[2] She showed promise as a dramatic reader, and through her performances in New York City met some prominent friends, of which she was closest to Lucia Calhoun.

Through these friends she was able to secure work performing dramatic readings, publishing in newspapers and magazines, and in small acting roles under the name M. Cushing.

[2] In the spring of 1866, she met Albert D. Richardson, the famous New York Tribune reporter who wrote about his capture by Confederate forces, imprisonment, and escape during the American Civil War.

McFarland's murder trial the next year was a public spectacle, with the press and defense council depicting Albert Richardson as a "libertine" and adherent of "free love".

Richardson also achieved success in the theatre, adapting and translating works for the stage, including Americans Abroad by Victorien Sardou and The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.

She collaborated on four plays with Grace Livingston Furniss, including the successful Pride of Jennico (1900), an adaptation of the novel by Agnes and Egerton Castle.