Alexander returned, after six months of Frederikstadt, to the East End of the Island.  A few months later, Mr. Cruger, whose health had failed, went to New York for an extended sojourn, leaving the entire responsibility of the business in young Hamilton’s hands.  Men of all ages were forced to obey and be guided by a boy in the last weeks of his fourteenth year, and there were many manifestations of jealous ill-will.  Some loved, others hated him, but few submitted gracefully to a leadership which lowered their self-esteem.  For the first time Alexander learned that even a mercantile life can be interesting.  He exercised all the resources of his inborn tact with those who had loved and those who did not hate him, and won them to a grateful acceptance of a mastership which was far more considerate and sympathetic than anything they had known.  As for his enemies, he let them see the implacable quality of his temper, mortified them by an incessant exposure of their failings, struck aside their clumsy attempts to humiliate him with the keen blade of a wit that sent them skulking.  Finally they submitted, but they cursed him, and willingly would have wrung his neck and flung him into the bay.  As for Hamilton, there was no compromise in him, even then, where his enemies were concerned.  He enjoyed their futile wrath, and would not have lifted his finger to flash it into liking.

Only once the tropical passions of his inheritance conquered his desire to dominate through the forces of his will alone.  One of the oldest employees, a man named Cutter, had shown jealousy of young Hamilton from the first, and a few days after Mr. Cruger’s departure began to manifest signs of open rebellion.  He did his work ill, or not at all, absented himself from the store for two days, and returned to his post without excuse, squaring his shoulders about the place and sneering his contempt of youthful cocks of the walk.  Alexander struggled to maintain a self-control which he felt to be strictly compatible with the dignity of his position, although his gorge rose so high that it threatened to choke him.  The climax came when he gave Cutter a peremptory order, and the man took out a cigar, lit it, and laughed in his face.  For the next few moments Alexander had a confused impression that he was in hell, struggling his way through the roar and confusion of his nether quarters.  When he was himself again he was in the arms of his chief assistant, and Mr. Cutter bled profusely on the floor.  He was informed later that he had “gone straight over the counter with a face like a hurricane” and assaulted his refractory hireling with such incredible rapidity of scientific fist that the man, who was twice his size, had succumbed from astonishment and an almost supernatural terror.  Alexander, who was ashamed of himself, apologized at once, but gave the man his choice of treating him with proper respect or leaving the store.  Cutter answered respectfully that he would remain; and he gave no further trouble.