Burbank Junior High School - Wizard Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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THE WIZARD 9 OUR LITTLE FEATHERED FRIENDS. Some of us do not protect “Our Little Feathered Friends” as much as we should. Many of us do not realize what a lot of help they arc to us. If all of the birds were to go away, and there were no birds on this earth, we would realize what a great deal of good they do. This world would be a very gloomy place. All of our beautiful flowers would be covered with bugs, and would blossom no more, and we would have no flowers to brighten things. The birds eat many, many million bugs a day, destroying them instead of allowing them to kill the plants. We would also miss their singing, as they cheer us sometimes when we are sad. Besides singing to us, and eating the bugs that are in our gardens, they are beautiful to see. It is a very beautiful sight, to go out into the garden on a nice summer morning and see the beau- tiful bright colored birds, darting in and out among the flowers and trees. There is a small bird which is most commonly found in gardens. He is of a greenish color. The feathers of his throat are prolonged in a ruff, and he has a forked tail. He is seen in the garden taking food from the different flowers. He seems to hum as he flies. He is called the Humming Bird. He has a very long narrow bill. Another common bird is the Blue Bird. He is of an azure blue, with a reddish-brown back, his breast is a brick-red, his wings are blue with dark edging, and the lower parts are white. There are several other birds that we may recognize if we look for them. Some boys kill birds for pleasure. But, I do not see any pleasure in killing poor, innocent, little creatures. They do not harm us, so why should we kill them? Some of the birds are troublesome, but they have “some good spots” in them as well as any other birds or one of us, for we are not perfect either. LILLIAN GIESENHOFER B 7 ' . CALIFORNIA, THE GOLDEN GATE. California first attracted men who were seeking for new lands. When gold was discovered people flocked to California with fortunes before them. In 1850 California was admit- ted into the union as a state. Be- sides being next to the largest state in the Union it has a sunny climate, beautiful parks and lovely natural scenery. Tourists come from all parts of the country to enjoy its beautiful lakes, beaches, hills and climate. An example of our climate is shown in the fact that strawberries may be had in the winter. It is sometimes hard for the farmers o-f the Middle West to believe that strawberries may be gathered from an outdoor patch of strawberries a week before Thanksgiving. Every month in the year is planting for some orchard or farm and every month is harvest for some crop. There are no snow storms, water pipes never freeze, zero weather and blizzards never occur. Through the Golden Gate may be seen the sun sinking slowly, casting its red and gold rays all around San Francisco Bay. Every day a differ- ent picture is painted as the “sun sinks ; n the golden west.” RUTH TOM WYE B 9. SUNSHINE. In the morning the sun comes up over the hills sending forth beams of joy. Little by little they jump higher and higher in the air looking for gloomy houses in very lonely places. Oh, how the gloomy places burst into sunshine when the

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8 THE WIZARD t ROOSEVELT AS A MAN. Roosevelt was a man! How could one praise him more? He was a man in every sense of the word. His enemies admitted it; his friends boasted of it. Kings and princes came out of their way to see him and speak to him. Who can enumerate his gifts to the world? I cannot. His greatest one was the Panama Canal. Euro- pean powers had given it up. Roose- velt said, “Come on! Let’s do it,” and lie did. That was his way in life. “Come on; let’s do it,” and it was done. The whole world paid him honor and tribute and mourned when he died. At his death he was buried on Sag- amore Hill with simple but touching ceremony. His sister commemorated the day of burial in a poem that ends: “For one is gone, who shall not go, from Sagamore!” PAUL BURNHAM A 7 AN AUTUMN DAY. Oh! but the sky is blue today! The grasses on the hillside are both green and gray. In the distance I can see where the oak tree grows. Be- neath, amid the rich black soil, the acorns arc spread in rows. Below the hill is a running brook, that gleams all through the day. Hear it gently murmur day and night, as slowly it pursues its way. Now that the summer has gone and the winter is nigh, the leaves arc falling, and rustling in the wind, which will make the trees look bare, and the birds are getting ready to fly to the south, until the rainy season is over. EDNA LANGE A 7 ' . AWAY FROM HOME. Home is one of the sweetest words in any language. When we say “home,” we think of mother, father, brothers, sisters, friends, and the things we like the best. No matter if our home is not pretty, and comfortable, home al- ways is the synonym of love, and comfort. When we are going to take a long journey we little think of be- ing away from home. We think of the new world, and new people we are going to meet, and how happy we are going to be. But later, when we find ourselves in a foreign country, where the people speak a different language, and have dif- ferent customs, and even the meals arc different from ours, then we begin to appreciate what home is for us. The first sad questions come to our mind — who is going to take the place of our mother; of father? Who is going to be our friend? These qeustions are followed by a long meditation, after which we find out that the places of mother, and father can be filled by no one, and we have to wait a very long time to find a friend. But after all we do not feel so miserable, and we hope that after a while we will get used to our new life, and we will not miss home any more. Unhappily it is not true! The days are long, the months interminable, and the years are eternities away from home! And still worse is the situation when an illness comes! Instead of the smiling face of mother giving us comfort, the strange face of a nurse we see before our beds. Then the most bitter tears we shed. Oh, sweet home of mine! I long for the day when I will be back in my beloved home! MERCEDES BOGRAN A 9.

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10 THE WIZARD sun finds them out! Gloom runs away and hides in the dark places, to escape from being burnt. Some linger and are killed. Some morning you must rise early and look up at the sun as lie comes over the hills. His rays arc like great wide shafts of gold. This golden light is made out of seven different colors of the rainbow. If one of the colors should get lost there would be no white sunlight in the sunbeams. Let us then re- joice in the golden sunshine of Cali- fornia. LEROY MERKLE A T. LAUGH AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU. Laughter is a great gift which we all should possess. It is a gift which would make the world a much better place, if constantly used. If one laughs other persons laugh also. Laughing is sometimes called a con- tagious disease. One ought to be glad if one can catch it. The weeper does not find others to weep with him, but laughter is a different mat- ter. There are always others to join in one’s laugh. Some people laugh the day through. Others fret and mourn, wondering how they are going to do the task set before them. A light heart makes a light task. “Then laugh and the world laughs with you.” Now the good old world must borrow its mirth, and it is well that we should be the lenders. CARL BALLWANZA 7 REINCARNATION. There was an old gentleman who kept an office on one of the busiest streets in his city. As the work was too hard for him alone, Tic engaged a youth by the name of Thomas Sloane, who was approaching his eighteenth birthday and thought him- self very important. When he started he was quick and always finished on time. But a few weeks later he received a book from a friend. He was not very fond of reading and his friends were surprised when he took such an in- terest in this book. He would not let anyone sec it but always had it with him. In the office lie would sit and dream for hours. He was getting very nervous, too. Anything his employer said humbled him. His employer took advantage of this and worked him over time, without extra pay. One day, he ordered him to clean up the office but Thomas rose and fixed his eyes on the old miser and said, “Do you know who I was? Well, I guess no King of Babylon would take such talk from a man like you!” His voice was stern and shaky, his eyes lit up with a strange light and he stood clapping his hands and saying, “Ah, those were the days! 1 can remember them so well!” Just then the friend who had given him the book came in. He looked surprised and turned to the astonished employer. Then they started laughing at poor Tom. When asked what ailed him he re- plied, “Why, you do not understand. I was once a great King of Baby- lon. I can just close my eyes and dream of my kingdom now. Every- one was some one years ago. Per- haps you were a cobbler,” lie said to his employer; and then to his friend, “you might have been my brother.” Just then a book dropped on the floor. They all looked at it and the name of it was “Reincarnation.” This is what he had been reading! The employer laughed but Tom and his friend were serious. What do you think of it? AYLF.NE BURNHAM B 9.