The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-11-14
TEMPERANCE READING.
The DEMONS WARMING.

Around the board the guests were met,
The lights above them beaming,
And in their cups, replenished oft,
The rudy wine was streaming;
Their cheeks were flushed, their eyes wer,
bright,
Their hearts with pleasure bounded;
The song was sung, the toast was given,
And loud the revel sounded.
drained q goblet with the rest,
And cried: Away with sorrow!
Let us be happy for to-day
What care we for tomorrow
But as l spoke my sight grew dim,
And slumber deep came DER me,
And mid the whirl of mingling tongues
This vision passed before me;
Methought saw demon rise;
He held a mighty bieker,
Whose FURNISHED sides ran trimming DER
With floods of burning liquor.
Around him pressed clanOrouS crowd,
To taste this liquor greedy,
But chiefly came the poor and sad
The suffering and the needy;
All those oppressed by need or debt,
The dissolute, the lazy,
blear~eyed old men and reckless youths,
ANA palsied women crazy.
give, give they cried, give. give Us drink
10 drown ali thought of sorrow;
II we are happy for to-day.
We care not for tomorrow"
The first drop warmed their shivering skins
And drove away their sadness;
The second lit their sunken eyes,
And filed their souls with gladneSS;
The third drop made them shout and roar,
And play each furious antic;
The fourth drop boiled their very blood,
And the fifth drop drove them frantic.
Drink said the demon. drink your fill!
Drink of these waters mellow
They'll make your eye-balls scar and duh,
And turn your white skins yellow;
They'll I'LL your homes with care and grief,
And clothe your back with tatters;
They fill your hearts with evil thoughts
But never mind; what matters
Though virtue sink and reason fail
And social ties disSever?-
I'll be your friend in hour of need,
And find YOU homes forever;
For have built three mansions high,
Three strong and gOodly houses,
To lodge at last each jolly soul
Who all his life carOuses.
''The first it is spacious house,
To all but SOtS appalling,
Where, by the parish bounty fed,
Vile, in the sunshine crawling,
The worn-out drunkard ends his days,
And eats the dole of Others
A plague and burden to himself,
An eye-Sore 10 his brothers.
''The second is a lazar house,
Rank, fetid and unholy,
Where, smitten by diseases foul
ana hopeless melancholy,
The victims of potationS deep
Pine on couch of sadness,
Some calling death to end their pain,
And others wrought to madness.
''The third and last is black and high,
The abode of guilt and anguish,
And full of dungeons deep and fast,
Where death-doomed felons anguish.
So drain the cup and drain again;
One of my goodly houses
Shall lodge at last each jolly soul
Who to the dregs carousesi"
But we'll he knew, that demon old,
How vain was all his preaching;
The ragged crew that round him fioclIet
Were needless of his teaching.
Even as they heard his fearful words
They cried, with shouts of laughter;
"Out on the fool who mars to-day
With thoughts of an hereafter.
eve care not for thy houses three,
Who live but for the present,
And merry will we make it yet,
And Guaf our bumpers pleasant"
Loud laughed the fiend to hear them speak.
And, lifting high his bcker,
Body and soul are mine" said he;
"Ill have them both for liquor"
Irish Christian Advocate.