And here’s the _Etui Mystérieux_, With its _Henna_ to use _pour les beaux yeux_, And its velvet _Mouches_, which so black will be, If stuck on the _Crème de Fleur de Lis_; And its _House-leek Juice_ to warts remove, And its _Walnut-water_ to hair improve, And its wonderful _Incarnate de Chine_, To hide where the wrinkle once has been, And its _Powders_ to frost the locks of hair Which _Sahara Wash_ has made more fair, And its bright _Eau d’Or_ to turn to gold The locks that are bound in a massive fold Above the forehead, deprived of crease By the far-famed _Crème de l’Impératrice_, And covered as though with a beauteous calm, By the secret power of the _Bagdad Balm_; Above the pupils which _Kohhl_ makes bright, And _Belladonna_ augments at night, And to which the _Crayon Noir_ supplies A finely-arched brow to match the eyes, And increase the effect of the _Bleu pour Veines_, Which imparts such a clear and delicate stain To the skin enamelled with _Blanc de Cygne_, And powdered over with _Véloutine_, That enhances the _Grenadine_, which tips With a cherry red the pouting lips To suit the _Blanc de Perle_ (in paste) That forms a background whitely chaste For the _Rouge’s_ sympathetic blush Stippled neatly on with a hare’s-foot brush On the cheeks, to which _Styrian Lotion_ lends A plumpness that Nature far transcends, Of the Maiden’s Face that Art made! _Truth._ December 25, 1883. ―――― ANOTHER VIEW OF A ROOKERY. This is the House that any one built! This is the Cadger who’d ruin the House that any one built. * * * * * And this is the Writer whose vigilant care shows poverty’s evils exceptional are, nor visit the men who lead with their wives clean, sober, hard-working, respectable lives, and exposes the Rads, who, by stooping to set poor against rich popularity get, and lay their ills at the rich man’s door, as profits to him at the cost of the poor, and support the Paper that (so it may sell) will foster sensation and shamefully tell the Falsehood that stupidly dares to aver it lies with the rich (who, it says, prefer foul tenants to cleanly, and “bullion” can squeeze from starving wretches and dirt and disease), and not with Drink and improvident ways, that they lost the earnings of happier days, and got those Habits of laziness that led to the Tokens of filth and distress, that mark the Cadger who’d ruin the House that any one built. _A Pen’orth of Poetry for the Poor._ London. 1884. ―――― THE BICYCLE THAT JACK MADE. This is the bicycle that Jack made. This is the lathe, all polished and true, That finished the work, kept under-weighed, For the bicycle that Jack made. * * * * *