TO MARY JANE COATES.
Beautiful Tribute to Her Memory by
"The Travel Class."
Kansas City friends have received beautiful memorial brochures from Chicago in commemoration of the life and death of Mary Jane Coates, wife of John Lindley Coates, formerly of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Coates had made their home in Chicago for many years ans were active in the social and club life of the South Side. Mrs. Coates took special interest in The Travel Class, a women's club, with a membership of more than 200 of the most prominent women in that part of Chicago. Mrs. Coates was unfailing in her devotion to The Travel Class and had been a director in it.
At the death of Mrs. Coates early in December The Travel Class felt her loss keenly. She had always been a favorite with all the members and had formed enduring friendships through her refinement, her warm sympathy, her cheerfulness and her intellectual attainments. Upon direction of The Travel Class, one of its most gifted members, Jennie McLain Corbett, composed a memorial poem as an expression of the sentiment of the entire club. This poem has been engrossed in the form of a small booklet most exquisitely embellished with dainty hand-painted floral ornamentation. The brochure is thus inscribed:
IN MEMORIAM
MARY JANE COATES
A tribute from the
Board of Directors of
THE TRAVEL CLASS,
Chicago, by
Jennie McLain Corbett.
The memorial poem follows:
Gathered round our counsel table
Sit we thoughtful, calm and silent,
As we think of one departed;
One whose smile was like the sunshine,
Warming all our hearts to gladness
Sharing with us words of counsel
Brightening all our work with pleasure
And the music of her laughter.
As the warm sun melts the snowdrifts
So her nature, bright and happy,
Cleared away the mists of sorrow;
As the light drives out the darkness
So her heart's unfailing sunshine
Drove away the shades of sadness.
Softly, then, the truth comes stealing
Like the presence of an angel --
Life reflects the life unending
Of the Father -- every present --
Closer to us than our breathing,
Near to us as thought and feeling,
So our sister's life remaineth
Safe in His eternal keeping --
Cannot cease while He endureth,
In Him still she lives and loves us
In Him lives and has her being.
Tell us, ye with keenest insight,
Ye who read the deepest secrets --
Mysteries we fain would fathom,
Come and tell us now the secret --
What is life that thrills with gladness
What is death that clouds and freezes
All our joys to cold and darkness?
While our human heats are bleeding --
While we feel the sense of sorrow,
Still we know that all our sadness
When the angel voices whisper
Brightens into joy triumphant
Like a shadow disappearing
At the coming of the sunlight --
As the fabric of our dreaming
Fades from sight when we awaken.
So our tears give place to gladness
As the light of truth dawns on us --
Joy depending not on phantoms
Of the eyes and ears of mortals,
But the realm of sense transcending
Swells to overflowing measure
In the Heaven all about us --
In the Heaven that dwells within us.
So these thoughts of sweetest comfort
Send we from our counsel table
To her loved ones, bowed in sorrow.
Look not at the grave and casket!
She is not there, she is risen!
Rise ye, also, to a knowledge
Of a larger life abundant --
Power and peace and full dominion --
Heaven around us and within us --
Yours and hers and ours the birthright
Of all children of "Our Father"!
JENNIE McLAIN CORBETT.
