The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-19
WESTERN WOMEN WRITERS.
Mrs. IdaeI Makeever, Of stromsburg,
Neb., Winning Laurels


Mrs. IdaeI Makeever, OF Stromsburg,
Neb., Winning LaureIs.
Mrs. Idael Makeever, a Nebraska writ
er OF talent and much promise, has gone
home to Stromsburg after having taken
Valparaiso, Ind. Mrs. Makeeever is an
intense little woman, who discovered her
talent for writing late in .life-in fact. after
she had left the school room where she
mad taught for several years and settled
down in married life.
:, Her husband, imbued with the Western
fever, selected Stromsburg. Neb.. as a
likely place in which to gather together a
fortune, and the young married couple
settled in that region. Thrown among
the rather uncouth surroundings of a
looked about her and saw things. She
saw the great bare, red elevators the
ugly new houses, the baroness and the
raWness of things and she was impressed
with them.
Then it was she began to write her
impressions and she was blessed with the
stories and her verses that made them
fresh, crisp and new. They found favor
with editors, who had been surfeited with
stuff about babbling brooks. waving mead
oWs and all that sort of stuff. Mrs.
Makeever sang Of the stunted willows,
OF the meadowlark, of the endless prairies
OF the fiereely blue sky and Of the wind.
She took up the unsung themes of the
West She put the grimness of the
prairies in her work as we'll as the beau
ty of the endless level stretches and her
work has succeeded in attracting atten-
ton.
After publishing two books of verse and
short stories combined this plucky woman
eeinnad tna5 she was not well enough
went to Valparaiso and took "a years
course in the college there. She left her
nome IN Stromsburg, her two pretty lit
tie girls and her husband and took up
arduous. study in college in order to fit
herself for the OCCUPATION of writing. The
years work changed her ideas consider
ably and she has decided that she will
devote herself less to verse, and espe-
elally of serious nature, and more to
short stories, sketches and lighter writ
| ing.
Mrs. Makeever has been a favorite with
Nebraska people because she has been in
tensely loyal to that state since she went
there to reside. She was selected to read
a poem on Nebraska on the state day
at the Trans Mississippi exposition June
Il, 1893. This poem was widely copied in
western ana IN Nebraska papers in par
| tleular.y Mrs. Makeeyer'S last book is
called Prairie Flowers and Meadow
Grasses, and contains ailnumber Of pref
| " Iyrlcs, some sonnets. dialect poems
| and one short story entitled I'm the Shad-
Ow of Bohemia
The book has been highly praised by
| good critics. The Nebraska themes have
been the most favorably mentioned. One
poem with long, swinging and satisfying
| lines is entitled Nebraska Autumn and
| reads in the following fashion: 4asrs
Over the infinite pulse of the prairie, the
south wind is soughing and singing;
| Breathing aeolean strains thro' the blue
| mist Ger hanging her grain-laden
Whispering restfully over the corn fields
sweet tales of the aeens forgotten;
| Bringing back dreams Of the DAYS that
| are buried meath the wave of OBJ
Hvions ocean,
1
| sunshine that deepen the glow of
their beauty,
| Sunf1owerS are dropping their sunny
crowns lower, as if mourning the
| passing OF summer
| Daisies are starring the 1ow-fSng val
| leys. that echo the call of the cat
| tie;
Rich vintage CLEANS in the dim, mellow
sunlight enriched by the fullness of
autumn. n
! Summer is dying, the heart of the prairie
is tenderly mourning and signing.
| Yielding the year and the bountiful har-
vest to the biting breath of the
| frost king;
Telling it's grief to it's listening children,
/ through the cricket's sorrowful ca
dence.
Borne on the breeze like the voice of a
prophet announcing the coming of
! winter.
Mrs. Makeeever resents the imputation
that women nave no sense Off humor and
| she has cultivated her naturally humorous
| tendency and will hereafter devote her
self to humorous and dialect work. She
Is woman OF charming personality, bril-
liant in conversation and gentle In heart.
AS speciment of her homely verses
written in dialect the following verses
taken from her latest book are given:
When yer mind is full O. trouble and yer
| heart is full o. care
An the ske1n o life is tangled an the end
amt anywhere
! An it's twisted into double knots an
keeps a-gettin wuss,
Yer soul Is plum disguised an somehow
you want to cuss.
You spend yer nights a-wunderin' how
yer go1n' to pull through
| An ever pay the interest on the mort
| gage comm due;
Tom must have his sehoolin' an the girls
| air needin clothes
| How you'll git yer bills all paid the good
Lord only knows.
IL ain I no use to grumble er to storm
aroun an sweat
But take the matter coolIy an let t'other
Teller fret.
Not but what we must be honest an pay
| Jest what we owe;
Calkilate our life Alright an do the best
we know;
But frettin' never airnt cent ner helped
\ a man a bit
To do his honest duty, an we'll have to
To take our life more easy an pay as we
go long;
Have time enuff fer happiness an keer
little song q
Down in the bottom o. yer heart: an lei
me say, my brother,
sure reject fer happiness Is jest tC
help another
That's troubled more am we air; no use
to storm an sweat,
But take. each matter cooIly am let 10th
er fellow fret.