To the Ladies
Jessie C.
Howden
Howden, Jessie C.
W. H.
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Kailey
Fukushima
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Poet attribution: Chambers’s Journal ledger indicates that Mrs Howden, of Haddington, was paid 10s 6d for the poem (NLS Dep 341/369). This poem was republished in J. C. H., Leaflets or Thoughts in Verse, Neill & Son, 1880. The pseudonym, W. H.
, may be a printer’s error. (AC)
Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal
4
17
836
16
When bills are long, and Credit low,
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To the Ladie
s.
When bills are long, and Credit low,
And things are bad as they can be,
And Banks go down with sudden blow,
And nought is sure—but Penury !
When ‘ Pater ’ in his private den
Looks sad, and savage as a bear,
Because his funds are low—O then,
Dear Ladies—of your debts beware !
Your gorgeous gown of new silk stuff
Will surely ‘ do ’ a second
time ?
Of hats and bonnets, you’ve enough !
Your jackets too are in their prime.
No need to ‘ run up little bills,’
Because your last are not yet paid,
Nor multiply a thousand ills
By bringing others to their aid !
You see how ‘ Pater’s ’ rugged brow
Is seamed with lines of care and grief.
The cause is plain—and even now
His case seems quite beyond relief.
His income—just five hundred pounds,
Is nothing—when a thousand’s due.
Things really are beyond all bounds.
The reason, Ladies, lies with you !
‘ So many wants, ’ you always say ;
So many things we have to buy
;
And money runs so fast away,
That we can’t pay (although we try) ;
And go the bills just grow and grow
Like mushrooms, only not so good.’
And ‘ Pater ’ paces to and fro
His sanctum, in a horrid mood !
I think you sometimes might refrain
From buying—when you cannot pay ;
The reason is so very plain
That ‘ money runs so fast away !’
Restrain expenses—stay at home ;
Make ‘ Pater ’ happy if you can ;
And then whatever crash may come,
‘ Pater ’ will be an honest man !
W. H.