Part 45 (2/2)

_Tom Hood, Jr_.

VILLON'S STRAIGHT TIP TO ALL CROSS COVES

”_Tout aux tavernes et aux fiells_”

Suppose you screeve? or go cheap-jack?

Or fake the broads? or fig a nag?

Or thimble-rig? or knap a yack?

Or pitch a snide? or smash a rag?

Suppose you duff? or nose and lag?

Or get the straight, and land your pot?

How do you melt the multy swag?

Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or mack; Or moskeneer, or flash the drag; Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack; Pad with a slang, or chuck a f.a.g; Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag; Rattle the tats, or mark the spot; You cannot bag a single stag; Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash your flag?

At penny-a-lining make your whack, Or with the mummers mug and gag?

For nix, for nix the dibbs you bag!

At any graft, no matter what, Your merry goblins soon stravag: Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

THE MORAL

It's up the spout and Charley Wag With wipes and tickers and what not Until the squeezer nips your scrag, Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

_W. E. Henley_.

ODE TO THE HUMAN HEART

Blind Thamyris, and blind M. aeonides, Pursue the triumph and partake the gale!

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees, To point a moral or adorn a tale.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene, Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears, Like angels' visits, few and far between, Deck the long vista of departed years.

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