Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-09-28

love:
| For he must give up at once and forever
| the wine.
For the lips that touch liquor sna4l never
touch mine"
She heard a quick step coming over the
moor,
And the same merry voice she'd so oft
heard before;
| Then ere she could speak a warm arm
held her fast,
And her lover said gently, I've come,
| love at last.
Tn sorry I've kept you long waiting like
| this,
But I know you'll forgive me-now. give
me kiss!''
But she shook the bright curls on her
! beautiful head.
And drew herself up, while quite proudly
she said
Now, William, I'll prove If you are
really true.
For you say that you love mel don't
think you do!
But, if really sincere you must give up
the wine.
For the lips that touch liquor shall never
touch mine!
He looked quite amazed. why, Alice,
It's clear.
You really are getting quite jealous, my
dear!
In that you are right" she replied; "for
You'll soon love the liquor far better
than me!
I'm jealous, I own. Of the poisonous
vino,
And the lips that imbibe it shall never
touch mine
He then turned quite angry "confound
What nonsense you've got in your dear
little head!
But III see if cannot remove 1t soon
thence"
She replied, .'Tis not nonsense, but
sound common sense;
And I mean what I say, and this you
will find
I dent often change when I've made up
my mind!''
He stood all irresolute, angry, perplexed
She never before saw him look half so
yeXed.
Still she said, IF he talks all his life
I won't flinch!''
And he talked. but he never could bulge
her an inch;
So he cried, with a look of despair and
groan,
20, Alice, your heart is as hard as
stone!''
quite loud,
She still firmly kept to the VOW she had
vowed;
And at last without even tear or
sigh,
She said, William, I'm going; so bid
you good-bye,'
NAY, stop he then said, It'll choose
of the two;
I'll give up the liquor but cannot lose
you:'
Now William had ever great cause to
rejoice
From the hour he thus wisely made
Alice his choice;
And he blessed through the whole of a
long, useful life
The decision that gave him his DEAR lit
tie wife;
And she by her irmness, won over that
night
A true friend to our cause and an orna-
ment bright.
Oh, that every fair girl in our drink
cursed land
Would say, I will n'er give my heart or
my hand
Unto one whom I ever have reason to
think
Would taste one small drop of such
poisonous drink,
And reply, when she's wooed, I'm foe
to the wine,
And the lips that touch liquor shall never
touch nine
.'THE LIPS THAT TOUCH LIQUOR
SHALL NEVER TOUCH NINE
You are coming to woe me, but not as
of yore,
When I fastened to welcome your ring
at the door:
For I trusted that he who stood waiting
me then
Was the brightest and truest the noblest
OF men.
Your lips on my own, when they printed
farewell
Of hell;
But they come to me now with the bac-
chanal sign,
And the lips that touched liquor must
never touch mine.
I think Of that night in the garden alone.
When in whispers You told me your
heart was my own;
That your love in the future would
ne
Unshared by another. kept only for me-
Oh, sweet to my soul is the memory still,
OF the lips that met mine, when they
rnurnu!-ed, II will;
But now to their pressure no more they
incline,
For the lips that touch liquor shall never
touch mine.
Oh, John! How it crushed me, when first
in your face
The pen of the rum flend' had written
disgrace;
And turned me in silence and tears from
that breath.
All poisoned and foul from the chalice
Of death.
It scattered the hopes that had trea-
Sured to last.
It darkened the future and c!ouded the
past,
It shattered my. idol. and ruined the
shrine,
Tor the lips that touch liquor shall never
touch mine.