Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-11-18
CLARA DOTY BATES.
She Loved Children. Though Childless Her
self, and Wrote Much Tor Them.

self, and Wrote Much Tor Them.
The papers have announced the death
of Clara Doty Bates Of Chicago, the
writer for children, and hundreds of
thousands have idly read the paragraph,
not realizing how much that death has
meant to those who knewfler well. She
was a Michigan woman of fine family
and married to a Michigan man, Nor
gan Bates, a newspaper man and a
writer of plays. For many years she had
lived i'll Chicago and had written for
Wide Awake, ST. Nicholas, Harper S
Young People, The Youths Companion
and other periodicals for children. Dur
ing the Worlds fair she had charge Of
that part of the authors congress which
was devoted to writers for children and
also of the library of children's litera-
ture. She was not yet so years Of age
and was mentally never more virile than
during the last year of her life, although
her physical lassitude was such that she
could not set herself to the task of writ
ing.
These facts seem common enough.
But the woman herself was most uncom-
mon. Her face had a rugged calmness
and LONELINESS that resembled that of
Abraham Lincoln in its general charac-
ter Her heart was serenely true, her in
clinatiOn for the purest things of earth
children, flowers, birds and all the
happy little animals of the summer time.
She loved to write poems concerning the
beetles, the ''red hipped humblebees,
the crickets. Such gay little songs "sang
themselves, - as she used to say, and her
pleasure i'll writing them lay in fancy
ing how the children would enjoy them.
She never wrote at the children; she
wrote from them. She could be one of
them, and she looked at the world from
their point Of view when she wrote for
them. In fact, IN spite of her very well
stored mind and her experience, she was
singularly like a child in her simplicity
and candor. True, she had the tact of a
woman of fine social training, but it was
the tact that came from kindness and
not from convention. For children she
entertained love which was profound.
She turned upon them such a loving
scrutiny that she saw in them pOSsibili-
ties and charms which even those who
knew them best had failed to di, cover.
Nothing amused her more than the I'M
conscious witticism of a little child, and
she remembered these much better than
did the mothers of the children and
would repeat them with affectionate
zest.
Her whole life was one of exquisite
refinement. No one could talk with her
without being conscious of a delicate
elevation Of sentiment. One involun-
tarily selected the most beautiful sub
jects with which one was acquainted in
talking to her. Her life was full of the
happiness that comes to a woman who
is perfectly mated, and who gives her
husband unfaltering love, receiving, III
return, the utmost consideration, appre-
citation and devotion. But for all of
that she was in some ways a sad wOm-
an-that is to say, she was sad because
her sensibilities were so keen The war
of the world roared in on her and dis
turbed her peace. Tho sorrows of others
rested on her spirit Her hunger for
child of her own was never appcased.
And having a delight in nature, a love
for Monochrome meaning to her the
elms and birds as well as the walls and
furnishings-she was destined to live III
the dirtiest and most material city on
this continent, in apartments, surround
ed by nomads of the sort which give
the boarding house an excuse for being
Yet, however hurried tho street on
which her window looked, however
bustling the fashionable apartment
house in which she lived, III her rooms
thero were always quiet, peace and an
air Of understandable placidity. Ferns
II 1. =:
tie children hung GA her walls, fresh
flowers, the gifts Of friends, were at
hand, and, by her side, as she sewed,
was a block of paper, on which the
songs sang themselves. -
Though a woman of the simplest
tastes, she dressed richly, for she had
an idea that, being so tall and gaunt,
she looked we'll only in rich fabrics. AS
she was swarthy she usually chose rich
Wine tints, and the colOrs came to be
characteristic of her. Nothing could be
more charming than when walking
among the selfish and nervous crowd of
the Chicago streets to come across this
strong and serene face, with the deep
eyes beaming with spirituality and
kindliness. Never street SO crowded
that she could not see the children and
smile upon them; never day sc dismal
that she would nss pause before the
florists window; never time so dull
that her spirit could no sing.
1t is impossible to make those who
did not know her understand how
strong and simple, how lofty and sim
cere she was. Hans Christian Amber
sen must have been similar. Ella w.
Doo++io =, n,,,aho World Hora1J