{"id":11345,"date":"2021-06-24T08:11:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T08:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=11345"},"modified":"2024-12-11T07:19:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T07:19:03","slug":"he-was-a-careful-man","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/he-was-a-careful-man\/","title":{"rendered":"He was a careful man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The careful man<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1877<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>George Grossmith<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN24473<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>George Grossmith<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Submitted as words to an \u201cold song\u201d for Sprite\u2019s Article<\/em>, Eastern Evening News (18 Sep 1929), Norfolk England
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HE WAS A CAREFUL MAN\n\nThere was a man who boasted that from trouble he could keep;\nHe always followed out the motto, \u201cLook before you leap.\u201d\nHe took such strong precaution, that the nation soon began\nTo own there never was or could be such a careful man.\nIn June he wore an overcoat to guard against the storm,\nAnd took it off in winter time in case it should turn warm.\n \nHe was a careful man, he was a careful man.\nWhere\u2019er he went, \u2019twas his intent\nTo be a careful man.<\/em>\n\nHe knew how cabmen will impose if people don\u2019t take care,\nBy charging them for a mile or two beyond the proper fare.\nSo not to be defrauded, he instructed his attorney\nTo have the distance measured e\u2019er he started on a journey.\n\nHe never went to dances either in or out of town,\nBecause by chance one night he slipped and pulled his partner down.\nHe ne\u2019er would look by any chance a lady in the face,\nFor fear of misconstruction and a breach of promise case.\n\nHe joined a local vestry and attended every week,\nBut, lest he should break down and fail, he never tried to speak.\nHe had no fixed opinions, but would not be thought a dunce,\nSo rather than go wrong by chance, he never voted once.\n\nFor banting [dieting] he went in, presuming that he might get stout.\nHe had his bed made on the floor\u2014he dreaded falling out.\nHe seldom knew the time\u2014it may appear a silly thing,\nBut he never would wind up his watch in case he broke the spring. \n\nIt may appear absurd, but his sobriety was such\nHe never took a glass of wine in case he took too much.\nAnd water he would never touch because he heard it stated\nThat water very often is so much adulterated.\n\nHe kept a man to think for him and so preserve his brain;\nHe mackintoshed his garden up to keep it from the rain.\nAlthough he paid with pleasure every single debt he had,\nHe\u2019d not be paid himself in case the money should be bad.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This song was a hit in the 1877, and featured in a number of pantomimes and Christmas productions in that year. It features in the Roud folksong index as it was remembered in the 1920s by correspondent of the Eastern Evening News.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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George Grossmith (1847-1912) wrote and composed He was a careful man. <\/em>Grossmith was a comedian, composer and actor most associated with English comic opera. Famous for entertaining from the piano, he was a close associate of Gilbert and Sullivan and performed for many years with the D’Oyly Carte opera company. He performed in some Music Hall venues, and toured vaudeville theatres in America, but he was associated with the more respectable end of the business, as reflected in the title of his autobiography A Society Clown.<\/em> He is probably best remembered today as co-author of the comic novel Diary of a Nobody.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Nov. 24, 1877;  <\/strong>The Illustrated London News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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