CONSOLATION
[Character can now be told from the colour of the hair. Red hair, it is said, denotes purity of thought and intensity of feeling.]
Your locks, my friend, are auburn,
Yet do not be dismayed.
With misery no more burn,
Ashamed of such a shade.
Though street-boys call you “Ginger”,
And bid you get it shorn,
The comment need not injure,
No longer need you mourn.
For mark! the shrewd observer,
Who knows a thing or two,
Will greet the man with fervour
Whose head’s of such a hue.
For being so astute, he
Is very well aware
That souls of rarest beauty
Lie hid ’neath ruby hair.
Intensity of feeling
And purity of mind,
And lack of double-dealing,
Beneath red hair you find.
The murderer, the robber,
The dissipated “spark”,
The fraud-promoting jobber,
Are men whose locks are dark.
So cease with aid of hair-dye
To bring a change to pass.
Regard not with a scared eye
Your image in the glass.
Let not the caustic bellow
Of “Carrots!” make you frown.
You’re twice as good a fellow
As he whose hair is brown.