A MODERN DRINKING SONG.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 112, 4 November 1882, Page 121

A MODERN DRINKING SONG.

Fill high the bowl with Fusel Oil ! With tannin let your cups be crowned ! If strychnine gives relief to Toil, Let strychnine's generous juice abound ! Let Oil of Vitriol cool your brains, Or, animated atoms brew — And fill your arteries, hearts, and reins With glee — and infusorial glue ! Vine! That died out in '58 — What fool would have it back ? And how ? The " cup that will inebriate And never cheer," they sell us now. " The conscious water saw its God And blushed." What of it ? Don't you feel That water knows the Drugger's rod, And blushes now — with Cochineal ? Ah-h ! fragrant fume of Creosote ! Bewitching bowl of Prussian Blue ! Who would not eoothe his parching throat With your mild offspring, " Mountain Dew ?" Stronger than aught that racked the frame And shook the mighty brains of B urns, Surely yell set our heads aflame Whene'er his festal day returns. Bring on the Beer — fresh Copperas foam, With Alum mixed, in powder fine : How could my foolish fancy roam ■ In search of whiter froth than thine ? I Thy Indian Berry's Essence spread I Through amber wavelets, sparkling clear, ; Benumbs dull Care — strikes feeling dead, ' And narcotizes Shame and Fear ! Far down thy bubbling depths, Champagne ! 1 Drowned honour, Love, and Beauty lie — They fought th' iinequal fight in vain — Shall we, too, merely drink— and die? Sweet Acetate of Lead, forbid ! Fill every drink with pangs, and tell What tortuous could — and always did — Anticipate the stings of Hell ! Then drink boys ! drink ! We never can Drink younger ! And we never will Be men — or aught resembling man, While poisoners have the power to kill ! Amen ! From Frenzy's screech of mirth To maudlin Sorrow's drivelling flow We'll rave, through scenes unmatched on earth, And not to be surpassed below !

f Insurance agent to a country candidate in the r North : — "Do your family patronize the local Uii,k<jri : ' Candidate t "Yes." I. A.: "Hum," ! •'•!. speaking siiftke of the head — a pause — then the v^'^Jnc- is i;"jesu?Mi)j "How many of yoiu 1 friends s•. 'V.'v* Dulrc 'Oomiaught has sent a large and { Yevy ji:iiidn(.'raf; i' jb r or christening cup to the infcUiV. cliiiighi la" o-f Oaptaiii and the Hon. Mrs Clarke Xeimpdy; •;<?. v r hona' he had promised to stand godfatiiei'., ' :