• Author: Pollard, Josephine
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 5
• Page Number:
• Date: 6 7 1916
• Tags:
• poetry
• alcohol
• temperance

"THE PRICE OF A DRINK" By Josephine Pollard "Five cents a glass!' Does any one think That is really the price of a drink? "Five cents a glass." I hear you say, "Why that isn't very much to pay." Oh, no indeed; 'tis a very small sum You are passing over with finger and thumb, And if that were all that gave away It wouldn't be very much to pay. "Five cents a glass!'? How Satan laughed As over the bar the young man quaffed The beaded liquor, for the demon knew The terrible work that drink would do: And before morning the victim lay, With his lifeblood ebbing swiftly away. And that was the price he paid, alas! For the pleasure of taking a social glass. The price of drink! If you want to know What some are willing to pay for it go Through the wretched tenement over there With dingy windows and broken stair: Where foul diease like vampires crawl With outstretched wings o'er moldy wall. There poverty dwells with her hungry brood, Wild-eyed as demons, for lack of food; There shame in a corner crouches low; There violence deals its cruel blow; And innocent ones are thus accursed, To pay the price of another's thirst. "Five cents a glass!" O, if that were all, The sacrifice would, indeed be small! But the money's worth is the least amount We pay, and whoever will keep account. Will learn the terrible waste and blight That follows the ruinous appetite. "Five cents a glass!" Does any one think This is really the price of a drink?"Printed by special request