Volume 2

The smoker's garland.

Date:
1889-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The smoker's garland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ Why, sir, it’s worth a guinea: And a man must be a ninny, With a soul half starved and skinny. Not to see. I never was so cut up. The pawnshops are all shut up, And I’ve nowhere to put up ; Woe is me ! ” At his story agonising, It was not at all surprising That I felt my pity rising To my eyes. This he saw, and said, “ I knew it; I felt sure that you would do it. Buy it, sir; you’ll never rue it, ’Tis a prize.” Then I paid the money weakly, And I took the bargain meekly, Though I thought it did feel treacley To my hand. And the old man with the rhino Walked away. The pipe was mine, O, With its amber mouthpiece fine, O, All so grand. Next morn I stormed and stuttered, And the syllables I uttered Were not sugared, no, nor buttered ; Yea, I swored ! For that lachrymose old sinner, Wanting just another dinner, Was a shark, a thief, a skinner, And a fraud !