Select Poetry.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4224, 15 July 1882, Page 1

Select Poetry.

ONLY A WOMAN DEUNK! Only a woman drnnk ? What of that ? 'Tis a common sight! Fifteen thousand a year of these, Forty-one locked up each night, Our civilised Christian London Bees One taken, while nine in like plight Sot on, or reel home at their ease. Only a woman drank! But look at the children there, Trooping behind with callous glee, Mocking her curses which shrill through the air; Art object-lesson in,paganry.. Free* school of morals, a prospect fair When wives and mothers these children be. Only a woman drunk! Why not ? for a mother's " nourishing^t'out, And the sip of .gin for a childish treat, And tho social gla"ss of the " Sunday out," And the " drop together " when neighbors meot In iho course of nature wiU'bring ifcabont That the innocent child grows the drab of the street. Only a woman drunk! Did the parents givo precept alone ? Was tho teacher cruelly dumb, And gave for the bread of example a stone ? Was the right hand of sisterhood numb ? Did respectable friends merely nttera groan, And always say "'Go," never "Come?" ■ Only a woman drunk I But somebody's sister, I think— And I had the sweetest of all Till she married a rascal who taught her to drink- — • ' . Then strife—a divorce—deeper fall— But why am I drawn to this crowd ? and yet shrink?- — \ : ■ •, Oh God! it is she—that;thing whom they call " ' , r '.'. ,-'.'.,,. . ■ " Only a woman drunk!" —" J. W.-:H.,? in London Echo.