SONG OF THE DECANTER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 195, 17 August 1881, Page 3

SONG OF THE DECANTER.

* There was an old decanter, and its mouth was gaping wide; the rosy ■wine had ebbed away and left its crystal Bide ; and the wind ■went humin i n g — humm i v. g, v p a^n A down, tho wind it blew, and through the reedlike hollow neck the vildtat note it b'ew. I placed it in the window, where the blast was blowirg fre«ly, and fancied that its pale mouth sang the quperftst strains to me. "Thej- tell me— pun}- conquerors! the Plague has slam his ten, and War his hundred thousands cf the -very best of men ; bnt I " — 'twas thus the Bottle spake — " but I have conquered more than cII your famous conquerors, so feared and famed of yore. Then come, ye youths and maidens, come drink from out my cup, the beverage, that dulls the brain and burna the spirits up; that puts to shame your conquerors that slay their scores below; for this has deluged millions with the lava- tide of woe. Tho' in the path of battles darkest streams of blood may roll; yet while I killed the body, I have damned the very soul. The cholera, the plague, tho sword, such ruin never wrought a3 I, in mirth or malice, on the innocent have brought. And still I breathe upon them, and they shrink before my breath, and year by year my thousands tread the dusty way of death."