Only one who knows Allison intimately can measure the delight, expressed in chuckles of joy, with which he marked this passage in Lippincott’s and mailed copies to the friends he had whimsically pilloried.
††††
When one browses around among Allison’s productions he runs across many odd conceits as in “The Ballad of Whiskey Straight” which he declares was “prepared according to the provisions of the Pure Food Law, approved 1906.” Whatever quarrel one might have with the subject itself, or the sentiment, he cannot fail to fall a victim to the soft cadences of the rippling rhyme.
THE BALLAD OF WHISKEY STRAIGHT.
I
Let dreamers whine
Of the pleasures of wine
For lovers of soft delight;
But this is the song
Of a tipple that’s strong—