AT THE CONSUL'S OPEN DOOR.

Evening Star, Issue 9582, 31 December 1894, Page 4 (Supplement)

AT THE CONSUL'S OPEN DOOR.

The 'Boston TranseripV publishes this| poem of Bret Har'te's, probably not be-! fore in " print. An Englishman named 1 : Fowler having procured money from Amerii oan consuls and others on the pretence that j he was a destitute American citizen, a note. • of warning was sent from Bristol, Eng., to all onr consuls in Great Britain. - When it reached Bret Harte, who was then consul , at Glasgow, he sent the following reply : ' I'm acquainted with affliction Chiefly.in the form of fiction, As 'tis offered up by strangers At the consul's open door; And I know all kinds of sorrow That relief would try to borrow, From a sixpence upward To a p'un' or more. I think I know all fancy Styles of active mendicancy, From the helpless Irish soldier Who fought in our country's war, And laid in Libby's prisonIn a cause that wasn't his'n, i And I sent hiin back to the country Which he never saw before. I know the wretched seaman, Who was tortured by a demon Captain till he fled in terror, With .his wages in arrear; , And I gave to him sufficient To ship as an efficient And active malefaetur . With a gentle privateer. I know the worthy tourist Who by accident the purest Lost his letters, watch, and wallet, From the cold deck coming o'er; And I headed his preamble, [ '■■ And lent him enough to gamble, - Till he won back all his money From the cold deck, here ashore. : I have tickets bought for mothers, i And babies who were another's, And husbands that not always Could be claimed as theirs alone, 1 Till I've come to the conclusion i That, for ethical confusion i And immoral contribution, , I have little left undone. i But I never, never, never, J In beneficent endeavor, Fell into the snare 1 That the Saxon fowler spread, i And it seems to me a pistol. Used judiciously at Bristol, ' Would not too prematurely Have brought this matter to a head.