You never miss your water till the well runs dry

When a child, I lived at Lincoln, with my parents at the farm,
The lessons that my mother taught to me were quite a charm;
She would often take me on her knee, when tired of childish play,
And as she pressed me to her breast, I've heard my mother say:

Waste Not, Want not, is a maxim I would teach,
Let your watch word be dispatch and practice what you preach,
Do not let your chances like sunbeams pass you by,
For you never miss the water till the well runs dry.

As years rolled on, I grew to be a mischief-making boy!
Destruction seemed my only sport, it was my only joy;
And well do I remember, when oft-times well chastised,
How father sat beside me, then, and thus has me advised:

When I arrived at manhood, I embarked in public life,
And found it was a rugged road, bestrewn with care and strife;
I speculated foolishly, my losses were severe;
But still a tiny voice kept whispering in my ear:

Then I studied strict economy, and found to my surprise,
My funds, instead of sinking, very quickly then did rise;
I grasped each chance, and always "struck the iron while 'twas hot,"
I seized my opportunities, and never once forgot:

I'm married now, and happy, I've a charming little wife,
We live in peace and harmony, devoid of care and strife;
Fortune smiles upon us, we have little children three,
The lesson that I teach them as they prattle round my knee:

I originally suspected this might be written by Harry Clifton , who wrote and sang so many of his own motto songs. This was reinforced by reading the memoirs of Scottish comedian WF Frame who seemed to recall Clifton singing it:

[Harry Clifton] was one of the star artistes on that occasion. How I recall his memory now – the greatest songwriter of his day and generation – a man with a charming personality that will ever be remembered by those who knew him…… Even now I fancy I can hear the thunderous applause that nightly greeted the singing of that immortal song of his, with its well-known chorus:
Waste not want not is a motto I would teach
Let your watchword be dispatch and practice what you preach
Never let your chances, like sunbeams pass you by
For you’ll never miss your water till the well runs dry.

WF Frame in 1905 recalling seeing Harry Clifton in his youth.

It seems unlikely that Frame would mix up Harry Linn, who he knew very well, with Clifton , but he may well have misremembered the words being sung. Kilgarriff has a song in Clifton’s repertoire called Waste not want not, with no author credited, which might be the song listed here.

However, most sources tend to list this song as being written by Harry Linn with music by Rowland (or Rollin) Howard. It was 1st published, credited to Linn, in around 1874 several years after Clifton had died. There are also later versions of the sheet music printed in America which have another author credited. It was often the case that songs written on one side of the Atlantic would later appear on the other, claimed by a different author/composer.

The copyright to the song, credited to R Howlard was sold in 1875:

In 1882 Linn took out several notices in The Era, making clear it was his song:

Kilgarrif lists You never miss your water… written by Linn/Howard, in the repertoire of Harry Linn and there are plenty of contemporary newspaper reports backing up the idea both at Linn wrote this song, and that he sang it regularly.

The song appears in dozens of song sheets and songbooks of the 19th century, and can be classed as traditional as it was collected twice from the singing of unknown source singers: once in America and once in the UK.

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Mudcat thread
• WF Frame tells his own story
• Songsheet suggesting that somewhere there might be sheet music published by Hopwood and Crew

Last Updated on December 31, 2020 by John Baxter | Published: July 8, 2020