Let Them Keep It Dark

A little postscript after my series of posts on my great-grandfather Joseph Charles Martin Cowan that I just had to share.

On 12 December 1890 the North Melbourne Advertiser was reporting on Essendon council business, and noted that "Cr. Cowan moved that the Railway Commissioners be requested to keep alight the lamp on the west side of the Ascot Vale Railway Station in Bloomfield's Paddock. A good deal of free love went on here at nights to the disgust of the residents.'

This prompted the following from the Melbourne Punch on 15 January 1891, who felt so strongly that they were moved to poetry!

How hideously unsympathetic men may become as they grow old! We don't suppose that rhyme will touch their flinty hearts, but the situation demands a stanza, and it shall have it – though we should be slain by public subscription afterwards.

O, Councillors of Essendon,
Famed for your gifts of tongue,
Do you forget completely
The days when you were young?
Ah, you could make confession
To many a bygone lark
We fancy, if you chose – but
Not you - you keep it dark.

O, Councillors of Essendon,
Round, fat and pompous grown –
We take these facts for granted –
Are your hearts turned to stone?
Have you not often wandered
With Her in lane or park,
And thanked the local council
Because it kept 'em dark?

O, Councillors of Essendon,
Just think it o'er again –
If Love can laugh at Jocksmiths
He can at Aldermen!
So if your local lovers
Prefer to shun remark
Just put your beastly lamp out
And let them keep it dark.

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