[A novel form of opposition is threatened on the part of mutinous
wives. The development is due to the success of certain Suffragettes
who, after being admitted to gaol of their own heroic choice, have
contrived by dint of fasting to prevail on Mr. HERBERT GLADSTONE to
let them out.]
No, Frederica, no; I may have knuckled
Under, at times, to woman's soft appeal,
But now I have my armour on and buckled;
Tears cannot melt that tegument of steel;
That which I've said I've said:
"You _shall not_ wear a bee-hive on your head!"
I have allowed you loosely to conduct your
Home-life according to your lack of taste,
But to permit this pestilential structure
Would be to have my dignity displaced;
Frankly I draw the line
At such a hat on any wife of mine.
When we exchanged our pledges at the altar
You undertook to honour and obey;
And though, ere now, I have been known to palter
With manhood's rights, this time I'll have my way;
I lay the law down flat,
Saying, "You _shall not_ wear a thing like that."
Nor would it shake my purpose should you follow
The lead of Suffragettes that live on air,
Refusing, out of cussedness, to swallow
Your salutary meals. I shouldn't care
Two paltry jots or tittles
What attitude you took about your victuals.
You might adopt a course of strict starvation,
But you would never break my manly pride;
You might arrest the fount of sustentation
Till you were just a bag of bones and hide,
But that would not disturb
A man of stouter stuff than GLADSTONE (HERB.).
Believe me, I am anything but brutal;
I take no pleasure in a hollow cheek;
I could not get my heart to hum or tootle
If you were slowly waning week by week;
But here I must be firm,
Or I should show no better than a worm.
And, if you stuck to it and went on sinking
Until you failed to draw another breath,
Your widower would console himself with thinking
That there are tragedies far worse than death:
Dishonour may be reckoned
The first of such, and your bee-hat the second.
SIR OWEN SEAMAN.
July 28, 1909.