Refrain (depicting the horrors of a solitary debauch poisoned by remorse).
Shall I have another?
Only ginger-pop!
(Wildly.) Ah! I promised mother
Not to touch a drop!
Far too much I'm tempted.
(Recklessly.) Let me drink my fill!
That's the fifth I've emptied—
Oh, I feel so ill!
[Here the singer will stagger about the boards.
Fourth Verse. (Turn on lurid crimson ray for this.)
Next with drinks they style "teetotal" he his manhood must degrade;
Swilling effervescent syrups—"ice-cream-soda," "raspberry-ade,"
Koumiss tempts his jaded palate—payment he's obliged to bilk—
Then, reduced to destitution, finds forgetfulness in—milk!
Refrain (indicating rapid moral deterioration).
What's that on the railings?
[Point dramatically at imaginary area.
Milk—and in a can!
Though I have my failings,
I'm an honest man.
[Spark of expiring rectitude here.
I can not resist it. [Pantomime of opening can.
That celestial blue!
Has the milkman missed it? [Melodramatically.
I'll be missing too!
Fifth Verse (in pale blue light).
Milk begets a taste for water, so comparatively cheap,
Every casual pump supplies him, gratis, with potations deep;
He at every drinking-fountain pounces on the pewter cup,
Conscious of becoming bloated, powerless to give it up!
Refrain (illustrative of utter loss of self-respect).