The Newer Lullaby

("Good heavens, when I think what the young boy of to-day is growing up to I gasp.  He has too many women around him all the time.  He has his mother when he is a baby.”—­Bernard Fagin, Probation Officer.)

    Hush-a-bye, baby,
      Feel no alarm,
    Gunmen shall guard you,
      Lest Mother should harm. 
    Wake in your cradle,
      Hear father curse! 
    Isn’t that better
      Than Mother or Nurse?

The Protected Sex

With apologies to James Whitcomb Riley.

("The result of taking second place to girls at school is that the boy feels a sense of inferiority that he is never afterward able entirely to shake off.”—­Editorial in London Globe against co-education.)

    There, little girl, don’t read,
    You’re fond of your books, I know,
    But Brother might mope
    If he had no hope
    Of getting ahead of you. 
    It’s dull for a boy who cannot lead. 
    There, little girl, don’t read.

Warning to Suffragists

("The Latin man believes that giving woman the vote will make her less attractive.”—­Anna H. Shaw.)

    They must sacrifice their beauty
    Who would do their civic duty,
      Who the polling booth would enter,
      Who the ballot box would use;
    As they drop their ballots in it
    Men and women in a minute,
      Lose their charm, the antis tell us,
      But—­the men have less to lose.

Partners

("Our laws have not yet reached the point of holding that property which is the result of the husband’s earnings and the wife’s savings becomes their joint property....  In this most important of all partnerships there is no partnership property.”—­Recent decision of the New York Supreme Court.)

    Lady, lovely lady, come and share
        All my care;
    Oh how gladly I will hurry
    To confide my every worry
    (And they’re very dark and drear)
        In your ear.

    Lady, share the praise I obtain
        Now and again;
    Though I’m shy, it doesn’t matter,
    I will tell you how they flatter: 
    Every compliment I’ll share
        Fair and square.

Lady, I my toil will divide
At your side;
I outside the home, you within;
You shall wash and cook and spin,
I’ll provide the flax and food,
If you’re good.

Partners, lady, we shall be,
You and me,
Partners in the highest sense
Looking for no recompense,
For, the savings that we make,
I shall take.

What Governments Say to Women

(The law compels a married woman to take the nationality of her husband.)