The English Dance of Death :: :: University of Virginia Library

A Preacher, I remember well,
Whose fashion was blunt Truths to tell,
Harangu'd his Audience how to shun
Old Nick, as round the world he run;
And thus the fav'rite haunts defin'd
Of the great Enemy of Mankind.

“Avoid the place where the profane
“Their faithless Mysteries maintain;
“Nor let those mansions be explor'd
“Where the Dice rattles on the board.
“Nor risk your Labour's fair reward
“By shuffling the deceitful Card.
“In haste, pass by the tempting street
“Where the alluring wantons meet;
“For thus, as sure as Evil's evil,
“You'll meet that Spirit call'd the Devil.

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“But above all, as you would shun
“In Life and Death to be undone,
“Indulge not in the liquid ill
“That flows from the empoison'd Still,
“Thither the Fiend loves to repair,
“And Death, too oft, attends him there;
“Who, in his never-ceasing rounds,
“The Still-man aids as he compounds
“Each mixture that's in daily strife
“With Health, with Honour, and with Life.
“The Dram-shop is the spot that yields
“More various ills than all the fields
“Where grow the Vices that disgrace
“Th'existence of the human race.
“The Town with beggars it supplies,
“And almost fills th'Infirmaries;
“Gives half their inmates to the jails,
“And multiplies the Hangman's vails.
“—Question the sturdy Lab'rer, why
“He wears the rags of Poverty?
“Wherefore his well-paid, daily task
“Denies the Bread his Children ask?

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“It is the Dram's alluring cup
“That swallows all his earnings up.
“—Behold the squallid Mother's breast,
“By the faint, sickly infant prest,
“That ne'er the milk of Nature gives:—
“Instead, the Suckling's lip receives
“The sad Infusion which at length,
“Destroys its puny, struggling strength;
“Till Life its ev'ry aid denies,
“And the poor, shrivell'd pigmy dies.
“—Bid the Procuress mark the way
“To make th'incautious Maid her prey,
“The guards of Virtue to remove,
“And smooth the path to lawless love;
“'Tis the same deleterious power,
“That crowns Seduction's fatal hour.
“—Look at a shop whose windows show,
“On ev'ry side, above, below,
“The pledge of many a former day,
“Of pressing Want the sad display.
“Does it not wound each tender sense,
“To see the poor who issue thence,

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“As to the Dram shop they repair,
“And spend the borrow'd pittance there ?
“—Behold, th'uplifted hand is seen:—
“What threat'ning looks and angry mien:
“While the foul execrating tongue
“Does the fierce, clam'rous war prolong:
“While e'en from female lips proceed,
“The threat of many a bloody deed.
“Thus Virtue's drown'd and Health destroy'd,
“For the vile habit's seldom cloy'd.
“Are then our Legislators loth
“To curb the ills that ruin both;
“Or wherefore do we daily meet
“Such scenes as these in ev'ry street?
“Do they then tempt the poor to pay
“Their health and virtue to defray
“The Nation's wants, and urge the Still,
“The rav'nous Taxman's book to fill.

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“If they protect such baneful evil,
“Nought will protect them from the Devil.”

The Preacher thus his thoughts display'd:
The Congregation groan'd and pray'd:
And some few thought it not a sin,
To go and toast his health—in Gin.

—How oft' the sons of riot find
Pleasure the poison of the mind:
In Life, by Fire and Famine, less
Sink to their Graves, than by excess.
'Tis Temperance gives the richest wealth;
Contentment, Peace, and lasting Health:
'Tis Temperance that forms the sage:
Is youth's best Guardian, and the Friend of Age.

A Pawnbroker made the following reply to a Friend who expressed his surprize that he did not remove to a better Situation. —“I don't know a better: for it is within a very convenient distance from three Dram Shops.”