Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-05-31

there was no sufficient charm to account
for the feeling. Such magnetism is exer-
cised by all strongly tender natures, and
the sympathetic soul becomes instantly
sensitive at contact with the magnetic CEN
ter. How often is it said: 6 1 wonder what
he can see in her to love?" because, for
sooth, the eye of flesh can not penetrate be-
meath the surface. May it not be, must it
not be, that it is given to the eye OF love to
see and to the heart of love to understand
that which is hidden from the multitude
the inner beauty and worth, that sOul-lOve-
illness which is the only pure and abiding
beauty.
But, il you had seen Kate Wilton afoot
and afield, you would have, inevitably,
turned and watched her with a growing
feeling that she was a somebody; for, to
superb physique, she added a rare grace of
carriage. To see her walk was a revela-
ton, compelling the reflection that, among
the shambling, wincing throng of woman
kind, walking was lost art. Glowing
with exercise, her eyes sparkling, little,
struggling tendrils of hair curling about
her forehead and around her ears, her face
was at its best. In repose, her face lost
ats great charm-the charm of light. The
difference in her face when in repose and
when emotion or exercise stirred it was
the difference between the cold, gray sky
at dawn and the warm, bright sky at sun
rise; between the stream that flows sober
~ in shadow and the merry, laughing
stream that leaps in the light. For this
reason, perhaps, any attempt to describe
Kate Wilton's face ends only in a category
of features. Her light, brown hair was
worn rolled back in curling wave
from her pure, high forehead; the
eyes beneath were large and gray; nose,
straight and over-large, mouth also rather
large, with lines which, straight in repose,
could soften and become sensitive when
oh iV1fn faA ar OH ~,
was firm and well nodded and the white
neck was full and faultless in it's curves.
The striking characteristic Of her face
was strength. An artist, with line or
two, could have made it sweetly strong or
sternly strong, but strong it must be- in
any case. Her nature was of that kind
which seems to be instinctively religious.
The doctrine of particular, all-pervading
Providence, hard of understanding for
some, was to her the most natural of be-
1iefs. Her religion was pure love, and if it
be true that
ale prayeth best who loveth best
All things. both great and small"
then Kate Wilton's prayers should have
had peculiar efficacy; for her regard for
life, in it's lowest forms, amounted to al
most reverence. Perhaps this was due as
much 10 surroundings and education as to
the inherent qualities of her mind. Left
orphan in early girlhood, Katie had been
taken home by an aunt, who was q widow
and childless. Aunt Ruth was a Quakeress,
and while she faithfully fulfilled the desire
of the child's parents and let her receive
her religious education in the worship OF
the denomination of which her father had
been pastor, she could not do otherwise
than impress upon the child, not much
by word as by living example, that peculiar
reverence for the Father which is charac-
feristic of the peaceful sect. ''Thee must
be very still in myself, my child, if thou
nearest the Divine voice." was a precept
that bore its fruit in Katie's life.
She grew up believer in divine woes
and sought to make within herself that
holy calm in which no whisper of Heaven
IS lost to the spiritual sense. Among the
voices that Kate Wilton listened for was the
voice of God, speaking through human lips
the words of love: whittier thou goest
well CO." There was not a particle OF
CoQuetry in her; to have sought a lover
would have been to outrage every instinct
of her fine and delicate nature. Yet she
thought daily of husband and of home.
The maternal instinct was strong within
her and child faces and child voices came
and went in her pure dreams Daily she
prayed for the man who was coming to her
with ever-nearing feet, feeling sweet de-
light in the thought that he whom her
soul loved, unknown of name, unknown of
form, would be- blessed from source I'M
known or tranouilized and refreshed in
hours of loneliness and struggle by her in
tercession It was rare and singular
thing that she should feel that the qualities
she loved must be mortally incarnate and
come to her some day, to be known A name
and cherished OF body.
And so it came to pass.