April 19, 1910: The Times’ Albert Jean Taylor draws a cartoon to give East Coast expatriates a self-satisfied laugh … And Uncle Walt the Warbler takes a jaded look at the love poem:

O come, my pet, and cook and scrub,
And wrestle with the washing tub,
And wear old clothes and home-made lids,
And rear a brood of shabby kids,
And sit up nights with aching head,
Awaiting my returning tread.

More on the jump about Mason, the author of “Rippling Rhymes” and “Terse Verse,”  who died Jan. 22, 1939, in La Jolla, at the age of  77. Notice that the 1914 and 1929 stories differ significantly, and in fact his obituary gives a third account of how he became a published writer. 

Sept. 20, 1914: An interview with Walt Mason.