A Toast to the Men

By Edgar Albert Guest 1881–1959

Dedicated to the Women

Here’s to the men! Since Adam’s time

They’ve always been the same;

Whenever anything goes wrong,

The woman is to blame.

From early morn to late at night,

The men fault-finders are;

They blame us if they oversleep,

Or if they miss a car.

They blame us if, beneath the bed,

Their collar buttons roll;

They blame us if the fire is out

Or if there is no coal.

They blame us if they cut themselves

While shaving, and they swear

That we’re to blame if they decide

To go upon a tear.

Here’s to the men, the perfect men!

Who never are at fault;

They blame us if they chance to get

The pepper for the salt.

They blame us if their business fails,

Or back a losing horse;

And when it rains on holidays

The fault is ours, of course.

They blame us when they fall in love,

And when they married get;

Likewise they blame us when they’re sick,

And when they fall in debt.

For everything that crisscross goes

They say we are to blame;

But, after all, here’s to the men,

We love them just the same!

Biography

Edgar Guest began his career at the Detroit Free Press in 1895, where he first worked as a copyboy. He was soon promoted to police writer and later to exchange editor, and in 1904 he began writing verse for the Free Press under the heading "Chaff." Those columns evolved into an immensely popular daily feature entitled "Breakfast Table Chat," which, at the height of its popularity, was syndicated in about three hundred other . . .

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