How difficult the days in which we

How difficult the days in which we live!Build how you will, some dyke decides to give.And here’s the Housewife, worn with cleanly care,But spreading dirt and danger everywhere.Six thousand years ago—it makes you smile—They washed with common water in the Nile.There was no soap, historians have reckonedUntil the time of Charles I—or—II.Water and soap sufficed the human raceTill Hitler happened, and war took place.Our soap was rationed; fats and oils were few;And chemists madly sought for something new.Now no one ‘cleans’ the saucepan or the serge;No woman ‘scrubs’ or ‘washes’. They ‘deterge.’The sink resounds with scientific chatter,And even dirt gives way to ‘soiling matter.’I could of course from A to Z explainThe technicalities, but I refrain:For I imagine you are not in touchWith non-ionic sulphates very much.But briefly, soap plays second fiddle nowTo new synthetic things like Buz and Wow.With other chemicals they all combine