THE MUSIC OF THE FUTURE

The politest musician that ever was seen Was Montague Meyerbeer Mendelssohn Green. So extremely polite he would take off his hat Whenever he happened to meet with a cat. “It’s not that I’m partial to cats,” he’d explain; “Their music to me is unspeakable pain. There’s nothing that causes my flesh so to crawl As when they perform a G-flat caterwaul. “Yet I cannot help feeling—in spite of their din— When I hear at a concert the first violin Interpret some exquisite thing of my own, If it were not for cat gut I’d never be known. “And so, when I bow, as you see, to a cat, It isn’t to her that I take off my hat; But to fugues and sonatas that possibly hide Uncomposed in her—well—in her tuneful inside!”

Gather Kittens while you may, Time brings only Sorrow; And the Kittens of To-day Will be Old Cats To-morrow.