putterings 527 < 528 > 529 index
Grandma liked to talk as much as grandpa liked to keep silent; and always puttering about
Then besides, of course, she adored grandpa and grandma. They were charming and unlike other people, and very, very good. Grandpa was slow-moving, and tall and broad-even taller and broader than father; and he must be terribly wise because he was Justice-of-the-Peace, and because he didn’t talk much. Other children thought him a person to be feared somewhat, but Missy liked to tuck her hand in his enormous one and talk to him about strange, mysterious things.
Grandma wasn’t nearly so big — indeed she wasn’t much taller than Missy herself; and she was proud of her activity — her “spryness,” she called it. She boasted of her ability to stoop over and, without bending her knees, to lay both palms flat on the floor. Even Missy’s mother couldn’t do that, and sometimes she seemed to grow a little tired of being reminded of it. Grandma liked to talk as much as [17] grandpa liked to keep silent; and always, to the running accompaniment of her tongue, she kept her hands busied, whether “puttering about” in her house or flower-garden, or crocheting “tidies,” or knitting little mittens, or creating the multi-coloured paper-flowers which helped make her house so alluring.
That night for supper they had beefsteak and hot biscuits and custard pie; and grandma let her eat these delicacies which were forbidden at home. She even let her drink coffee! Not that Missy cared especially for coffee — it had a bitter taste; but drinking it made her feel grown-up. She always felt more grown-up at grandma’s than at home. She was “company,” and they showed her a consideration one never receives at home.
ex Dana Gatlin, Missy (frontispiece by W. B. King); (1920) : 17
NYPL copy/scan (via google books) : link
same (via hathitrust) : link
Dana Gatlin (1884-1940)
University of Kansas 1895; moved to New York; literary critic for the New York Sun, later wrote stories (appeared in McClure’s Magazine, The Delineator, &c.); returned to Kansas City in 1922.
more on Gatlin at FillmoreFaith (A Fellowship of Metaphysical Christians), including —
“she served as a cook for the threshing crews when she returned to Kansas from New York” : link
and a profile by Heather N. Paxton — “Toast to Old Tymes — Dana Gatlin” — at The Kansas City Independent (July 22, 2023) : link
aside — includes a photograph of a stylishly attired (and behatted) Gatlin
Dana Elizabeth Gatlin, at Find a Grave : link
“The 1930 census shows several hundred women — and of course no men — in residence at the Allerton House. Occupations included department store statistician, nurse, architect, telephone operator, dancing teacher and secretary. One resident was Dana Gatlin, 40, a magazine writer and, in the 1910’s, the literary critic of The New York Sun.”
ex “The Habitat Hotel, 57th Street and Lexington Avenue; It Looks as if It’s One Building but It’s Really Two,”
by Christopher Gray, The New York Times (December 8, 2002) : link (paywall)
more (a smattering, there’s a lot) —
books —
- The Full Measure of Devotion (1918)
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : linknovel having to do with sacrifice (of a son) in World War I.
- God is the Answer (Unity School of Christianity, Kansas City, 1948)
borrowable at archive.org : linkGod is the Answer (revised pb edition, 1995)
LoC : permalinkUnity School of Christianity, Unity Church
Unity is a spiritual organization founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889. It grew out of Transcendentalism and became part of the New Thought movement.
wikipedia : link
magazine work —
- Women Who Achieve
Sophie Mayer; Mabel Kelso (“The honor of winning the first certificate issued by any government permitting a woman to practise wireless telegraphy belongs to Miss Kelso. She was assigned to duty on board the Mariposa, and was transferred to land work in Seattle. Although her uniform is hung away, she is longing for sea service again.”); Mrs. Albion Fellows Bacon; Mrs. E. H. South; Mildred Chadsey; Alice E. Waxham; Nancy Hayes Williams; M. Lena Riddle
Harper’s Bazar (January 1913) : 69
via google books :link
via hathitrust : link - Women Who Achieve
Mrs. Ona B. Talbot; Miss Laura G. Grant; Miss Cornelia T. Crosby; Dr. Rose L. Burcham; Miss Fay Kellogg; Mrs. Isabella Gillen
Harper’s Bazar (March 1913) : 121
via google books : link
via hathitrust : link - Women Who Achieve (no byline)
Mrs. Ernest R. Kroeger; Miss Diana Hirschler; Annie Wilson Howe; Mrs. Rollin Norris; Mary Gregory; Myrtle Shephard Francis
Harper’s Bazar (April 1913) : 173
via google books : link
via hathitrust : link - Women Who Achieve (no byline)
Queen Wilhelmina; Carmen Sylva; Mrs. J. Russell Selfridge; Mary E. Ewing; The Crown Princess of Roumania
Harper’s Bazar (May 1913) : 227
via google books : link via hathitrust : link - “With Loving Wishes for a Happy Birthday,” by Dana Gatlin; pictures by Sigismond de Ivanowski
The Century Magazine 88:4 (August 1914 : 535-546
via google books : link - “Toward Freedom,” by Dana Gatlin; pictures by F. R. Gruger
The Century Magazine 88:6 (October 1914 : 913-923
via google books : link - “Women Stuff” — by Dana Gatlin; Illustrations by F. Graham Cootes
“He felt an impulse to go around and shake her, to hurt her, to make her less indifferent”
McClure’s Magazine 46:2 (December 1915) : 31-33, 84-87
via archive.org : link - “Darya” The Delineator (August 1919) : 16, 54-55
via google books : link - “Out of the Forest” by Dana Gatlin; illustrated by James S. Crank
McCall’s Magazine (November 1920) : 8-9, 32, 34, 36-38
archive.org : link
5 April 2025