WOMAN OR WINE.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 739, 13 March 1877, Page 5 (Supplement)

WOMAN OR WINE.

BY T. WARD.

[An Epistle to the President of the New England Society, who recommended the Introduction of Women m place of Wine ' at Entertainments.] Oh, weak and foolhardy reformer ! To substitute woman for wine, The glow of whose presence is warmer, Than sunniest juice of the vine. Believe me, less fatal are jujera Than woman m witchery skilled ; For there oozes more venom from two lips Than ever from grain was distilled. Who -barters for beauty his whisky, The change will be certain to rue ; For her eyes shed a spirit more frisky Than lurks m the ' ' mountain dew. " Ah ! those eyes at each meeting so merry, You'll find to outsparkle champagne ! And ringlets more golden than sherry Will fuddle as well the poor brain. More tapering necks than the bottle's Withjjmouths more bewildering crowned, Will pout from their ravishing throttles A stream that a sage would confound. If wine makes, iis brutes, love is able To turn us to fools with like ease ; If the one lays as under the table, T'other brings us at least to cmv knees. Still at table som,e. mjaoltfef she's brewing ; Her feetsorane. acquaintance below ; Ah ! WQ h.eel ta.ps so pregnant with rain, As those hidden taps of the toe. And hands, between courses at leisure, Make friends when there's no. one to mark ; Ah ! less poison yield grapes underpressure, Thau ftqgqra thus squeezed m the dark. As h.qme reels the toper of beauty How crimson his visage, poor elf ! How favored he sleeps ! how his duty ■ Is left to take care of itself ! . When thwarted, how palsied Ms powers, Till he sinks m despiir at death's door, Oh ! if woman h,er. victim thus lowers, Say, what can the bottle do more 1 No. spirit so ardent us woman's— So sure to intoxicate, nityi ;. Her touch is " de\iwuu tremens," That wardens him more than it can. The glance of the eye k " blue ruin." fter blush is tho blood of the vine, Hor pout h a punch m whose brewing ■ Tart, sugar ami spirit combine. So^ sparkling 1 , so beating-, so ne^is In o hope .for her victim^, wnjears • .Should herismilgs. ouly rendl^|i^^;g|.ddyj, ■ ; p|il|j^j^o, Ue made drunk "' ■'ij^ljugjAiy forfeit hiS'tOl i. .'^? ■•'