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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Perverted Proverbs, by
+Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Perverted Proverbs
+ A Manual of Immorals for the Many
+
+Author: Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
+Release Date: December 30, 2010 [EBook #34790]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERVERTED PROVERBS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Carol Brown and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ PERVERTED
+ PROVERBS
+
+ _A MANUAL OF IMMORALS
+ FOR THE MANY_
+ BY
+ COL. D. STREAMER
+
+ Author of "Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless
+ Homes" "Ballads of the Boer War"
+ "The Baby's Baedeker"
+
+ [Illustration: printer's logo]
+
+ NEW YORK
+ R. H. RUSSELL
+ 1903
+
+ _Copyright, 1903, by Robert Howard Russell_
+ Published May, 1903.
+
+
+
+
+ PERVERTED PROVERBS
+
+
+
+
+ _Perverted Proverbs_
+
+ _Dedicated to
+ Helen Whitney_
+
+
+ Do you recall those bygone days,
+ When you received with kindly praise
+ My bantling book of Rhyme?
+ Praise undeserved, alas! and yet
+ How sweet! For, tho' we had not met,
+ (Ah! what a waste of time!)
+ I could the more enjoy such mercies
+ Since I delighted in _your_ verses.
+
+ And when a Poet stoops to smile
+ On some one of the rank and file,
+ (Inglorious--if not mute,)
+ Some groundling bard who craves to climb,
+ Like me, the dizzy rungs of Rhyme,
+ To reach the Golden Fruit;
+ For one in such a situation
+ The faintest praise is no damnation.
+
+ Parnassus heights must surely pall;
+ For simpler diet do you call,
+ Of nectar growing tired?
+ These verses to your feet I bring,
+ Drawn from an unassuming spring,
+ Well-meant--if not inspired;
+ O charming Poet's charming daughter,
+ Descend and taste my toast and water!
+
+ For you alone these lines I write,
+ That, reading them, your brow may light
+ Beneath its crown of bays;
+ Your eyes may sparkle like a star,
+ With friendship, that is dearer far
+ Than any breath of praise;
+ The which a lucky man possessing
+ Can ask no higher human blessing.
+
+ And, though the "salt estranging sea"
+ Be widely spread 'twixt you and me,
+ We have what makes amends;
+ And since I am so glad of you,
+ Be glad of me a little, too,
+ Because of being friends.
+ And, if I earn your approbation,
+ Accept my humble dedication.
+
+ H. G.
+
+
+
+
+ _Foreword_
+
+
+ The Press may pass my Verses by
+ With sentiments of indignation,
+ And say, like Greeks of old, that I
+ Corrupt the Youthful Generation;
+ I am unmoved by taunts like these--
+ (And so, I think, was Socrates).
+
+ Howe'er the Critics may revile,
+ I pick no journalistic quarrels,
+ Quite realizing that my Style
+ Makes up for any lack of Morals;
+ For which I feel no shred of shame--
+ (And Byron would have felt the same).
+
+ I don't intend a Child to read
+ These lines, which are not for the Young;
+ For, if I did, I should indeed
+ Feel fully worthy to be hung.
+ (Is "hanged" the perfect tense of "hang"?
+ Correct me, Mr. Andrew Lang!)
+
+ O Young of Heart, tho' in your prime,
+ By you these Verses may be seen!
+ Accept the Moral with the Rhyme,
+ And try to gather what I mean.
+ But, if you can't, it won't hurt me!
+ (And Browning would, I know, agree.)
+
+ Be reassured, I have not got
+ The style of Stephen Phillips' heroes,
+ Nor Henry Jones's pow'r of Plot,
+ Nor wit like Arthur Wing Pinero's!
+ (If so, I should not waste my time
+ In writing you this sort of rhyme.)
+
+ I strive to paint things as they Are,
+ Of Realism the true Apostle;
+ All flow'ry metaphors I bar,
+ Nor call the homely thrush a "throstle."
+ Such synonyms would make me smile.
+ (And so they would have made Carlyle.)
+
+ My Style may be at times, I own,
+ A trifle cryptic or abstruse;
+ In this I do not stand alone,
+ And need but mention, in excuse,
+ A thousand world-familiar names,
+ From Meredith to Henry James.
+
+ From these my fruitless fancy roams
+ To seek the Ade of Modern Fable,
+ From Doyle's or Hemans' "Stately Ho(l)mes,"
+ To t'other of The Breakfast Table;
+ Like Galahad, I wish (in vain)
+ "My wit were as the wit of Twain!"
+
+ Had I but Whitman's rugged skill,
+ (And managed to escape the Censor),
+ The Accuracy of a Mill,
+ The Reason of a Herbert Spencer,
+ The literary talents even
+ Of Sidney Lee or Leslie Stephen.
+
+ The pow'r of Patmore's placid pen,
+ Or Watson's gift of execration,
+ The sugar of Le Gallienne,
+ Or Algernon's Alliteration.
+ One post there is I'd not be lost in,
+ --Tho' I might find it most ex-austin'!
+
+ Some day, if I but study hard,
+ The public, vanquished by my pen'll
+ Acclaim me as a Minor Bard,
+ Like Norman Gale or Mrs. Meynell,
+ And listen to my lyre a-rippling
+ Imperial banjo-spasms like Kipling.
+
+ Were I a syndicate like K.
+ Or flippant scholar like Augustine;
+ Had I the style of Pater, say,
+ Which ev'ryone would put their trust in,
+ I'd love (as busy as a squirrel)
+ To pate, to kipple, and to birrel.
+
+ So don't ignore me. If you should,
+ 'Twill touch me to the very heart oh!
+ To be as much misunderstood
+ As once was Andrea del Sarto;
+ Unrecognized to toil away,
+ Like Millet--not, of course, Mill_ais_.
+
+ And, pray, for Morals do not look
+ In this unique agglomeration,
+ --This unpretentious little book
+ Of Infelicitous Quotation.
+ I deem you foolish if you do,
+ (And Mr. Russell thinks so, too).
+
+
+
+
+ _"Virtue is Its Own Reward"_
+
+
+ Virtue its own reward? Alas!
+ And what a poor one as a rule!
+ Be Virtuous and Life will pass
+ Like one long term of Sunday-School.
+ (No prospect, truly, could one find
+ More unalluring to the mind.)
+
+ You may imagine that it pays
+ To practise Goodness. Not a bit!
+ You cease receiving any praise
+ When people have got used to it;
+ 'Tis generally understood
+ You find it _easy_ to be good.
+
+ The Model Child has got to keep
+ His fingers and his garments white;
+ In church he may not go to sleep,
+ Nor ask to stop up late at night.
+ In fact he must not ever do
+ A single thing he wishes to.
+
+ He may not paddle in his boots,
+ Like naughty children, at the Sea;
+ The sweetness of Forbidden Fruits
+ Is not, alas! for such as he.
+ He watches, with pathetic eyes,
+ His weaker brethren make mud-pies.
+
+ He must not answer back, oh no!
+ However rude grown-ups may be,
+ But keep politely silent, tho'
+ He brim with scathing repartee;
+ For nothing is considered worse
+ Than scoring off Mamma or Nurse.
+
+ He must not eat too much at meals,
+ Nor scatter crumbs upon the floor;
+ However vacuous he feels,
+ He may not pass his plate for more;
+ --Not tho' his ev'ry organ ache
+ For further slabs of Christmas cake.
+
+ He is enjoined to choose his food
+ From what is easy to digest;
+ A choice which in itself is good,
+ But never what _he_ likes the best.
+ (At times how madly he must wish
+ For just _one_ real unwholesome dish!)
+
+ And, when the wretched urchin plays
+ With other little girls and boys,
+ He has to show unselfish ways
+ By giving them his choicest toys;
+ His ears he lets them freely box,
+ Or pull his lubricated locks.
+
+ His face is always being washed,
+ His hair perpetually brushed,
+ And thus his brighter side is squashed,
+ His human instincts warped and crushed;
+ Small wonder that his early years
+ Are filled with "thoughts too deep for tears."
+
+ He is commanded not to waste
+ The fleeting hours of childhood's days
+ By giving way to any taste
+ For circuses or matinées;
+ For him the entertainments planned
+ Are "Lectures on the Holy Land."
+
+ He never reads a story book
+ By Rider H. or Winston C.,
+ In vain upon his desk you'd look
+ For tales by Richard Harding D.;
+ Nor could you find upon his shelf
+ The works of Rudyard--or myself!
+
+ He always fears that he may do
+ Some action that is _infra dig._,
+ And so he lives his short life through
+ In the most noxious rôle of Prig.
+ ("Short life" I say, for it's agreed
+ The Good die very young indeed.)
+
+ Ah me! How sad it is to think
+ He could have lived like me--or you!
+ With practice and a taste for drink,
+ Our joys he might have known, he too!
+ And shared the pleasure _we_ have had
+ In being gloriously bad!
+
+ The Naughty Boy gets much delight
+ From doing what he should not do;
+ But, as such conduct isn't Right,
+ He sometimes suffers for it, too.
+ Yet, what's a spanking to the fun
+ Of leaving vital things Undone?
+
+ If he's notoriously bad,
+ But for a day should change his ways,
+ His parents will be all so glad,
+ They'll shower him with gifts and praise!
+ (It pays a connoisseur in crimes
+ To be a perfect saint at times.)
+
+ Of course there always lies the chance
+ That he is charged with being ill,
+ And all his innocent romance
+ Is ruined by a rhubarb pill.
+ (Alas! 'Tis not alone the Good
+ That are so much misunderstood.)
+
+ But, as a rule, when he behaves
+ (Evincing no malarial signs),
+ His friends are all his faithful slaves,
+ Until he once again declines
+ With easy conscience, more or less,
+ To undiluted wickedness.
+
+ The Wicked flourish like the bay,
+ At Cards or Love they always win,
+ Good Fortune dogs their steps all day,
+ They fatten while the Good grow thin.
+ The Righteous Man has much to bear;
+ The Bad becomes a Bullionaire!
+
+ For, though he be the greatest sham,
+ Luck favours him his whole life through;
+ At "Bridge" he always makes a Slam
+ After declaring "Sans atout";
+ With ev'ry deal his fate has planned
+ A hundred Aces in his hand.
+
+ And it is always just the same;
+ He somehow manages to win,
+ By mere good fortune, any game
+ That he may be competing in.
+ At Golf no bunker breaks his club,
+ For him the green provides no "rub."
+
+ At Billiards, too, he flukes away
+ (With quite unnecessary "side");
+ No matter what he tries to play,
+ For him the pockets open wide;
+ He never finds both balls in baulk,
+ Or makes miss-cues for want of chalk.
+
+ He swears; he very likely bets;
+ He even wears a flaming necktie;
+ Inhales Egyptian cigarettes
+ And has a "Mens Inconscia Recti";
+ Yet, spite of all, one must confess
+ That naught succeeds like his excess.
+
+ There's no occasion to be Just,
+ No need for motives that are fine,
+ To be Director of a Trust,
+ Or Manager of a Combine;
+ Your corner is a public curse,
+ Perhaps; but it will fill your purse.
+
+ Then stride across the Public's bones,
+ Crush all opponents under you,
+ Until you "rise on stepping-stones
+ Of their dead selves"; and, when you do,
+ The widow's and the orphan's tears
+ Shall comfort your declining years!
+
+ But having had your boom in oil,
+ And made your millions out of it,
+ Would you propose to cease from toil?
+ Great Vanderfeller! Not a bit!
+ You've _got_ to labour, day and night,
+ Until you die--and serve you right!
+
+ Then, when you stop this frenzied race,
+ And others in your office sit,
+ You'll leave the world a better place,
+ --The better for your leaving it!
+ For there's a chance perhaps your heir
+ May spend what you've collected there.
+
+ Myself, how lucky I must be,
+ That need not fear so gross an end;
+ Since Fortune has not favoured me
+ With many million pounds to spend.
+ (Still, did that fickle Dame relent,
+ I'd show you how they _should_ be spent!)
+
+ I am not saint enough to feel
+ My shoulder ripen to a wing,
+ Nor have I wits enough to steal
+ His title from the Copper King;
+ And there's a vasty gulf between
+ The Man I Am and Might Have Been;
+
+ But tho' at dinner I may take
+ Too much of Heidsieck (extra dry),
+ And underneath the table make
+ My simple couch just where I lie,
+ My mode of roosting on the floor
+ Is just a trick and nothing more.
+
+ And when, not Wisely but too Well,
+ My thirst I have contrived to quench,
+ The stories I am apt to tell
+ May be, perhaps, a trifle French;
+ (For 'tis in anecdote, no doubt,
+ That what's Bred in the Beaune comes out.)
+
+ It does not render me unfit
+ To give advice, both wise and right,
+ Because I do not follow it
+ Myself as closely as I might;
+ There's nothing that I wouldn't do
+ To point the proper road to _you_.
+
+ And this I'm sure of, more or less,
+ And trust that you will all agree,
+ The Elements of Happiness
+ Consist in being--just like Me;
+ No sinner, nor a saint perhaps,
+ But--well, the very best of chaps.
+
+ Share the Experience I have had,
+ Consider all I've known and seen,
+ And Don't be Good, and Don't be Bad,
+ But cultivate a Golden Mean.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ What makes Existence _really_ nice
+ Is Virtue--with a dash of Vice.
+
+
+
+
+ "_Enough is as Good as a Feast._"
+
+
+ What is Enough? An idle dream!
+ One cannot have enough, I swear,
+ Of Ices or Meringues-and-Cream,
+ Nougat or Chocolate Eclairs,
+ Of Oysters or of Caviar,
+ Of Prawns or Paté de Foie _Grar_!
+
+ Who would not willingly forsake
+ Kindred and Home, without a fuss,
+ For Icing from a Birthday Cake,
+ Or juicy fat Asparagus,
+ And journey over countless seas
+ For New Potatoes and Green Peas?
+
+ They say that a Contented Mind
+ Is a Continual Feast;--but where
+ The mental frame, and how to find,
+ Which can with Turtle Soup compare?
+ No mind, however full of Ease,
+ Could be Continual Toasted Cheese.
+
+ For dinner have a sole to eat,
+ (Some Perrier Jouet, '92,)
+ An Entrée then (and, with the meat,
+ A bottle of Lafitte will do),
+ A quail, a glass of port (just one),
+ Liqueurs and coffee, and you've done.
+
+ But should you want a hearty meal,
+ And not this gourmet's lightsome snack,
+ Fill up with terrapin and teal,
+ Clam chowder, crabs and canvasback;
+ With all varieties of sauce,
+ And diff'rent wines for ev'ry course.
+
+ Your tastes may be of simpler type;--
+ A homely glass of "half-and-half,"
+ An onion and a dish of tripe,
+ Or headpiece of the kindly calf.
+ (Cruel perhaps, but then, you know,
+ "_'Faut tout souffrir pour être veau!_")
+
+ 'Tis a mistake to eat too much
+ Of any dishes but the best;
+ And you, of course, should never touch
+ A thing you _know_ you can't digest;
+ For instance, lobster;--if you _do_,
+ Well,--I'm amayonnaised at you!
+
+ Let this be your heraldic crest,
+ A bottle (chargé) of Champagne,
+ A chicken (gorged) with salad (dress'd),
+ Below, this motto to explain--
+ "Enough is Very Good, may be;
+ Too Much is Good Enough for Me!"
+
+
+
+
+ "_Don't Buy a Pig in a Poke._"
+
+
+ Unscrupulous Pigmongers will
+ Attempt to wheedle and to coax
+ The ignorant young housewife till
+ She purchases her pigs in pokes;
+ Beasts that have got a Lurid Past,
+ Or else are far Too Good to Last.
+
+ So, should you not desire to be
+ The victim of a cruel hoax,
+ Then promise me, ah! promise me,
+ You will not purchase pigs in pokes!
+ ('Twould be an error just as big
+ To poke your purchase in a pig.)
+
+ Too well I know the bitter cost,
+ To turn this subject off with jokes;
+ How many a fortune has been lost
+ By men who purchased pigs in pokes.
+ (Ah! think on such when you would talk
+ With mouths that are replete with pork!)
+
+ And, after dinner, round the fire,
+ Astride of Grandpa's rugged knee,
+ Implore your bored but patient sire
+ To tell you what a Poke may be.
+ The fact he might disclose to you--
+ Which is far more than _I_ can do.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ The Moral of The Pigs and Pokes
+ Is not to make your choice too quick.
+ In purchasing a Book of Jokes,
+ Pray poke around and take your pick.
+ Who knows how rich a mental meal
+ The covers of _this_ book conceal?
+
+
+
+
+ "_Learn to Take Things Easily._"
+
+
+ To these few words, it seems to me,
+ A wealth of sound instruction clings;
+ O Learn to Take things easily--
+ Espeshly Other People's Things;
+ And Time will make your fingers deft
+ At what is known as Petty Theft.
+
+ Your precious moments do not waste;
+ Take Ev'rything that isn't tied!
+ Who knows but you may have a Taste,
+ A Gift perhaps, for Homicide,--
+ (A Mania which, encouraged, thrives
+ On Taking Other People's Lives).
+
+ "Fools and Their Money soon must part!"
+ And you can help this on, may be,
+ If, in the kindness of your Heart,
+ You Learn to Take things easily;
+ And be, with little education,
+ A Prince of Misappropriation.
+
+
+
+
+ "_A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss._"
+
+
+ I never understood, I own,
+ What anybody (with a soul)
+ Could mean by offering a Stone
+ This needless warning not to Roll;
+ And what inducement there can be
+ To gather Moss I fail to see.
+
+ I'd sooner gather anything,
+ Like primroses, or news perhaps,
+ Or even wool (when suffering
+ A momentary mental lapse);
+ But could forego my share of moss,
+ Nor ever realize the loss.
+
+ 'Tis a botanical disease,
+ And worthy of remark as such;
+ Lending a dignity to trees,
+ To ruins a romantic touch.
+ A timely adjunct, I've no doubt,
+ But not worth writing home about.
+
+ Of all the Stones I ever met,
+ In calm repose upon the ground,
+ I really never found one yet
+ With a desire to roll around;
+ Theirs is a stationary rôle,--
+ (A joke,--and feeble on the whole).
+
+ But, if I were a stone, I swear
+ I'd sooner move and view the World
+ Than sit and grow the greenest hair
+ That ever Nature combed and curled.
+ I see no single saving grace
+ In being known as "Mossyface!"
+
+ Instead, I might prove useful for
+ A weapon in the hand of Crime,
+ A paperweight, a milestone, or
+ A missile at Election time;
+ In each capacity I could
+ Do quite incalculable good.
+
+ When well directed from the Pit,
+ I might promote a welcome death,
+ If fortunate enough to hit
+ Some budding Hamlet or Macbeth,
+ Who twice each day the playhouse fills,--
+ (For further Notice See Small Bills).
+
+ At concerts, too, if you prefer,
+ I could prevent your growing deaf,
+ By silencing the amateur
+ Before she reached that upper F.;
+ Or else, in lieu of half-a-brick,
+ Restrain some local Kubelik.
+
+ Then, human stones, take my advice,
+ (As you should always do, indeed);
+ This proverb may be very nice,
+ But don't you pay it any heed,
+ And, tho' you make the critics cross,
+ Roll on, and never mind the moss.
+
+
+
+
+ "_After Dinner Sit a While; After
+ Supper Walk a Mile._"
+
+
+ After luncheon sit awhile,
+ 'Tis an admirable plan;
+ After dinner walk a mile--
+ But make certain that you _can_.
+ (Were you not this maxim taught;--
+ "Good is Wrought by want of Port.")
+
+ After dinner think on this;
+ Join the ladies with a smile,
+ And remember that a Miss
+ Is as good as any mile.
+ (Thus you may be led to feel
+ What Amis felt for Amile.)
+
+ Never fear of being shy
+ At the houses where you dine;
+ You'll recover by-and-bye,
+ With the second glass of wine;
+ And can recognize with bliss
+ That a Meal is not amiss.
+
+
+
+
+ "_It is Never Too Late to Mend._"
+
+
+ Since it can never be too late
+ To change your life, or else renew it,
+ Let the unpleasant process wait
+ Until you are _compelled_ to do it.
+ The State provides (and gratis too)
+ Establishments for such as you.
+
+ Remember this, and pluck up heart,
+ That, be you publican or parson,
+ Your ev'ry art must have a start,
+ From petty larceny to arson;
+ And even in the burglar's trade,
+ The cracksman is not born, but made.
+
+ So, if in your career of crime,
+ You fail to carry out some "coup",
+ Then try again a second time,
+ And yet again, until you _do_;
+ And don't despair, or fear the worst,
+ Because you get found out at first.
+
+ Perhaps the battle will not go,
+ On all occasions, to the strongest;
+ You may be fairly certain tho'
+ That He Laughs Last who laughs the Longest.
+ So keep a good reserve of laughter,
+ Which may be found of use hereafter.
+
+ Believe me that, howe'er well meant,
+ A Good Resolve is always brief;
+ Don't let your precious hours be spent
+ In turning over a new leaf.
+ Such leaves, like Nature's, soon decay,
+ And then are only in the way.
+
+ The Road to--well, a certain spot,
+ (A Road of very fair dimensions),
+ Has, so the proverb tells us, got
+ A parquet-floor of Good Intentions.
+ Take care, in your desire to please,
+ You do not add a brick to these.
+
+ For there may come a moment when
+ You shall be mended willy-nilly,
+ With many more misguided men,
+ Whose skill is undermined with skilly.
+ Till then procrastinate, my friend;
+ "It _Never_ is Too Late to Mend!"
+
+
+
+
+ "_A Bad Workman Complains of his Tools._"
+
+
+ This Pen of mine is simply grand,
+ I never loved a pen so much;
+ This Paper (underneath my hand)
+ Is really a delight to touch;
+ And never in my life, I think,
+ Did I make use of finer ink.
+
+ The Subject upon which I write
+ Is everything that I could choose;
+ I seldom knew my Wits more bright,
+ More cosmopolitan my Views;
+ Nor ever did my Head contain
+ So surplus a supply of Brain!
+
+
+
+
+ _Potpourri._
+
+
+ There are many more Maxims to which
+ I would like to accord a front place,
+ But alas! I have got
+ To omit a whole lot,
+ For the lack of available space;
+ And the rest I am forced to boil down and condense
+ To the following Essence of Sound without Sense:
+
+
+ Now the Pitcher that journeys too oft
+ To the Well will get broken at last.
+ But you'll find it a fact
+ That, by using some tact,
+ Such a danger as this can be past.
+ (There's an obvious way, and a simple, you'll own,
+ Which is, if you're a Pitcher, to Let Well alone.)
+
+
+ Half a loafer is never well-bred,
+ And Self-Praise is a Dangerous Thing.
+ And the Mice are at play
+ When the Cat is away,
+ For a moment, inspecting a King.
+ (Tho' if Care kills a Cat, as the Proverbs declare,
+ It is right to suppose that the King will take care.)
+
+
+ Don't Halloo till you're out of the Wood,
+ When a Stitch in Good Time will save nine,
+ While a Bird in the Hand
+ Is worth Two, understand,
+ In the Bush that Needs no Good Wine.
+ (Tho' the two, if they _Can_ sing but Won't, have been known,
+ By an accurate aim to be killed with one Stone.)
+
+
+ Never Harness the Cart to the Horse;
+ Since the latter should be _à la carte_.
+ And Birds of a Feather
+ Come Flocking Together,
+ Because they can't well Flock Apart.
+ (You may cast any Bread on the Waters, I think,
+ But, unless I'm mistaken, you can't make it Sink.)
+
+
+ It is only the Fool who remarks
+ That there Can't be a Fire without Smoke;
+ Has he never yet learned
+ How the gas can be turned
+ On the best incombustible coke?
+ (Would you value a man by the checks on his suits,
+ And forget "_que c'est le premier passbook qui Coutts_?")
+
+
+ Now "_De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bo-
+ num_," is Latin, as ev'ryone owns;
+ If your domicile be
+ Near a Mortuaree,
+ You should always avoid throwing bones.
+ (I would further remark, if I could,--but I couldn't--
+ That People Residing in Glasshouses shouldn't.)
+
+
+ You have heard of the Punctual Bird,
+ Who was First in presenting his Bill;
+ But I pray you'll be firm,
+ And remember the Worm
+ Had to get up much earlier still;
+ (So that, if you _can't_ rise in the morning, then Don't;
+ And be certain that Where there's a Will there's a Won't.)
+
+
+ You can give a bad name to a Dog,
+ And hang him by way of excuse;
+ Whereas Hunger, of course,
+ Is by far the Best Sauce
+ For the Gander as well as the Goose.
+ (But you shouldn't judge anyone just by his looks,
+ For a Surfeit of Broth ruins too many Cooks.)
+
+
+ With the fact that Necessity knows
+ Nine Points of the Law, you'll agree.
+ There are just as Good Fish
+ To be found on a Dish
+ As you ever could catch in the Sea.
+ (You should Look ere you Leap on a Weasel Asleep,
+ And I've also remarked That Still Daughters Run Cheap.)
+
+
+ The much trodden-on Lane _will_ Turn,
+ And a Friend is in Need of a Friend;
+ But the Wisest of Saws,
+ Like the Camel's Last Straws,
+ Or the Longest of Worms, have an end.
+ So, before out of Patience a Virtue you make,
+ A decisive farewell of these maxims we'll take.
+
+
+
+
+ _Envoi._
+
+ _"Don't Look a Gifthorse in the Mouth"_
+
+
+ I knew a man, who lived down South;
+ He thought this maxim to defy;
+ He looked a Gifthorse in the Mouth;
+ The Gifthorse bit him in the Eye!
+ And, while the steed enjoyed his bite,
+ My Southern friend mislaid his sight.
+
+ Now, had this foolish man, that day,
+ Observed the Gifthorse in the _Heel_,
+ It might have kicked his brains away,
+ But that's a loss he would not feel;
+ Because you see (need I explain?)
+ My Southern friend had got no brain.
+
+ When anyone to you presents
+ A poodle, or a pocketknife,
+ A set of Ping-pong instruments,
+ A banjo or a Lady-wife,
+ 'Tis churlish, as I understand,
+ To grumble that they're second-hand.
+
+ And he who termed Ingratitude
+ As "worser nor a servant's tooth"
+ Was evidently well imbued
+ With all the elements of Truth;
+ (While he who said "Uneasy lies
+ The tooth that wears a crown" was wise).
+
+ "One must be poor," George Eliot said,
+ "To know the luxury of giving;"
+ So too one really should be dead
+ To realize the joy of living.
+ (I'd sooner be--I don't know which--
+ I'd _like_ to be alive and rich!)
+
+ _This_ book may be a Gifthorse too,
+ And one you surely ought to prize;
+ If so, I beg you, read it through
+ With kindly and uncaptious eyes,
+ Not grumbling because this particular line doesn't happen to scan,
+ And this one doesn't rhyme!
+
+
+
+
+ _Aftword._
+
+
+ 'Tis done! We reach the final page,
+ With feelings of relief, I'm certain;
+ And there arrives at such a stage,
+ The moment to ring down the curtain.
+ (This metaphor is freely taken
+ From Shakespeare--or perhaps from Bacon.)
+
+ The Book perused, our Future brings
+ A plethora of blank to-morrows,
+ When memories of Happier Things
+ Will be our Sorrow's Crown of Sorrows.
+ (I trust you recognize this line
+ As being Tennyson's, not mine.)
+
+ My verses may indeed be few,
+ But are they not, to quote the poet,
+ "The sweetest things that ever grew
+ Beside a human door"? I know it.
+ (What an _in_human door would be,
+ Enquire of Wordsworth, please, not me.)
+
+ 'Twas one of my most cherished dreams
+ To write a Moral Book some day;
+ What says the Bard? "The best laid schemes
+ Of Mice and Men gang aft agley!"
+ (The Bard here mentioned, by the bye,
+ Is Robbie Burns, of course--not I.)
+
+ And tho' my pen records each thought
+ As swift as the phonetic Pitman,
+ Morality is not my "forte,"
+ O Camarados! (_vide_ Whitman)
+ And, like the Porcupine, I still
+ Am forced to ply a fretful quill.
+
+ We may be Master of our Fate,
+ (As Henley was inspired to mention)
+ Yet am I but the Second Mate
+ Upon the ss. "Good Intention";
+ For me the course direct is lacking--
+ I have to do a deal of tacking.
+
+ To seek for Morals here's a task
+ Of which you well may be despairing;
+ "What has become of them?" you ask,
+ They've given us the slip--like Waring.
+ "Look East!" said Browning once, and I
+ Would make a similar reply.
+
+ Look East, where in a garret drear,
+ The Author works, without cessation,
+ Composing verses for a mere-
+ ly nominal remuneration;
+ And, while he has the strength to write 'em,
+ Will do so still--_ad infinitum_.
+
+
+
+
+ FINIS.
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The words 'bo-num' and 'mere-ly' were retained hyphenated at the ends of
+lines to match the printed edition and maintain the poetical intent of
+the author.
+
+Changed 'Heidsick' to 'Heidsieck.'
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Perverted Proverbs, by
+Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
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+ text-indent: -3em;
+ }
+
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+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Perverted Proverbs, by
+Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Perverted Proverbs
+ A Manual of Immorals for the Many
+
+Author: Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
+Release Date: December 30, 2010 [EBook #34790]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERVERTED PROVERBS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Carol Brown and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1>PERVERTED<br />
+PROVERBS</h1>
+
+<h3><i>A MANUAL OF IMMORALS<br />
+FOR THE MANY</i></h3>
+
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h2>COL. D. STREAMER</h2>
+
+<p class="center p2">Author of "Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless<br />
+Homes" "Ballads of the Boer War"<br />
+"The Baby's Baedeker"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+ <a name="19"></a> <img src="images/logo.jpg"
+ width="150" height="182" alt="Illustration: Printer's Logo"
+ title="Printer's Logo" />
+</div>
+
+<h3>NEW YORK<br />
+<small>R. H. RUSSELL</small><br />
+1903</h3>
+
+<p class="center p4"><i>Copyright, 1903, by Robert Howard Russell</i><br />
+Published May, 1903.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1 class="p4">PERVERTED PROVERBS</h1>
+
+<h3 class="p4"><i>Perverted Proverbs</i></h3>
+<h5><i>Dedicated to</i></h5>
+<h3><i>Helen Whitney</i></h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Do you recall those bygone days,</span>
+ <span class="i0">When you received with kindly praise</span>
+ <span class="i2">My bantling book of Rhyme?</span>
+ <span class="i0">Praise undeserved, alas! and yet</span>
+ <span class="i0">How sweet! For, tho' we had not met,</span>
+ <span class="i2">(Ah! what a waste of time!)</span>
+ <span class="i0">I could the more enjoy such mercies</span>
+ <span class="i0">Since I delighted in <i>your</i> verses.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And when a Poet stoops to smile</span>
+ <span class="i0">On some one of the rank and file,</span>
+ <span class="i2">(Inglorious&mdash;if not mute,)</span>
+ <span class="i0">Some groundling bard who craves to climb,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Like me, the dizzy rungs of Rhyme,</span>
+ <span class="i2">To reach the Golden Fruit;</span>
+ <span class="i0">For one in such a situation</span>
+ <span class="i0">The faintest praise is no damnation.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Parnassus heights must surely pall;</span>
+ <span class="i0">For simpler diet do you call,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Of nectar growing tired?</span>
+ <span class="i0">These verses to your feet I bring,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Drawn from an unassuming spring,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Well-meant&mdash;if not inspired;</span>
+ <span class="i0">O charming Poet's charming daughter,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Descend and taste my toast and water!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">For you alone these lines I write,</span>
+ <span class="i0">That, reading them, your brow may light</span>
+ <span class="i2">Beneath its crown of bays;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Your eyes may sparkle like a star,</span>
+ <span class="i0">With friendship, that is dearer far</span>
+ <span class="i2">Than any breath of praise;</span>
+ <span class="i0">The which a lucky man possessing</span>
+ <span class="i0">Can ask no higher human blessing.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And, though the "salt estranging sea"</span>
+ <span class="i0">Be widely spread 'twixt you and me,</span>
+ <span class="i2">We have what makes amends;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And since I am so glad of you,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Be glad of me a little, too,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Because of being friends.</span>
+ <span class="i0">And, if I earn your approbation,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Accept my humble dedication.</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="quotsig">H. G.</p>
+
+<h3 class="p4"><i>Foreword</i></h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">The Press may pass my Verses by</span>
+ <span class="i2">With sentiments of indignation,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And say, like Greeks of old, that I</span>
+ <span class="i2">Corrupt the Youthful Generation;</span>
+ <span class="i0">I am unmoved by taunts like these&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(And so, I think, was Socrates).</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Howe'er the Critics may revile,</span>
+ <span class="i2">I pick no journalistic quarrels,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Quite realizing that my Style</span>
+ <span class="i2">Makes up for any lack of Morals;</span>
+ <span class="i0">For which I feel no shred of shame&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(And Byron would have felt the same).</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">I don't intend a Child to read</span>
+ <span class="i2">These lines, which are not for the Young;</span>
+ <span class="i0">For, if I did, I should indeed</span>
+ <span class="i2">Feel fully worthy to be hung.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Is "hanged" the perfect tense of "hang"?</span>
+ <span class="i0">Correct me, Mr. Andrew Lang!)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">O Young of Heart, tho' in your prime,</span>
+ <span class="i2">By you these Verses may be seen!</span>
+ <span class="i0">Accept the Moral with the Rhyme,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And try to gather what I mean.</span>
+ <span class="i0">But, if you can't, it won't hurt me!</span>
+ <span class="i0">(And Browning would, I know, agree.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Be reassured, I have not got</span>
+ <span class="i2">The style of Stephen Phillips' heroes,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Nor Henry Jones's pow'r of Plot,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Nor wit like Arthur Wing Pinero's!</span>
+ <span class="i0">(If so, I should not waste my time</span>
+ <span class="i0">In writing you this sort of rhyme.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">I strive to paint things as they Are,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Of Realism the true Apostle;</span>
+ <span class="i0">All flow'ry metaphors I bar,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Nor call the homely thrush a "throstle."</span>
+ <span class="i0">Such synonyms would make me smile.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(And so they would have made Carlyle.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">My Style may be at times, I own,</span>
+ <span class="i2">A trifle cryptic or abstruse;</span>
+ <span class="i0">In this I do not stand alone,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And need but mention, in excuse,</span>
+ <span class="i0">A thousand world-familiar names,</span>
+ <span class="i0">From Meredith to Henry James.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">From these my fruitless fancy roams</span>
+ <span class="i2">To seek the Ade of Modern Fable,</span>
+ <span class="i0">From Doyle's or Hemans' "Stately Ho(l)mes,"</span>
+ <span class="i2">To t'other of The Breakfast Table;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Like Galahad, I wish (in vain)</span>
+ <span class="i0">"My wit were as the wit of Twain!"</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Had I but Whitman's rugged skill,</span>
+ <span class="i2">(And managed to escape the Censor),</span>
+ <span class="i0">The Accuracy of a Mill,</span>
+ <span class="i2">The Reason of a Herbert Spencer,</span>
+ <span class="i0">The literary talents even</span>
+ <span class="i0">Of Sidney Lee or Leslie Stephen.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The pow'r of Patmore's placid pen,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Or Watson's gift of execration,</span>
+ <span class="i0">The sugar of Le Gallienne,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Or Algernon's Alliteration.</span>
+ <span class="i0">One post there is I'd not be lost in,</span>
+ <span class="i0">&mdash;Tho' I might find it most ex-austin'!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Some day, if I but study hard,</span>
+ <span class="i2">The public, vanquished by my pen'll</span>
+ <span class="i0">Acclaim me as a Minor Bard,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Like Norman Gale or Mrs. Meynell,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And listen to my lyre a-rippling</span>
+ <span class="i0">Imperial banjo-spasms like Kipling.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Were I a syndicate like K.</span>
+ <span class="i2">Or flippant scholar like Augustine;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Had I the style of Pater, say,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Which ev'ryone would put their trust in,</span>
+ <span class="i0">I'd love (as busy as a squirrel)</span>
+ <span class="i0">To pate, to kipple, and to birrel.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">So don't ignore me. If you should,</span>
+ <span class="i2">'Twill touch me to the very heart oh!</span>
+ <span class="i0">To be as much misunderstood</span>
+ <span class="i2">As once was Andrea del Sarto;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Unrecognized to toil away,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Like Millet&mdash;not, of course, Mill<i>ais</i>.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And, pray, for Morals do not look</span>
+ <span class="i2">In this unique agglomeration,</span>
+ <span class="i0">&mdash;This unpretentious little book</span>
+ <span class="i2">Of Infelicitous Quotation.</span>
+ <span class="i0">I deem you foolish if you do,</span>
+ <span class="i0">(And Mr. Russell thinks so, too).</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4"><i>"Virtue is Its Own Reward"</i></h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Virtue its own reward? Alas!</span>
+ <span class="i2">And what a poor one as a rule!</span>
+ <span class="i0">Be Virtuous and Life will pass</span>
+ <span class="i2">Like one long term of Sunday-School.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(No prospect, truly, could one find</span>
+ <span class="i0">More unalluring to the mind.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">You may imagine that it pays</span>
+ <span class="i2">To practise Goodness. Not a bit!</span>
+ <span class="i0">You cease receiving any praise</span>
+ <span class="i2">When people have got used to it;</span>
+ <span class="i0">'Tis generally understood</span>
+ <span class="i0">You find it <i>easy</i> to be good.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The Model Child has got to keep</span>
+ <span class="i2">His fingers and his garments white;</span>
+ <span class="i0">In church he may not go to sleep,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Nor ask to stop up late at night.</span>
+ <span class="i0">In fact he must not ever do</span>
+ <span class="i0">A single thing he wishes to.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He may not paddle in his boots,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Like naughty children, at the Sea;</span>
+ <span class="i0">The sweetness of Forbidden Fruits</span>
+ <span class="i2">Is not, alas! for such as he.</span>
+ <span class="i0">He watches, with pathetic eyes,</span>
+ <span class="i0">His weaker brethren make mud-pies.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He must not answer back, oh no!</span>
+ <span class="i2">However rude grown-ups may be,</span>
+ <span class="i0">But keep politely silent, tho'</span>
+ <span class="i2">He brim with scathing repartee;</span>
+ <span class="i0">For nothing is considered worse</span>
+ <span class="i0">Than scoring off Mamma or Nurse.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He must not eat too much at meals,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Nor scatter crumbs upon the floor;</span>
+ <span class="i0">However vacuous he feels,</span>
+ <span class="i2">He may not pass his plate for more;</span>
+ <span class="i0">&mdash;Not tho' his ev'ry organ ache</span>
+ <span class="i0">For further slabs of Christmas cake.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He is enjoined to choose his food</span>
+ <span class="i2">From what is easy to digest;</span>
+ <span class="i0">A choice which in itself is good,</span>
+ <span class="i2">But never what <i>he</i> likes the best.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(At times how madly he must wish</span>
+ <span class="i0">For just <i>one</i> real unwholesome dish!)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And, when the wretched urchin plays</span>
+ <span class="i2">With other little girls and boys,</span>
+ <span class="i0">He has to show unselfish ways</span>
+ <span class="i2">By giving them his choicest toys;</span>
+ <span class="i0">His ears he lets them freely box,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Or pull his lubricated locks.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">His face is always being washed,</span>
+ <span class="i2">His hair perpetually brushed,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And thus his brighter side is squashed,</span>
+ <span class="i2">His human instincts warped and crushed;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Small wonder that his early years</span>
+ <span class="i0">Are filled with "thoughts too deep for tears."</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He is commanded not to waste</span>
+ <span class="i2">The fleeting hours of childhood's days</span>
+ <span class="i0">By giving way to any taste</span>
+ <span class="i2">For circuses or matinées;</span>
+ <span class="i0">For him the entertainments planned</span>
+ <span class="i0">Are "Lectures on the Holy Land."</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He never reads a story book</span>
+ <span class="i2">By Rider H. or Winston C.,</span>
+ <span class="i0">In vain upon his desk you'd look</span>
+ <span class="i2">For tales by Richard Harding D.;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Nor could you find upon his shelf</span>
+ <span class="i0">The works of Rudyard&mdash;or myself!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He always fears that he may do</span>
+ <span class="i2">Some action that is <i>infra dig.</i>,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And so he lives his short life through</span>
+ <span class="i2">In the most noxious rôle of Prig.</span>
+ <span class="i0">("Short life" I say, for it's agreed</span>
+ <span class="i0">The Good die very young indeed.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Ah me! How sad it is to think</span>
+ <span class="i2">He could have lived like me&mdash;or you!</span>
+ <span class="i0">With practice and a taste for drink,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Our joys he might have known, he too!</span>
+ <span class="i0">And shared the pleasure <i>we</i> have had</span>
+ <span class="i0">In being gloriously bad!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The Naughty Boy gets much delight</span>
+ <span class="i2">From doing what he should not do;</span>
+ <span class="i0">But, as such conduct isn't Right,</span>
+ <span class="i2">He sometimes suffers for it, too.</span>
+ <span class="i0">Yet, what's a spanking to the fun</span>
+ <span class="i0">Of leaving vital things Undone?</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">If he's notoriously bad,</span>
+ <span class="i2">But for a day should change his ways,</span>
+ <span class="i0">His parents will be all so glad,</span>
+ <span class="i2">They'll shower him with gifts and praise!</span>
+ <span class="i0">(It pays a connoisseur in crimes</span>
+ <span class="i0">To be a perfect saint at times.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Of course there always lies the chance</span>
+ <span class="i2">That he is charged with being ill,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And all his innocent romance</span>
+ <span class="i2">Is ruined by a rhubarb pill.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Alas! 'Tis not alone the Good</span>
+ <span class="i0">That are so much misunderstood.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">But, as a rule, when he behaves</span>
+ <span class="i2">(Evincing no malarial signs),</span>
+ <span class="i0">His friends are all his faithful slaves,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Until he once again declines</span>
+ <span class="i0">With easy conscience, more or less,</span>
+ <span class="i0">To undiluted wickedness.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The Wicked flourish like the bay,</span>
+ <span class="i2">At Cards or Love they always win,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Good Fortune dogs their steps all day,</span>
+ <span class="i2">They fatten while the Good grow thin.</span>
+ <span class="i0">The Righteous Man has much to bear;</span>
+ <span class="i0">The Bad becomes a Bullionaire!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">For, though he be the greatest sham,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Luck favours him his whole life through;</span>
+ <span class="i0">At "Bridge" he always makes a Slam</span>
+ <span class="i2">After declaring "Sans atout";</span>
+ <span class="i0">With ev'ry deal his fate has planned</span>
+ <span class="i0">A hundred Aces in his hand.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And it is always just the same;</span>
+ <span class="i2">He somehow manages to win,</span>
+ <span class="i0">By mere good fortune, any game</span>
+ <span class="i2">That he may be competing in.</span>
+ <span class="i0">At Golf no bunker breaks his club,</span>
+ <span class="i0">For him the green provides no "rub."</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">At Billiards, too, he flukes away</span>
+ <span class="i2">(With quite unnecessary "side");</span>
+ <span class="i0">No matter what he tries to play,</span>
+ <span class="i2">For him the pockets open wide;</span>
+ <span class="i0">He never finds both balls in baulk,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Or makes miss-cues for want of chalk.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">He swears; he very likely bets;</span>
+ <span class="i2">He even wears a flaming necktie;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Inhales Egyptian cigarettes</span>
+ <span class="i2">And has a "Mens Inconscia Recti";</span>
+ <span class="i0">Yet, spite of all, one must confess</span>
+ <span class="i0">That naught succeeds like his excess.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">There's no occasion to be Just,</span>
+ <span class="i2">No need for motives that are fine,</span>
+ <span class="i0">To be Director of a Trust,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Or Manager of a Combine;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Your corner is a public curse,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Perhaps; but it will fill your purse.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Then stride across the Public's bones,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Crush all opponents under you,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Until you "rise on stepping-stones</span>
+ <span class="i2">Of their dead selves"; and, when you do,</span>
+ <span class="i0">The widow's and the orphan's tears</span>
+ <span class="i0">Shall comfort your declining years!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">But having had your boom in oil,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And made your millions out of it,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Would you propose to cease from toil?</span>
+ <span class="i2">Great Vanderfeller! Not a bit!</span>
+ <span class="i0">You've <i>got</i> to labour, day and night,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Until you die&mdash;and serve you right!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Then, when you stop this frenzied race,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And others in your office sit,</span>
+ <span class="i0">You'll leave the world a better place,</span>
+ <span class="i2">&mdash;The better for your leaving it!</span>
+ <span class="i0">For there's a chance perhaps your heir</span>
+ <span class="i0">May spend what you've collected there.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Myself, how lucky I must be,</span>
+ <span class="i2">That need not fear so gross an end;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Since Fortune has not favoured me</span>
+ <span class="i2">With many million pounds to spend.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Still, did that fickle Dame relent,</span>
+ <span class="i0">I'd show you how they <i>should</i> be spent!)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">I am not saint enough to feel</span>
+ <span class="i2">My shoulder ripen to a wing,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Nor have I wits enough to steal</span>
+ <span class="i2">His title from the Copper King;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And there's a vasty gulf between</span>
+ <span class="i0">The Man I Am and Might Have Been;</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">But tho' at dinner I may take</span>
+ <span class="i2">Too much of Heidsieck (extra dry),</span>
+ <span class="i0">And underneath the table make</span>
+ <span class="i2">My simple couch just where I lie,</span>
+ <span class="i0">My mode of roosting on the floor</span>
+ <span class="i0">Is just a trick and nothing more.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And when, not Wisely but too Well,</span>
+ <span class="i2">My thirst I have contrived to quench,</span>
+ <span class="i0">The stories I am apt to tell</span>
+ <span class="i2">May be, perhaps, a trifle French;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(For 'tis in anecdote, no doubt,</span>
+ <span class="i0">That what's Bred in the Beaune comes out.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">It does not render me unfit</span>
+ <span class="i2">To give advice, both wise and right,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Because I do not follow it</span>
+ <span class="i2">Myself as closely as I might;</span>
+ <span class="i0">There's nothing that I wouldn't do</span>
+ <span class="i0">To point the proper road to <i>you</i>.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And this I'm sure of, more or less,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And trust that you will all agree,</span>
+ <span class="i0">The Elements of Happiness</span>
+ <span class="i2">Consist in being&mdash;just like Me;</span>
+ <span class="i0">No sinner, nor a saint perhaps,</span>
+ <span class="i0">But&mdash;well, the very best of chaps.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Share the Experience I have had,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Consider all I've known and seen,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And Don't be Good, and Don't be Bad,</span>
+ <span class="i2">But cultivate a Golden Mean.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0"> &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <span class="i0">What makes Existence <i>really</i> nice</span>
+ <span class="i0">Is Virtue&mdash;with a dash of Vice.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">"<i>Enough is as Good as a Feast.</i>"</h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">What is Enough? An idle dream!</span>
+ <span class="i2">One cannot have enough, I swear,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Of Ices or Meringues-and-Cream,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Nougat or Chocolate Eclairs,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Of Oysters or of Caviar,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Of Prawns or Paté de Foie <i>Grar</i>!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Who would not willingly forsake</span>
+ <span class="i2">Kindred and Home, without a fuss,</span>
+ <span class="i0">For Icing from a Birthday Cake,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Or juicy fat Asparagus,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And journey over countless seas</span>
+ <span class="i0">For New Potatoes and Green Peas?</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">They say that a Contented Mind</span>
+ <span class="i2">Is a Continual Feast;&mdash;but where</span>
+ <span class="i0">The mental frame, and how to find,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Which can with Turtle Soup compare?</span>
+ <span class="i0">No mind, however full of Ease,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Could be Continual Toasted Cheese.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">For dinner have a sole to eat,</span>
+ <span class="i2">(Some Perrier Jouet, '92,)</span>
+ <span class="i0">An Entrée then (and, with the meat,</span>
+ <span class="i2">A bottle of Lafitte will do),</span>
+ <span class="i0">A quail, a glass of port (just one),</span>
+ <span class="i0">Liqueurs and coffee, and you've done.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">But should you want a hearty meal,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And not this gourmet's lightsome snack,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Fill up with terrapin and teal,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Clam chowder, crabs and canvasback;</span>
+ <span class="i0">With all varieties of sauce,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And diff'rent wines for ev'ry course.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Your tastes may be of simpler type;&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i2">A homely glass of "half-and-half,"</span>
+ <span class="i0">An onion and a dish of tripe,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Or headpiece of the kindly calf.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Cruel perhaps, but then, you know,</span>
+ <span class="i0">"'<i>Faut tout souffrir pour être veau!</i>")</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">'Tis a mistake to eat too much</span>
+ <span class="i2">Of any dishes but the best;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And you, of course, should never touch</span>
+ <span class="i2">A thing you <i>know</i> you can't digest;</span>
+ <span class="i0">For instance, lobster;&mdash;if you <i>do</i>,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Well,&mdash;I'm amayonnaised at you!</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Let this be your heraldic crest,</span>
+ <span class="i2">A bottle (chargé) of Champagne,</span>
+ <span class="i0">A chicken (gorged) with salad (dress'd),</span>
+ <span class="i2">Below, this motto to explain&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">"Enough is Very Good, may be;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Too Much is Good Enough for Me!"</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">"<i>Don't Buy a Pig in a Poke.</i>"</h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Unscrupulous Pigmongers will</span>
+ <span class="i2">Attempt to wheedle and to coax</span>
+ <span class="i0">The ignorant young housewife till</span>
+ <span class="i2">She purchases her pigs in pokes;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Beasts that have got a Lurid Past,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Or else are far Too Good to Last.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">So, should you not desire to be</span>
+ <span class="i2">The victim of a cruel hoax,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Then promise me, ah! promise me,</span>
+ <span class="i2">You will not purchase pigs in pokes!</span>
+ <span class="i0">('Twould be an error just as big</span>
+ <span class="i0">To poke your purchase in a pig.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Too well I know the bitter cost,</span>
+ <span class="i2">To turn this subject off with jokes;</span>
+ <span class="i0">How many a fortune has been lost</span>
+ <span class="i2">By men who purchased pigs in pokes.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Ah! think on such when you would talk</span>
+ <span class="i0">With mouths that are replete with pork!)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And, after dinner, round the fire,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Astride of Grandpa's rugged knee,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Implore your bored but patient sire</span>
+ <span class="i2">To tell you what a Poke may be.</span>
+ <span class="i0">The fact he might disclose to you&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Which is far more than <i>I</i> can do.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0"> &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; * &nbsp; &nbsp; *</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The Moral of The Pigs and Pokes</span>
+ <span class="i2">Is not to make your choice too quick.</span>
+ <span class="i0">In purchasing a Book of Jokes,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Pray poke around and take your pick.</span>
+ <span class="i0">Who knows how rich a mental meal</span>
+ <span class="i0">The covers of <i>this</i> book conceal?</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">"<i>Learn to Take Things Easily.</i>"</h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">To these few words, it seems to me,</span>
+ <span class="i2">A wealth of sound instruction clings;</span>
+ <span class="i0">O Learn to Take things easily&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i2">Espeshly Other People's Things;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And Time will make your fingers deft</span>
+ <span class="i0">At what is known as Petty Theft.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Your precious moments do not waste;</span>
+ <span class="i2">Take Ev'rything that isn't tied!</span>
+ <span class="i0">Who knows but you may have a Taste,</span>
+ <span class="i2">A Gift perhaps, for Homicide,&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(A Mania which, encouraged, thrives</span>
+ <span class="i0">On Taking Other People's Lives).</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">"Fools and Their Money soon must part!"</span>
+ <span class="i2">And you can help this on, may be,</span>
+ <span class="i0">If, in the kindness of your Heart,</span>
+ <span class="i2">You Learn to Take things easily;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And be, with little education,</span>
+ <span class="i0">A Prince of Misappropriation.</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">"<i>A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss.</i>"</h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">I never understood, I own,</span>
+ <span class="i2">What anybody (with a soul)</span>
+ <span class="i0">Could mean by offering a Stone</span>
+ <span class="i2">This needless warning not to Roll;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And what inducement there can be</span>
+ <span class="i0">To gather Moss I fail to see.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">I'd sooner gather anything,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Like primroses, or news perhaps,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Or even wool (when suffering</span>
+ <span class="i2">A momentary mental lapse);</span>
+ <span class="i0">But could forego my share of moss,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Nor ever realize the loss.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">'Tis a botanical disease,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And worthy of remark as such;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Lending a dignity to trees,</span>
+ <span class="i2">To ruins a romantic touch.</span>
+ <span class="i0">A timely adjunct, I've no doubt,</span>
+ <span class="i0">But not worth writing home about.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Of all the Stones I ever met,</span>
+ <span class="i2">In calm repose upon the ground,</span>
+ <span class="i0">I really never found one yet</span>
+ <span class="i2">With a desire to roll around;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Theirs is a stationary rôle,&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(A joke,&mdash;and feeble on the whole).</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">But, if I were a stone, I swear</span>
+ <span class="i2">I'd sooner move and view the World</span>
+ <span class="i0">Than sit and grow the greenest hair</span>
+ <span class="i2">That ever Nature combed and curled.</span>
+ <span class="i0">I see no single saving grace</span>
+ <span class="i0">In being known as "Mossyface!"</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Instead, I might prove useful for</span>
+ <span class="i2">A weapon in the hand of Crime,</span>
+ <span class="i0">A paperweight, a milestone, or</span>
+ <span class="i2">A missile at Election time;</span>
+ <span class="i0">In each capacity I could</span>
+ <span class="i0">Do quite incalculable good.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">When well directed from the Pit,</span>
+ <span class="i2">I might promote a welcome death,</span>
+ <span class="i0">If fortunate enough to hit</span>
+ <span class="i2">Some budding Hamlet or Macbeth,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Who twice each day the playhouse fills,&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(For further Notice See Small Bills).</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">At concerts, too, if you prefer,</span>
+ <span class="i2">I could prevent your growing deaf,</span>
+ <span class="i0">By silencing the amateur</span>
+ <span class="i2">Before she reached that upper F.;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Or else, in lieu of half-a-brick,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Restrain some local Kubelik.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Then, human stones, take my advice,</span>
+ <span class="i2">(As you should always do, indeed);</span>
+ <span class="i0">This proverb may be very nice,</span>
+ <span class="i2">But don't you pay it any heed,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And, tho' you make the critics cross,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Roll on, and never mind the moss.</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">"<i>After Dinner Sit a While; After
+Supper Walk a Mile.</i>"</h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">After luncheon sit awhile,</span>
+ <span class="i2">'Tis an admirable plan;</span>
+ <span class="i0">After dinner walk a mile&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i2">But make certain that you <i>can</i>.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Were you not this maxim taught;&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">"Good is Wrought by want of Port.")</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">After dinner think on this;</span>
+ <span class="i2">Join the ladies with a smile,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And remember that a Miss</span>
+ <span class="i2">Is as good as any mile.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Thus you may be led to feel</span>
+ <span class="i0">What Amis felt for Amile.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Never fear of being shy</span>
+ <span class="i2">At the houses where you dine;</span>
+ <span class="i0">You'll recover by-and-bye,</span>
+ <span class="i2">With the second glass of wine;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And can recognize with bliss</span>
+ <span class="i0">That a Meal is not amiss.</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">"<i>It is Never Too Late to Mend.</i>"</h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Since it can never be too late</span>
+ <span class="i2">To change your life, or else renew it,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Let the unpleasant process wait</span>
+ <span class="i2">Until you are <i>compelled</i> to do it.</span>
+ <span class="i0">The State provides (and gratis too)</span>
+ <span class="i0">Establishments for such as you.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Remember this, and pluck up heart,</span>
+ <span class="i2">That, be you publican or parson,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Your ev'ry art must have a start,</span>
+ <span class="i2">From petty larceny to arson;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And even in the burglar's trade,</span>
+ <span class="i0">The cracksman is not born, but made.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">So, if in your career of crime,</span>
+ <span class="i2">You fail to carry out some "coup",</span>
+ <span class="i0">Then try again a second time,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And yet again, until you <i>do</i>;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And don't despair, or fear the worst,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Because you get found out at first.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Perhaps the battle will not go,</span>
+ <span class="i2">On all occasions, to the strongest;</span>
+ <span class="i0">You may be fairly certain tho'</span>
+ <span class="i2">That He Laughs Last who laughs the Longest.</span>
+ <span class="i0">So keep a good reserve of laughter,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Which may be found of use hereafter.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Believe me that, howe'er well meant,</span>
+ <span class="i2">A Good Resolve is always brief;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Don't let your precious hours be spent</span>
+ <span class="i2">In turning over a new leaf.</span>
+ <span class="i0">Such leaves, like Nature's, soon decay,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And then are only in the way.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The Road to&mdash;well, a certain spot,</span>
+ <span class="i2">(A Road of very fair dimensions),</span>
+ <span class="i0">Has, so the proverb tells us, got</span>
+ <span class="i2">A parquet-floor of Good Intentions.</span>
+ <span class="i0">Take care, in your desire to please,</span>
+ <span class="i0">You do not add a brick to these.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">For there may come a moment when</span>
+ <span class="i2">You shall be mended willy-nilly,</span>
+ <span class="i0">With many more misguided men,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Whose skill is undermined with skilly.</span>
+ <span class="i0">Till then procrastinate, my friend;</span>
+ <span class="i0">"It <i>Never</i> is Too Late to Mend!"</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">"<i>A Bad Workman Complains of his
+Tools.</i>"</h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">This Pen of mine is simply grand,</span>
+ <span class="i2">I never loved a pen so much;</span>
+ <span class="i0">This Paper (underneath my hand)</span>
+ <span class="i2">Is really a delight to touch;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And never in my life, I think,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Did I make use of finer ink.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The Subject upon which I write</span>
+ <span class="i2">Is everything that I could choose;</span>
+ <span class="i0">I seldom knew my Wits more bright,</span>
+ <span class="i2">More cosmopolitan my Views;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Nor ever did my Head contain</span>
+ <span class="i0">So surplus a supply of Brain!</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4"><i>Potpourri.</i></h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">There are many more Maxims to which</span>
+ <span class="i2">I would like to accord a front place,</span>
+ <span class="i0">But alas! I have got</span>
+ <span class="i0">To omit a whole lot,</span>
+ <span class="i2">For the lack of available space;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And the rest I am forced to boil down and
+ condense</span>
+ <span class="i0">To the following Essence of Sound without
+ Sense:</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Now the Pitcher that journeys too oft</span>
+ <span class="i2">To the Well will get broken at last.</span>
+ <span class="i0">But you'll find it a fact</span>
+ <span class="i0">That, by using some tact,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Such a danger as this can be past.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(There's an obvious way, and a simple, you'll
+ own,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Which is, if you're a Pitcher, to Let Well
+ alone.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Half a loafer is never well-bred,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And Self-Praise is a Dangerous Thing.</span>
+ <span class="i0">And the Mice are at play</span>
+ <span class="i0">When the Cat is away,</span>
+ <span class="i2">For a moment, inspecting a King.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Tho' if Care kills a Cat, as the Proverbs
+ declare,</span>
+ <span class="i0">It is right to suppose that the King will take
+ care.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Don't Halloo till you're out of the Wood,</span>
+ <span class="i2">When a Stitch in Good Time will save nine,</span>
+ <span class="i0">While a Bird in the Hand</span>
+ <span class="i0">Is worth Two, understand,</span>
+ <span class="i2">In the Bush that Needs no Good Wine.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Tho' the two, if they <i>Can</i> sing but Won't,
+ have been known,</span>
+ <span class="i0">By an accurate aim to be killed with one Stone.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Never Harness the Cart to the Horse;</span>
+ <span class="i2">Since the latter should be <i>à la carte</i>.</span>
+ <span class="i0">And Birds of a Feather</span>
+ <span class="i0">Come Flocking Together,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Because they can't well Flock Apart.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(You may cast any Bread on the Waters, I think,</span>
+ <span class="i0">But, unless I'm mistaken, you can't make it
+ Sink.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">It is only the Fool who remarks</span>
+ <span class="i2">That there Can't be a Fire without Smoke;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Has he never yet learned</span>
+ <span class="i0">How the gas can be turned</span>
+ <span class="i2">On the best incombustible coke?</span>
+ <span class="i0">(Would you value a man by the checks on his
+ suits,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And forget "<i>que c'est le premier passbook qui
+ Coutts</i>?")</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">Now "<i>De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bo-</i></span>
+ <span class="i2"><i>num</i>," is Latin, as ev'ryone owns;</span>
+ <span class="i0">If your domicile be</span>
+ <span class="i0">Near a Mortuaree,</span>
+ <span class="i2">You should always avoid throwing bones.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(I would further remark, if I could,&mdash;but I
+ couldn't&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">That People Residing in Glasshouses shouldn't.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">You have heard of the Punctual Bird,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Who was First in presenting his Bill;</span>
+ <span class="i0">But I pray you'll be firm,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And remember the Worm</span>
+ <span class="i2">Had to get up much earlier still;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(So that, if you <i>can't</i> rise in the morning,
+ then Don't;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And be certain that Where there's a Will there's a
+ Won't.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">You can give a bad name to a Dog,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And hang him by way of excuse;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Whereas Hunger, of course,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Is by far the Best Sauce</span>
+ <span class="i2">For the Gander as well as the Goose.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(But you shouldn't judge anyone just by his looks,</span>
+ <span class="i0">For a Surfeit of Broth ruins too many Cooks.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">With the fact that Necessity knows</span>
+ <span class="i2">Nine Points of the Law, you'll agree.</span>
+ <span class="i0">There are just as Good Fish</span>
+ <span class="i0">To be found on a Dish</span>
+ <span class="i2">As you ever could catch in the Sea.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(You should Look ere you Leap on a Weasel Asleep,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And I've also remarked That Still Daughters Run
+ Cheap.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">The much trodden-on Lane <i>will</i> Turn,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And a Friend is in Need of a Friend;</span>
+ <span class="i0">But the Wisest of Saws,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Like the Camel's Last Straws,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Or the Longest of Worms, have an end.</span>
+ <span class="i0">So, before out of Patience a Virtue you make,</span>
+ <span class="i0">A decisive farewell of these maxims we'll take.</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4"><i>Envoi.</i></h3>
+
+<p class="center"><i>"Don't Look a Gifthorse in the Mouth"</i></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">I knew a man, who lived down South;</span>
+ <span class="i2">He thought this maxim to defy;</span>
+ <span class="i0">He looked a Gifthorse in the Mouth;</span>
+ <span class="i2">The Gifthorse bit him in the Eye!</span>
+ <span class="i0">And, while the steed enjoyed his bite,</span>
+ <span class="i0">My Southern friend mislaid his sight.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Now, had this foolish man, that day,</span>
+ <span class="i2">Observed the Gifthorse in the <i>Heel</i>,</span>
+ <span class="i0">It might have kicked his brains away,</span>
+ <span class="i2">But that's a loss he would not feel;</span>
+ <span class="i0">Because you see (need I explain?)</span>
+ <span class="i0">My Southern friend had got no brain.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">When anyone to you presents</span>
+ <span class="i2">A poodle, or a pocketknife,</span>
+ <span class="i0">A set of Ping-pong instruments,</span>
+ <span class="i2">A banjo or a Lady-wife,</span>
+ <span class="i0">'Tis churlish, as I understand,</span>
+ <span class="i0">To grumble that they're second-hand.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And he who termed Ingratitude</span>
+ <span class="i2">As "worser nor a servant's tooth"</span>
+ <span class="i0">Was evidently well imbued</span>
+ <span class="i2">With all the elements of Truth;</span>
+ <span class="i0">(While he who said "Uneasy lies</span>
+ <span class="i0">The tooth that wears a crown" was wise).</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">"One must be poor," George Eliot said,</span>
+ <span class="i2">"To know the luxury of giving;"</span>
+ <span class="i0">So too one really should be dead</span>
+ <span class="i2">To realize the joy of living.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(I'd sooner be&mdash;I don't know which&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">I'd <i>like</i> to be alive and rich!)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0"><i>This</i> book may be a Gifthorse too,</span>
+ <span class="i2">And one you surely ought to prize;</span>
+ <span class="i0">If so, I beg you, read it through</span>
+ <span class="i2">With kindly and uncaptious eyes,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Not grumbling because this particular line doesn't
+ happen to scan,</span>
+ <span class="i0">And this one doesn't rhyme!</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4"><i>Aftword.</i></h3>
+
+<div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i1">'Tis done! We reach the final page,</span>
+ <span class="i2">With feelings of relief, I'm certain;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And there arrives at such a stage,</span>
+ <span class="i2">The moment to ring down the curtain.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(This metaphor is freely taken</span>
+ <span class="i0">From Shakespeare&mdash;or perhaps from Bacon.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">The Book perused, our Future brings</span>
+ <span class="i2">A plethora of blank to-morrows,</span>
+ <span class="i0">When memories of Happier Things</span>
+ <span class="i2">Will be our Sorrow's Crown of Sorrows.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(I trust you recognize this line</span>
+ <span class="i0">As being Tennyson's, not mine.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">My verses may indeed be few,</span>
+ <span class="i2">But are they not, to quote the poet,</span>
+ <span class="i0">"The sweetest things that ever grew</span>
+ <span class="i2">Beside a human door"? I know it.</span>
+ <span class="i0">(What an <i>in</i>human door would be,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Enquire of Wordsworth, please, not me.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">'Twas one of my most cherished dreams</span>
+ <span class="i2">To write a Moral Book some day;</span>
+ <span class="i0">What says the Bard? "The best laid schemes</span>
+ <span class="i2">Of Mice and Men gang aft agley!"</span>
+ <span class="i0">(The Bard here mentioned, by the bye,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Is Robbie Burns, of course&mdash;not I.)</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">And tho' my pen records each thought</span>
+ <span class="i2">As swift as the phonetic Pitman,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Morality is not my "forte,"</span>
+ <span class="i2">O Camarados! (<i>vide</i> Whitman)</span>
+ <span class="i0">And, like the Porcupine, I still</span>
+ <span class="i0">Am forced to ply a fretful quill.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">We may be Master of our Fate,</span>
+ <span class="i2">(As Henley was inspired to mention)</span>
+ <span class="i0">Yet am I but the Second Mate</span>
+ <span class="i2">Upon the ss. "Good Intention";</span>
+ <span class="i0">For me the course direct is lacking&mdash;</span>
+ <span class="i0">I have to do a deal of tacking.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">To seek for Morals here's a task</span>
+ <span class="i2">Of which you well may be despairing;</span>
+ <span class="i0">"What has become of them?" you ask,</span>
+ <span class="i2">They've given us the slip&mdash;like Waring.</span>
+ <span class="i0">"Look East!" said Browning once, and I</span>
+ <span class="i0">Would make a similar reply.</span>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="i0">Look East, where in a garret drear,</span>
+ <span class="i2">The Author works, without cessation,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Composing verses for a mere-</span>
+ <span class="i2">ly nominal remuneration;</span>
+ <span class="i0">And, while he has the strength to write 'em,</span>
+ <span class="i0">Will do so still&mdash;<i>ad infinitum</i>.</span>
+ </div>
+</div>
+
+<h3 class="p4">FINIS.</h3>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+
+<div class='tnote'> <h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p>The words 'bo-num' and 'mere-ly' were retained hyphenated at the ends
+of lines to match the printed edition and maintain the poetical intent
+of the author.</p>
+<p>Changed 'Heidsick' to 'Heidsieck.'</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Perverted Proverbs, by
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Perverted Proverbs, by
+Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Perverted Proverbs
+ A Manual of Immorals for the Many
+
+Author: Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
+Release Date: December 30, 2010 [EBook #34790]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PERVERTED PROVERBS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Carol Brown and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+book was produced from scanned images of public domain
+material from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ PERVERTED
+ PROVERBS
+
+ _A MANUAL OF IMMORALS
+ FOR THE MANY_
+ BY
+ COL. D. STREAMER
+
+ Author of "Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless
+ Homes" "Ballads of the Boer War"
+ "The Baby's Baedeker"
+
+ [Illustration: printer's logo]
+
+ NEW YORK
+ R. H. RUSSELL
+ 1903
+
+ _Copyright, 1903, by Robert Howard Russell_
+ Published May, 1903.
+
+
+
+
+ PERVERTED PROVERBS
+
+
+
+
+ _Perverted Proverbs_
+
+ _Dedicated to
+ Helen Whitney_
+
+
+ Do you recall those bygone days,
+ When you received with kindly praise
+ My bantling book of Rhyme?
+ Praise undeserved, alas! and yet
+ How sweet! For, tho' we had not met,
+ (Ah! what a waste of time!)
+ I could the more enjoy such mercies
+ Since I delighted in _your_ verses.
+
+ And when a Poet stoops to smile
+ On some one of the rank and file,
+ (Inglorious--if not mute,)
+ Some groundling bard who craves to climb,
+ Like me, the dizzy rungs of Rhyme,
+ To reach the Golden Fruit;
+ For one in such a situation
+ The faintest praise is no damnation.
+
+ Parnassus heights must surely pall;
+ For simpler diet do you call,
+ Of nectar growing tired?
+ These verses to your feet I bring,
+ Drawn from an unassuming spring,
+ Well-meant--if not inspired;
+ O charming Poet's charming daughter,
+ Descend and taste my toast and water!
+
+ For you alone these lines I write,
+ That, reading them, your brow may light
+ Beneath its crown of bays;
+ Your eyes may sparkle like a star,
+ With friendship, that is dearer far
+ Than any breath of praise;
+ The which a lucky man possessing
+ Can ask no higher human blessing.
+
+ And, though the "salt estranging sea"
+ Be widely spread 'twixt you and me,
+ We have what makes amends;
+ And since I am so glad of you,
+ Be glad of me a little, too,
+ Because of being friends.
+ And, if I earn your approbation,
+ Accept my humble dedication.
+
+ H. G.
+
+
+
+
+ _Foreword_
+
+
+ The Press may pass my Verses by
+ With sentiments of indignation,
+ And say, like Greeks of old, that I
+ Corrupt the Youthful Generation;
+ I am unmoved by taunts like these--
+ (And so, I think, was Socrates).
+
+ Howe'er the Critics may revile,
+ I pick no journalistic quarrels,
+ Quite realizing that my Style
+ Makes up for any lack of Morals;
+ For which I feel no shred of shame--
+ (And Byron would have felt the same).
+
+ I don't intend a Child to read
+ These lines, which are not for the Young;
+ For, if I did, I should indeed
+ Feel fully worthy to be hung.
+ (Is "hanged" the perfect tense of "hang"?
+ Correct me, Mr. Andrew Lang!)
+
+ O Young of Heart, tho' in your prime,
+ By you these Verses may be seen!
+ Accept the Moral with the Rhyme,
+ And try to gather what I mean.
+ But, if you can't, it won't hurt me!
+ (And Browning would, I know, agree.)
+
+ Be reassured, I have not got
+ The style of Stephen Phillips' heroes,
+ Nor Henry Jones's pow'r of Plot,
+ Nor wit like Arthur Wing Pinero's!
+ (If so, I should not waste my time
+ In writing you this sort of rhyme.)
+
+ I strive to paint things as they Are,
+ Of Realism the true Apostle;
+ All flow'ry metaphors I bar,
+ Nor call the homely thrush a "throstle."
+ Such synonyms would make me smile.
+ (And so they would have made Carlyle.)
+
+ My Style may be at times, I own,
+ A trifle cryptic or abstruse;
+ In this I do not stand alone,
+ And need but mention, in excuse,
+ A thousand world-familiar names,
+ From Meredith to Henry James.
+
+ From these my fruitless fancy roams
+ To seek the Ade of Modern Fable,
+ From Doyle's or Hemans' "Stately Ho(l)mes,"
+ To t'other of The Breakfast Table;
+ Like Galahad, I wish (in vain)
+ "My wit were as the wit of Twain!"
+
+ Had I but Whitman's rugged skill,
+ (And managed to escape the Censor),
+ The Accuracy of a Mill,
+ The Reason of a Herbert Spencer,
+ The literary talents even
+ Of Sidney Lee or Leslie Stephen.
+
+ The pow'r of Patmore's placid pen,
+ Or Watson's gift of execration,
+ The sugar of Le Gallienne,
+ Or Algernon's Alliteration.
+ One post there is I'd not be lost in,
+ --Tho' I might find it most ex-austin'!
+
+ Some day, if I but study hard,
+ The public, vanquished by my pen'll
+ Acclaim me as a Minor Bard,
+ Like Norman Gale or Mrs. Meynell,
+ And listen to my lyre a-rippling
+ Imperial banjo-spasms like Kipling.
+
+ Were I a syndicate like K.
+ Or flippant scholar like Augustine;
+ Had I the style of Pater, say,
+ Which ev'ryone would put their trust in,
+ I'd love (as busy as a squirrel)
+ To pate, to kipple, and to birrel.
+
+ So don't ignore me. If you should,
+ 'Twill touch me to the very heart oh!
+ To be as much misunderstood
+ As once was Andrea del Sarto;
+ Unrecognized to toil away,
+ Like Millet--not, of course, Mill_ais_.
+
+ And, pray, for Morals do not look
+ In this unique agglomeration,
+ --This unpretentious little book
+ Of Infelicitous Quotation.
+ I deem you foolish if you do,
+ (And Mr. Russell thinks so, too).
+
+
+
+
+ _"Virtue is Its Own Reward"_
+
+
+ Virtue its own reward? Alas!
+ And what a poor one as a rule!
+ Be Virtuous and Life will pass
+ Like one long term of Sunday-School.
+ (No prospect, truly, could one find
+ More unalluring to the mind.)
+
+ You may imagine that it pays
+ To practise Goodness. Not a bit!
+ You cease receiving any praise
+ When people have got used to it;
+ 'Tis generally understood
+ You find it _easy_ to be good.
+
+ The Model Child has got to keep
+ His fingers and his garments white;
+ In church he may not go to sleep,
+ Nor ask to stop up late at night.
+ In fact he must not ever do
+ A single thing he wishes to.
+
+ He may not paddle in his boots,
+ Like naughty children, at the Sea;
+ The sweetness of Forbidden Fruits
+ Is not, alas! for such as he.
+ He watches, with pathetic eyes,
+ His weaker brethren make mud-pies.
+
+ He must not answer back, oh no!
+ However rude grown-ups may be,
+ But keep politely silent, tho'
+ He brim with scathing repartee;
+ For nothing is considered worse
+ Than scoring off Mamma or Nurse.
+
+ He must not eat too much at meals,
+ Nor scatter crumbs upon the floor;
+ However vacuous he feels,
+ He may not pass his plate for more;
+ --Not tho' his ev'ry organ ache
+ For further slabs of Christmas cake.
+
+ He is enjoined to choose his food
+ From what is easy to digest;
+ A choice which in itself is good,
+ But never what _he_ likes the best.
+ (At times how madly he must wish
+ For just _one_ real unwholesome dish!)
+
+ And, when the wretched urchin plays
+ With other little girls and boys,
+ He has to show unselfish ways
+ By giving them his choicest toys;
+ His ears he lets them freely box,
+ Or pull his lubricated locks.
+
+ His face is always being washed,
+ His hair perpetually brushed,
+ And thus his brighter side is squashed,
+ His human instincts warped and crushed;
+ Small wonder that his early years
+ Are filled with "thoughts too deep for tears."
+
+ He is commanded not to waste
+ The fleeting hours of childhood's days
+ By giving way to any taste
+ For circuses or matinees;
+ For him the entertainments planned
+ Are "Lectures on the Holy Land."
+
+ He never reads a story book
+ By Rider H. or Winston C.,
+ In vain upon his desk you'd look
+ For tales by Richard Harding D.;
+ Nor could you find upon his shelf
+ The works of Rudyard--or myself!
+
+ He always fears that he may do
+ Some action that is _infra dig._,
+ And so he lives his short life through
+ In the most noxious role of Prig.
+ ("Short life" I say, for it's agreed
+ The Good die very young indeed.)
+
+ Ah me! How sad it is to think
+ He could have lived like me--or you!
+ With practice and a taste for drink,
+ Our joys he might have known, he too!
+ And shared the pleasure _we_ have had
+ In being gloriously bad!
+
+ The Naughty Boy gets much delight
+ From doing what he should not do;
+ But, as such conduct isn't Right,
+ He sometimes suffers for it, too.
+ Yet, what's a spanking to the fun
+ Of leaving vital things Undone?
+
+ If he's notoriously bad,
+ But for a day should change his ways,
+ His parents will be all so glad,
+ They'll shower him with gifts and praise!
+ (It pays a connoisseur in crimes
+ To be a perfect saint at times.)
+
+ Of course there always lies the chance
+ That he is charged with being ill,
+ And all his innocent romance
+ Is ruined by a rhubarb pill.
+ (Alas! 'Tis not alone the Good
+ That are so much misunderstood.)
+
+ But, as a rule, when he behaves
+ (Evincing no malarial signs),
+ His friends are all his faithful slaves,
+ Until he once again declines
+ With easy conscience, more or less,
+ To undiluted wickedness.
+
+ The Wicked flourish like the bay,
+ At Cards or Love they always win,
+ Good Fortune dogs their steps all day,
+ They fatten while the Good grow thin.
+ The Righteous Man has much to bear;
+ The Bad becomes a Bullionaire!
+
+ For, though he be the greatest sham,
+ Luck favours him his whole life through;
+ At "Bridge" he always makes a Slam
+ After declaring "Sans atout";
+ With ev'ry deal his fate has planned
+ A hundred Aces in his hand.
+
+ And it is always just the same;
+ He somehow manages to win,
+ By mere good fortune, any game
+ That he may be competing in.
+ At Golf no bunker breaks his club,
+ For him the green provides no "rub."
+
+ At Billiards, too, he flukes away
+ (With quite unnecessary "side");
+ No matter what he tries to play,
+ For him the pockets open wide;
+ He never finds both balls in baulk,
+ Or makes miss-cues for want of chalk.
+
+ He swears; he very likely bets;
+ He even wears a flaming necktie;
+ Inhales Egyptian cigarettes
+ And has a "Mens Inconscia Recti";
+ Yet, spite of all, one must confess
+ That naught succeeds like his excess.
+
+ There's no occasion to be Just,
+ No need for motives that are fine,
+ To be Director of a Trust,
+ Or Manager of a Combine;
+ Your corner is a public curse,
+ Perhaps; but it will fill your purse.
+
+ Then stride across the Public's bones,
+ Crush all opponents under you,
+ Until you "rise on stepping-stones
+ Of their dead selves"; and, when you do,
+ The widow's and the orphan's tears
+ Shall comfort your declining years!
+
+ But having had your boom in oil,
+ And made your millions out of it,
+ Would you propose to cease from toil?
+ Great Vanderfeller! Not a bit!
+ You've _got_ to labour, day and night,
+ Until you die--and serve you right!
+
+ Then, when you stop this frenzied race,
+ And others in your office sit,
+ You'll leave the world a better place,
+ --The better for your leaving it!
+ For there's a chance perhaps your heir
+ May spend what you've collected there.
+
+ Myself, how lucky I must be,
+ That need not fear so gross an end;
+ Since Fortune has not favoured me
+ With many million pounds to spend.
+ (Still, did that fickle Dame relent,
+ I'd show you how they _should_ be spent!)
+
+ I am not saint enough to feel
+ My shoulder ripen to a wing,
+ Nor have I wits enough to steal
+ His title from the Copper King;
+ And there's a vasty gulf between
+ The Man I Am and Might Have Been;
+
+ But tho' at dinner I may take
+ Too much of Heidsieck (extra dry),
+ And underneath the table make
+ My simple couch just where I lie,
+ My mode of roosting on the floor
+ Is just a trick and nothing more.
+
+ And when, not Wisely but too Well,
+ My thirst I have contrived to quench,
+ The stories I am apt to tell
+ May be, perhaps, a trifle French;
+ (For 'tis in anecdote, no doubt,
+ That what's Bred in the Beaune comes out.)
+
+ It does not render me unfit
+ To give advice, both wise and right,
+ Because I do not follow it
+ Myself as closely as I might;
+ There's nothing that I wouldn't do
+ To point the proper road to _you_.
+
+ And this I'm sure of, more or less,
+ And trust that you will all agree,
+ The Elements of Happiness
+ Consist in being--just like Me;
+ No sinner, nor a saint perhaps,
+ But--well, the very best of chaps.
+
+ Share the Experience I have had,
+ Consider all I've known and seen,
+ And Don't be Good, and Don't be Bad,
+ But cultivate a Golden Mean.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ What makes Existence _really_ nice
+ Is Virtue--with a dash of Vice.
+
+
+
+
+ "_Enough is as Good as a Feast._"
+
+
+ What is Enough? An idle dream!
+ One cannot have enough, I swear,
+ Of Ices or Meringues-and-Cream,
+ Nougat or Chocolate Eclairs,
+ Of Oysters or of Caviar,
+ Of Prawns or Pate de Foie _Grar_!
+
+ Who would not willingly forsake
+ Kindred and Home, without a fuss,
+ For Icing from a Birthday Cake,
+ Or juicy fat Asparagus,
+ And journey over countless seas
+ For New Potatoes and Green Peas?
+
+ They say that a Contented Mind
+ Is a Continual Feast;--but where
+ The mental frame, and how to find,
+ Which can with Turtle Soup compare?
+ No mind, however full of Ease,
+ Could be Continual Toasted Cheese.
+
+ For dinner have a sole to eat,
+ (Some Perrier Jouet, '92,)
+ An Entree then (and, with the meat,
+ A bottle of Lafitte will do),
+ A quail, a glass of port (just one),
+ Liqueurs and coffee, and you've done.
+
+ But should you want a hearty meal,
+ And not this gourmet's lightsome snack,
+ Fill up with terrapin and teal,
+ Clam chowder, crabs and canvasback;
+ With all varieties of sauce,
+ And diff'rent wines for ev'ry course.
+
+ Your tastes may be of simpler type;--
+ A homely glass of "half-and-half,"
+ An onion and a dish of tripe,
+ Or headpiece of the kindly calf.
+ (Cruel perhaps, but then, you know,
+ "_'Faut tout souffrir pour etre veau!_")
+
+ 'Tis a mistake to eat too much
+ Of any dishes but the best;
+ And you, of course, should never touch
+ A thing you _know_ you can't digest;
+ For instance, lobster;--if you _do_,
+ Well,--I'm amayonnaised at you!
+
+ Let this be your heraldic crest,
+ A bottle (charge) of Champagne,
+ A chicken (gorged) with salad (dress'd),
+ Below, this motto to explain--
+ "Enough is Very Good, may be;
+ Too Much is Good Enough for Me!"
+
+
+
+
+ "_Don't Buy a Pig in a Poke._"
+
+
+ Unscrupulous Pigmongers will
+ Attempt to wheedle and to coax
+ The ignorant young housewife till
+ She purchases her pigs in pokes;
+ Beasts that have got a Lurid Past,
+ Or else are far Too Good to Last.
+
+ So, should you not desire to be
+ The victim of a cruel hoax,
+ Then promise me, ah! promise me,
+ You will not purchase pigs in pokes!
+ ('Twould be an error just as big
+ To poke your purchase in a pig.)
+
+ Too well I know the bitter cost,
+ To turn this subject off with jokes;
+ How many a fortune has been lost
+ By men who purchased pigs in pokes.
+ (Ah! think on such when you would talk
+ With mouths that are replete with pork!)
+
+ And, after dinner, round the fire,
+ Astride of Grandpa's rugged knee,
+ Implore your bored but patient sire
+ To tell you what a Poke may be.
+ The fact he might disclose to you--
+ Which is far more than _I_ can do.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ The Moral of The Pigs and Pokes
+ Is not to make your choice too quick.
+ In purchasing a Book of Jokes,
+ Pray poke around and take your pick.
+ Who knows how rich a mental meal
+ The covers of _this_ book conceal?
+
+
+
+
+ "_Learn to Take Things Easily._"
+
+
+ To these few words, it seems to me,
+ A wealth of sound instruction clings;
+ O Learn to Take things easily--
+ Espeshly Other People's Things;
+ And Time will make your fingers deft
+ At what is known as Petty Theft.
+
+ Your precious moments do not waste;
+ Take Ev'rything that isn't tied!
+ Who knows but you may have a Taste,
+ A Gift perhaps, for Homicide,--
+ (A Mania which, encouraged, thrives
+ On Taking Other People's Lives).
+
+ "Fools and Their Money soon must part!"
+ And you can help this on, may be,
+ If, in the kindness of your Heart,
+ You Learn to Take things easily;
+ And be, with little education,
+ A Prince of Misappropriation.
+
+
+
+
+ "_A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss._"
+
+
+ I never understood, I own,
+ What anybody (with a soul)
+ Could mean by offering a Stone
+ This needless warning not to Roll;
+ And what inducement there can be
+ To gather Moss I fail to see.
+
+ I'd sooner gather anything,
+ Like primroses, or news perhaps,
+ Or even wool (when suffering
+ A momentary mental lapse);
+ But could forego my share of moss,
+ Nor ever realize the loss.
+
+ 'Tis a botanical disease,
+ And worthy of remark as such;
+ Lending a dignity to trees,
+ To ruins a romantic touch.
+ A timely adjunct, I've no doubt,
+ But not worth writing home about.
+
+ Of all the Stones I ever met,
+ In calm repose upon the ground,
+ I really never found one yet
+ With a desire to roll around;
+ Theirs is a stationary role,--
+ (A joke,--and feeble on the whole).
+
+ But, if I were a stone, I swear
+ I'd sooner move and view the World
+ Than sit and grow the greenest hair
+ That ever Nature combed and curled.
+ I see no single saving grace
+ In being known as "Mossyface!"
+
+ Instead, I might prove useful for
+ A weapon in the hand of Crime,
+ A paperweight, a milestone, or
+ A missile at Election time;
+ In each capacity I could
+ Do quite incalculable good.
+
+ When well directed from the Pit,
+ I might promote a welcome death,
+ If fortunate enough to hit
+ Some budding Hamlet or Macbeth,
+ Who twice each day the playhouse fills,--
+ (For further Notice See Small Bills).
+
+ At concerts, too, if you prefer,
+ I could prevent your growing deaf,
+ By silencing the amateur
+ Before she reached that upper F.;
+ Or else, in lieu of half-a-brick,
+ Restrain some local Kubelik.
+
+ Then, human stones, take my advice,
+ (As you should always do, indeed);
+ This proverb may be very nice,
+ But don't you pay it any heed,
+ And, tho' you make the critics cross,
+ Roll on, and never mind the moss.
+
+
+
+
+ "_After Dinner Sit a While; After
+ Supper Walk a Mile._"
+
+
+ After luncheon sit awhile,
+ 'Tis an admirable plan;
+ After dinner walk a mile--
+ But make certain that you _can_.
+ (Were you not this maxim taught;--
+ "Good is Wrought by want of Port.")
+
+ After dinner think on this;
+ Join the ladies with a smile,
+ And remember that a Miss
+ Is as good as any mile.
+ (Thus you may be led to feel
+ What Amis felt for Amile.)
+
+ Never fear of being shy
+ At the houses where you dine;
+ You'll recover by-and-bye,
+ With the second glass of wine;
+ And can recognize with bliss
+ That a Meal is not amiss.
+
+
+
+
+ "_It is Never Too Late to Mend._"
+
+
+ Since it can never be too late
+ To change your life, or else renew it,
+ Let the unpleasant process wait
+ Until you are _compelled_ to do it.
+ The State provides (and gratis too)
+ Establishments for such as you.
+
+ Remember this, and pluck up heart,
+ That, be you publican or parson,
+ Your ev'ry art must have a start,
+ From petty larceny to arson;
+ And even in the burglar's trade,
+ The cracksman is not born, but made.
+
+ So, if in your career of crime,
+ You fail to carry out some "coup",
+ Then try again a second time,
+ And yet again, until you _do_;
+ And don't despair, or fear the worst,
+ Because you get found out at first.
+
+ Perhaps the battle will not go,
+ On all occasions, to the strongest;
+ You may be fairly certain tho'
+ That He Laughs Last who laughs the Longest.
+ So keep a good reserve of laughter,
+ Which may be found of use hereafter.
+
+ Believe me that, howe'er well meant,
+ A Good Resolve is always brief;
+ Don't let your precious hours be spent
+ In turning over a new leaf.
+ Such leaves, like Nature's, soon decay,
+ And then are only in the way.
+
+ The Road to--well, a certain spot,
+ (A Road of very fair dimensions),
+ Has, so the proverb tells us, got
+ A parquet-floor of Good Intentions.
+ Take care, in your desire to please,
+ You do not add a brick to these.
+
+ For there may come a moment when
+ You shall be mended willy-nilly,
+ With many more misguided men,
+ Whose skill is undermined with skilly.
+ Till then procrastinate, my friend;
+ "It _Never_ is Too Late to Mend!"
+
+
+
+
+ "_A Bad Workman Complains of his Tools._"
+
+
+ This Pen of mine is simply grand,
+ I never loved a pen so much;
+ This Paper (underneath my hand)
+ Is really a delight to touch;
+ And never in my life, I think,
+ Did I make use of finer ink.
+
+ The Subject upon which I write
+ Is everything that I could choose;
+ I seldom knew my Wits more bright,
+ More cosmopolitan my Views;
+ Nor ever did my Head contain
+ So surplus a supply of Brain!
+
+
+
+
+ _Potpourri._
+
+
+ There are many more Maxims to which
+ I would like to accord a front place,
+ But alas! I have got
+ To omit a whole lot,
+ For the lack of available space;
+ And the rest I am forced to boil down and condense
+ To the following Essence of Sound without Sense:
+
+
+ Now the Pitcher that journeys too oft
+ To the Well will get broken at last.
+ But you'll find it a fact
+ That, by using some tact,
+ Such a danger as this can be past.
+ (There's an obvious way, and a simple, you'll own,
+ Which is, if you're a Pitcher, to Let Well alone.)
+
+
+ Half a loafer is never well-bred,
+ And Self-Praise is a Dangerous Thing.
+ And the Mice are at play
+ When the Cat is away,
+ For a moment, inspecting a King.
+ (Tho' if Care kills a Cat, as the Proverbs declare,
+ It is right to suppose that the King will take care.)
+
+
+ Don't Halloo till you're out of the Wood,
+ When a Stitch in Good Time will save nine,
+ While a Bird in the Hand
+ Is worth Two, understand,
+ In the Bush that Needs no Good Wine.
+ (Tho' the two, if they _Can_ sing but Won't, have been known,
+ By an accurate aim to be killed with one Stone.)
+
+
+ Never Harness the Cart to the Horse;
+ Since the latter should be _a la carte_.
+ And Birds of a Feather
+ Come Flocking Together,
+ Because they can't well Flock Apart.
+ (You may cast any Bread on the Waters, I think,
+ But, unless I'm mistaken, you can't make it Sink.)
+
+
+ It is only the Fool who remarks
+ That there Can't be a Fire without Smoke;
+ Has he never yet learned
+ How the gas can be turned
+ On the best incombustible coke?
+ (Would you value a man by the checks on his suits,
+ And forget "_que c'est le premier passbook qui Coutts_?")
+
+
+ Now "_De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bo-
+ num_," is Latin, as ev'ryone owns;
+ If your domicile be
+ Near a Mortuaree,
+ You should always avoid throwing bones.
+ (I would further remark, if I could,--but I couldn't--
+ That People Residing in Glasshouses shouldn't.)
+
+
+ You have heard of the Punctual Bird,
+ Who was First in presenting his Bill;
+ But I pray you'll be firm,
+ And remember the Worm
+ Had to get up much earlier still;
+ (So that, if you _can't_ rise in the morning, then Don't;
+ And be certain that Where there's a Will there's a Won't.)
+
+
+ You can give a bad name to a Dog,
+ And hang him by way of excuse;
+ Whereas Hunger, of course,
+ Is by far the Best Sauce
+ For the Gander as well as the Goose.
+ (But you shouldn't judge anyone just by his looks,
+ For a Surfeit of Broth ruins too many Cooks.)
+
+
+ With the fact that Necessity knows
+ Nine Points of the Law, you'll agree.
+ There are just as Good Fish
+ To be found on a Dish
+ As you ever could catch in the Sea.
+ (You should Look ere you Leap on a Weasel Asleep,
+ And I've also remarked That Still Daughters Run Cheap.)
+
+
+ The much trodden-on Lane _will_ Turn,
+ And a Friend is in Need of a Friend;
+ But the Wisest of Saws,
+ Like the Camel's Last Straws,
+ Or the Longest of Worms, have an end.
+ So, before out of Patience a Virtue you make,
+ A decisive farewell of these maxims we'll take.
+
+
+
+
+ _Envoi._
+
+ _"Don't Look a Gifthorse in the Mouth"_
+
+
+ I knew a man, who lived down South;
+ He thought this maxim to defy;
+ He looked a Gifthorse in the Mouth;
+ The Gifthorse bit him in the Eye!
+ And, while the steed enjoyed his bite,
+ My Southern friend mislaid his sight.
+
+ Now, had this foolish man, that day,
+ Observed the Gifthorse in the _Heel_,
+ It might have kicked his brains away,
+ But that's a loss he would not feel;
+ Because you see (need I explain?)
+ My Southern friend had got no brain.
+
+ When anyone to you presents
+ A poodle, or a pocketknife,
+ A set of Ping-pong instruments,
+ A banjo or a Lady-wife,
+ 'Tis churlish, as I understand,
+ To grumble that they're second-hand.
+
+ And he who termed Ingratitude
+ As "worser nor a servant's tooth"
+ Was evidently well imbued
+ With all the elements of Truth;
+ (While he who said "Uneasy lies
+ The tooth that wears a crown" was wise).
+
+ "One must be poor," George Eliot said,
+ "To know the luxury of giving;"
+ So too one really should be dead
+ To realize the joy of living.
+ (I'd sooner be--I don't know which--
+ I'd _like_ to be alive and rich!)
+
+ _This_ book may be a Gifthorse too,
+ And one you surely ought to prize;
+ If so, I beg you, read it through
+ With kindly and uncaptious eyes,
+ Not grumbling because this particular line doesn't happen to scan,
+ And this one doesn't rhyme!
+
+
+
+
+ _Aftword._
+
+
+ 'Tis done! We reach the final page,
+ With feelings of relief, I'm certain;
+ And there arrives at such a stage,
+ The moment to ring down the curtain.
+ (This metaphor is freely taken
+ From Shakespeare--or perhaps from Bacon.)
+
+ The Book perused, our Future brings
+ A plethora of blank to-morrows,
+ When memories of Happier Things
+ Will be our Sorrow's Crown of Sorrows.
+ (I trust you recognize this line
+ As being Tennyson's, not mine.)
+
+ My verses may indeed be few,
+ But are they not, to quote the poet,
+ "The sweetest things that ever grew
+ Beside a human door"? I know it.
+ (What an _in_human door would be,
+ Enquire of Wordsworth, please, not me.)
+
+ 'Twas one of my most cherished dreams
+ To write a Moral Book some day;
+ What says the Bard? "The best laid schemes
+ Of Mice and Men gang aft agley!"
+ (The Bard here mentioned, by the bye,
+ Is Robbie Burns, of course--not I.)
+
+ And tho' my pen records each thought
+ As swift as the phonetic Pitman,
+ Morality is not my "forte,"
+ O Camarados! (_vide_ Whitman)
+ And, like the Porcupine, I still
+ Am forced to ply a fretful quill.
+
+ We may be Master of our Fate,
+ (As Henley was inspired to mention)
+ Yet am I but the Second Mate
+ Upon the ss. "Good Intention";
+ For me the course direct is lacking--
+ I have to do a deal of tacking.
+
+ To seek for Morals here's a task
+ Of which you well may be despairing;
+ "What has become of them?" you ask,
+ They've given us the slip--like Waring.
+ "Look East!" said Browning once, and I
+ Would make a similar reply.
+
+ Look East, where in a garret drear,
+ The Author works, without cessation,
+ Composing verses for a mere-
+ ly nominal remuneration;
+ And, while he has the strength to write 'em,
+ Will do so still--_ad infinitum_.
+
+
+
+
+ FINIS.
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The words 'bo-num' and 'mere-ly' were retained hyphenated at the ends of
+lines to match the printed edition and maintain the poetical intent of
+the author.
+
+Changed 'Heidsick' to 'Heidsieck.'
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Perverted Proverbs, by
+Harry Graham, (AKA Col. D. Streamer)
+
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