Kansas Women in Literature | Page 7

Aldrich, John J. Ingalls and others for its beauty of
expression and dramatic qualities. ``Invocation,'' an April idyl; ``The
Sea-shell;'' and ``Mountain Born'' sing of the love of nature. ``In the
Conservatory;'' ``My Summer Heart;'' and ``Tired of the Storm'' hint of
sorrow and unrest and longing. Then in 1886, ``Compensation'' was
written. ``Irma's Love For The King'' is a favorite; also, `` `Sold'--A
Picture,'' written for her daughter, ``yes, but she never came.
``The Sorrowful Stone'' Mrs. Stockton considers her best.
``The story without a suspicion of rhyme, And dim with the mists of
the morning of Time, Is told of a goddess, who, wandering alone, Did
go and sit down on the Sorrowful Stone.
We find our Gethsemane somewhere, though late; The Angel of
Shadows throws open the gate. We creep with our burden of pain, to
atone, For all of life's ills, to the Sorrowful Stone.

Above is the vault of the pitiless stars; The trees stretch their arms all
blackened with scars; The gales of lost Paradise are faintly blown To
where we sit down on the Sorrowful Stone.''
``From a Poem `Vagaries' '' warns of * * * --the product of the age and
clime, We do too much! grow old before our time,
Yet--would we stray to Morning Hills again? Unlearn sad prophecies,
and dream as then!
Ah, no! with sense of peace the shadows creep, There droppeth on tired
eyes the spell of sleep--
We left the dawn long leagues behind, and stand, Waiting and wistful
in the Evening Land!
The patient Nurse of Destiny, at best, Leads us like children to the
needed rest!
A ghostly wind puts out our little light, And we have bid the busy
world ``Good Night!''
Mrs. Stockton was married twice. Her first husband was the father of
her two sons, one of whom, Dr. Henry M. Downs, in his practice, came
often to St. Margaret's. The second marriage, as the wife of the late
Judge John S. Stockton, was a very happy one. Last year, a brother the
only surviving member of her family, died, leaving Mrs. Stockton the
last of a family of five children. The two sons have also passed into the
Great Beyond.
In her younger days, she contributed many poems and some prose to
newspapers and magazines over the name of Cora M. Downs.
Ex-Gov. St. John appointed her one of the regents of the University of
Kansas.
Her beautiful poem: ``In Memoriam'' to Sarah Walter Chandler Coates
was her last.

`` `We seem like children,' she was wont to say, `Talking of what we
cannot understand,' And in the dark or daylight, all the way, Holding so
trustfully a Father's hand. And this was her religion, not to dwell On
tenets, creeds, or doctrines, but to live On a pure faith, and striving to
do well The simple duties that each hour should give.''

MARGARET HILL McCARTER.
The most successful Kansas woman writer financially and the most
prolific is Margaret Hill McCarter of Topeka. From the advent of her
little book in 1901, ``A Bunch of Things, Tied Up With Strings'' to the
hearty reception of her latest novel every step of the way spells success.
Margaret Hill was born in Indiana and came to Kansas in 1888 to teach
English in the Topeka High School. Two years later, she became the
wife of Dr. William McCarter. Of this union there are two daughters,
students at Baker University and the Topeka High School and a young
son, his mother's literary critic.
A wife and a mother first, a Kansas woman second, and an author third
is the way Mrs. McCarter rates herself. She is capable of and does do
all her housework.
Her love for literature she owes to her mother, who believed in higher
education and taught Margaret to prize the few books that came her
way.
After leaving the school room, the teacher instinct still strong within
her, she argued if she could teach out of books written by others, why
not out of books of her own? Then followed poems, short stories,
biography, textbooks, the editing of Crane Classics, ``One Hundred
Kansas Women'' and miscellanies.
In 1902, ``Cuddy and Other Folks'' was written and in 1903, ``The
Cottonwood's Story.''
This same year, ``The Overflowing Waters,'' the story of the 1903 flood,

and one of her best bits of heart writing paid for the school books of
almost a thousand unfortunate children. ``Cuddy's Baby'' appeared in
1908, followed the next year with ``In Old Quivera,'' a thread of
Coronado history. ``The Price of The Prairies,'' three weeks after
publication in the fall of 1910, became Kansas' best seller. ``The Peace
of The Solomon Valley'' came out in 1911 and proved a popular gift
book. ``The Wall of Men,'' Mrs. McCarter's 1912