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A Tough Customer
Tis a story of a toper:
I knew him passing well,—
A shoemaker in Natick,
Which is oftentimes called — well-
Of course you've heard the story;
So I will not stop to tell.
He was the hardest drinker
For many miles around;
Though, as a waggish chap remarked,
"Hard drinker! I'll be bound
He drinks about as easy
As any man I've found!"
There chanced to be a "sample-room"
Close by his little shop,
In which, "just to be neighborly,"
He frequently would drop,
And "take a little something warm,"
From gin to gin-gei pop.
One day he went as usual;
And, finding no one in,
He spied upon the counter
What he supposed was gin,
And straightway took a "nipper"
From the bottle it was in.
Surveying, a la connoisseur,
The name the bottle bore,
He found 'twas aquafortis,
Which he had taken "raw," —
"A brand," quoth he, "I ne'er did see,
And never drank before."
Just then his neighbor happened in;
And, tremulous with fear,
(The bottle told the story,)
He asked if he felt queer,
And if he'd have a doctor called,
As one was living near.
"Don't worry," said the shoemaker:
"I'm all'right, I believe.
There's but one thing that's curious:
I really can't conceive
Why, when I wipe my mouth, it burns
A hole right through my sleeve!"
poem
by
Charles Follen Adams
from
Yawcob Strauss and Other Poems
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