TO A PHILANTHROPIST.
I help that hospital? My doctor's fee Absorbs too much. Alas! I cannot be An inmate there myself; he comes to me At home.
Do not suppose I have too close a fist. Rent, rates, bills, taxes, make a fearful list; I should be homeless if I did assist That home.
I must—it is my impecunious lot— Economise the little I have got; So if I see you coming I am "not At home."
My clothes are shabby. How I should be dunned By tailor, hatter, hosier, whom I've shunned, If I supported that school clothing fund, That home!
I'd help if folks wore nothing but their skins; This hat, this coat, at which the street-boy grins, Remind me still that "Charity begins At home."
Kiss versus Kiss.
On the cold cannon's mouth the Kiss of Peace Should fall like flowers, and bid its bellowings cease!— But ah! that Kiss of Peace seems very far From being as strong as the Hotchkiss of War!
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