The Western Mockingbird 
One cannot swear that this Mocker’s 
music improves at midnight, but 
some of his tenderer offerings are 
at least more acceptable when dis¬ 
played against a background of 
silence. 
What more touching 
devotion of this midnight 
His heart is hot, and life— 
is short —Dum vivimus 
Let boobies slumber, and 
than the 
minstrel! 
-Oh, life 
vivamus. 
let churls 
berate us—we will celebrate the 
hours of love. Truth to tell, the 
midnight eloquence of the Mock¬ 
ingbird becomes at times a severe 
test of loyalty. For the spring of 
1918 “Old Faithful’’ elected a 
station on the cornice just eight 
feet from the author’s slumbering 
ear. “Music hath charms to soothe 
the savage breast"; but, ahem! it 
hath also potencies calculated to 
awaken the less savage. By the 
time Opus 16, Fugue in A Minor, 
is reached, viz., at about 2 a. m., 
one humbly wonders whether Song 
and an early breakfast are com¬ 
patible joys. 
Pasadena is called the City of 
Roses. It ought, rather, to be 
called the City of Mockingbirds. 
Those who have contrived that 
heaven on earth have not neglected 
to people it with these indefatigable 
angels; or perhaps the birds have 
set the seal of their approval upon 
it by forsaking the minor paradises 
of the surrounding deserts and 
flocking to the major Valhalla. 
Anyhow, if your nerves trouble you 
at the midnight hour, avoid Pasadena. No; the police will 
that Mockingbird in order to assuage your petulant (and 
Taken at Los Colibris 
INCREDULOUS 
Photo by the Author 
not shoot 
pluto- 
even 
