BANK-NOTE POETRY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2051, 11 April 1907, Page 1

BANK-NOTE POETRY.

The back of a bank-note lias evidently appealed to many as a fitting place to record thoughts regarding “filthy luci'o” in general. To say who was the first man who wrote so so would perhaps be impossible, unless one presumed that tug first man to write oil the back of a bank-note was the first man who handled one. in the same manner as the smart youngster will tell one that Adam was the first man who scratched Inshead because he was the first man to possess a head ; hut it- is on record that a note .issued by the Bank of Scotland dated -March Ist, 1780, has been, found with verses in the handwriting of Burns on the back thereof. Burns’ verse is as follows;

Wae worth thy power, thou cursed leaf, Fell source o’ u’my wo’ and grief: For lack of thee I’ve lost my lass, For lack of thee I scrimp my glass. 1 see the children of affliefon Unaided, through thy cursed restriction. it; I've seen the oiqnosstfr’j cruel smile Amid his hopeless victim’s spoil, And for thy potence vainly wished, To crush file villain in the dust. For lack o’ thee I leave this muchloved shore, Never perhaps to greet old Scotland more.

Perhaps more familiar than this is the nolo found in the colony which bore the inscription: “The last of 10,000 —they all went on slow horses and fast women.” Apropos it would be interesting to know if any such verses or inscriptions of a happy nature had been discovered. Evidently it is the pang of parting with tho last note which inspires the owner to express an opinion—when ho has a lot of money he is too busy spending it to care about saying something nice about it.

Of an absolutely unique character is the vorse on the batik of a banknote which came recently into the hands of a Gisborne resident. It expresses neither joy at having or anger at lacking money, but. merely preaches a little sermon. It is as follows:

This piece of paper in your hand Declares to you what on demand You twenty shillings shall receive. This simple promise you believe— It puts your mind as much at ease As if the silver you possessed. S') Christ, who died that now doth live. Doth unto you this promise give: That if you on his name believe. You shall eternal life receive.

Upon the first you calmly rest—• Which is the surest and the best? The bank may break—Heaven never can : ’Tis safer trusting God than man. To write on a bank’s own note that “the bank may break” strikes one as a piece of ironical humor, the more amusing because it is unconscious.