and stormy within but looking back upon you from afar I see no clouds no snow but sunshine and blue sky and ever eager interest and delight wild roses blooming under the old stone wall wild bees humming among the blackberry blackberry blackberry black black- berry bushes tremulous sweet columbines columbines columbines colum colum- bines skirting the vocal woods wild geranium startling their shadowy depth 1 and hear now the rustle of dry leaves bravely stirred by childish feet just as they used to rustle in the October afternoons afternoons afternoons after after- of long ago Sweet Puritan Sabbaths Sabbaths Sabbaths Sab Sab- baths breathe upon a restless world your calm still breath and keep us from the evil Some say there is no fun in Gail Hamilton Read the following extract from hom her Gala Days ItI It I I dont don't know how it is but in all the novels that I have read the heroines always have delicate spotless exquisite gloves which are continually lying about in the garden paths and which lovers are constantly picking up and pressing to their hearts and lips and treasuring in little golden boxes or something something something some some- thing and saying how li like e that soft glove pure and sweet is the beloved belove owner and it is all very pretty but I Ican Ican Ican can not think how they manage it I Iam Iam Iam am sure I should be very sorry to have my lovers go about picking up my mye gloves I dont don't have them a e week week before they change c color lor the thumb gapes at atthe atthe atthe the base the little finger rips away from r the next one and they all burst out at atthe atthe atthe the ends a stitch drops in the back and slides down to the wrist before you know it is started You can mend to tobe tobe tobe be sure but for every darn you have bave twenty holes I admire a dainty glove as much as anyone I look with enthusiasm enthusiasm enthusiasm en en- not un unmingled mingled with despair at these gloves of ro romance ance but such things do not depend entirely upon taste as male writers seem to think A pair of gloves cost a dollar and a half halfor or two dollars and when you have them your lovers do not find them in the summer summer summer sum sum- mer house Why not Because they are lying snugly wrapped in oiled silk in inthe inthe inthe the upper upper drawer bureau-drawer only to be betaken betaken betaken taken out on great occasions You would as soon think of wearing Victoria's Victorias Victorias Victoria's Victorias Victoria's Vic Vic- toria's crown for a head-dress head as those t gloves on a picnic So it happens that 1 the gloves your l' l lovers vers find will will willbe be sure to be Lisle thread and dingy and battered battered battered bat bat- for how can you pluck flowers and pull vines and tear away mosses without getting them dingy and battered And the most fastidious lover in the world cannot expect you to buy a new pair every time For me I keep my gloves as long as the backs hold to together together together to- to gether and go around for forty-five forty weeks of the two fifty-two with my hands clutched into fists to cover omissions The following appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune last spring The New York Sun SUlz thinks Gail Hamilton is a clever woman but that the work of writing Mr Blaines Blaine's biography biography biography phy could be better done by some one else We doubt that very much There is not a clearer-brained clearer woman No Noman Noman Noman man or woman understands better etter than she that a biography to be worth anything anything anything any any- thing must be truthful and if she bends her energies to the work Vork of writing a biography of the late Mr Blaine Elaine it willbe will willbe willbe be about the most enchanting book of the year at the same time it will be besuch besuch besuch such a monument to Mr Blaine Elaine that he will need none of alabaster or bronze because that one of Gails Gail's will outlast either Gail Hamilton is one of the most fearless fearless fearless fear fear- less and able champions of her sex She is perfectly i independent dependent in thought and expression and boldly defends the cause of human rights In the words of Fanny Fern 1 She is the living breathing breathing breathing breath breath- ing brilliant refutation of the absurd notion that a woman with brains must necessarily be ue ignorant of or disdain the every d day y domestic virtues When she writes of housekeeping and kindred matters matters matters mat mat- she knows what she is talking about She possesses thrift executive- executive ness thoroughness thoroughness-in in short faculty 1 Well may there be sunshine inside her house well may the flowers in her garden bloom and the fruits ripen fully tended by such stich fingers |