The Old Black Bottle

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 May 1915, Page 2

The Old Black Bottle

(A porno by Walt Mason.)

But there at the poorhouse the paupers, in sorrow, are sighing and moaning and swatting the flies; no pride in the past and no hope in the morrow, they all are remote h'om humanity's ties. Yet once they had pride and a wholesome ambition, they looked to the > uturc as bravely as yow; what guided their feet to this present oondit* lion? Just search for the .bottle, and you'll have a clue. The peelers are busy, consestently jailing the homeless and idle, the fools and the knaves, and down in the dungeons the victoms are wailing, while over the courthouse our bright banner waves. Oh, why do the jails, in these prosperous regions, forever be filled with this purposeless crew? And why are the criminals counted by legions? Just search for the bottle, and you'll have a clue. And here are sad women, worn mothers, who've spoken the words, all reluctant, that gained them divorce; the dreams they once dreamed are all shattered and broken, the tale of their loving has finished its course. And once they were brides, and were jpvely and blooming, and trusted in imagined were true; then why are they plunged in a sorrow consuming Just search for the bottle, and you'll have a clue. The hundreds of children we (meet in our walking, deprived ol their birthrights, the joy of their years: earl obildren who dwell in environmerTts Bho"e%- % ing, old children whose faces are seamed by their tears—why, why is their childhood thus robbed of its glory, ibs beauty and glamour, its roseate hue? The answer, alas,' is an age-honoured story: Just search for the BottTe, and you'll have a clue. Wherever there's trouble, wherever there's weeping, wherever the vultures of grief are alive: wherever sad women their night watch are keeping, and waiting for footsteps that do not arrive ; wherever there's squalor, wherever there's famine, if you would discover to what it's all due. it's idle the records to deeply examine—just search for the bottle, and youiTl have a clue.