XX--DO YOU REMEMBER? To Harry Dixey Do you remember that first Morning Drink When Ed would smile and say, “What shall it be?” “Would you advise a Gin Fizz, Ed, for me?” “It is too early for a Fizz, I think.” “And would an Absinthe put me on the blink, I wonder, Ed?”--“Absinthe would not agree This morning, sir.”--“Then what's your recipe?” “A bland Club Cocktail, delicate and pink!” O kindly Barkeeps that have raised me up From morning glooms and made me live again, Where are ye now, and where your wizardry? As dead as great Ulysses' faithful pup! As dead as Babylon and James G. Blaine! As dead as Gyp the Blood and Nineveh! XXI--AND YOU MAY KECALL THIS To Charley Edson --“I wanchya meeta 'nol' 'nol frien' o' mine!” --” Umgladdameecha! Bill's frien's my frien's, too!” --“Thish frien' besh frien'! I gotto open wine!” --“You gotto le' me buy thish drink f'r you!” --“I gotto buy thish drink f'r 'nol' 'nol' frien'!” --“Now, lishen, Jim! You gonna love thish lad!” --“Billsh friensh is my friensh to th' bitter en'!” --“Now, lishen, Jim! thish besh frien' ever had!” Honest, hardworking drunkards! Hour by hour They toiled on at their chosen task until They bent beneath the burdens that they bore, They bent and swayed, sustained but by the power, Each one, of his Indomitable Will, Which ever bade him conquer Just One More. XXII--TRUE, BUT WHAT OF IT? To Gilbert Gabriel Old Demon Rum, they say you ruined homes, Bashing the piteous Wife betwixt her eyes. Stabbing Aunt Tildy with her own hair-combs, And teaching your young offspring stealth and lies Angel! they say that one night, lost to grace, You filched the infant's coral from her crib, Hocked it, and blew the loot at Leery's Place- Then strangled Baby Sister in her bib Because it purchased only sixteen beers! Demon! they say you used to cut up rough, Sowing the earth with poverty and tears-- And I believe it readily enough! I do admit your crimes as charged above, But, Angel! crime can never kill my love! XXIII--A SUMMER DAY DREAM To Foster Follett If there were many miles of me How I would love to trail My length along the cooling sea Above the brown sea kale. Were there five thousand feet of me Instead of five feet four, A thousand times as cool I'd be Swimming from shore to shore. And when I saw a brewery Upon some cape or isle I'd crawl out of the dripping sea And greet it with a smile. Then all my lovely coils I'd wrap Around that brewery, And when I'd squeezed out every drap Slide back into the sea. XXIV--ON SWEARING OFF AGAIN To Dan Carey [Ill 0144]