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Show Fifteen Years Ago. I -wandered to the grog shop, Tom; I stood beside the bar 4 And drank a bowl of lemonade and smoked a bad cigar: The same old kegs and jugs were there, the ones we used to know, When we were on the round-up. Tom, some fifteen years ago. ' The barkeep is a new one. Tom, the one who used to sell Corrosive tanglefoot to us is roasting now in well: The other has a plate glass front, his hair is combed quite low. And looks just like the one we knew some fifteen years ago. t Old Soak came up and called for booze, he had the same old grin, While others burned the lining from their throat with Holland gin : And women stood beside the door, their faces seamed with woe, And wept just as they used to weep some fifteen B years ago. I asked about our old-time friends, those eher- If ished sporty men, II And some were in the poorhouse, Tom, and some H were in the pen; H And one, the one we liked the best, the hangman H laid him low; H The world is much the same, dear Tom, as fifteen H - years ago. H I asked about that stately chap, that pride marked H for its own, B He used to say that he could drink or let the H stuff alone. H He perished of the James H. James, out in the H cold and snow H Ah, few survive who used to booze some fifteen H years ago. Q Now crowds lino up against the bar and call for H crimson ink; H New hands are trembling as they pour the stuff H they shouldn't drink; H But still the same old watchword rings, "This H round's to me you know!" H The same old cry of doom we heard some fifteen I years ago. H I wandered to the churchyard, Tom, and there I H saw the graves - H Of those who used to drown themselves in red H fermented waves. H And there were women sleeping there where grass H and daisies grow, H Who wept and died of broken hearts some fifteen H years ago. And there were graves where children slept, have H slept for many a year, j Forgetful of the woes that marked their fitful H sojourn here. ; H And 'neath a tall white monument, in death there ' H Htu low, ' H The man who used to sell tlie booze some fifteen B years ago. H J. S. Holdon in St. Louis Globe-Democrat. |