• Newark Daily Advocate (June 18, 1896)   "A Satisfactory Reform"   A poem. Reprinted from Truth. This newspaper is from Newark Ohio. p 4.  [NPA]

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from Newark Daily Advocate
A Satisfactory Reform
by Ellis Parker Butler

A merry burgomaster
    In a burgh upon the Rhine
Said, "Our burghers all are
    Far too fond of drinking wine."
So the merry burgomaster,
    When the burgomasters met,
Bade them look into the matter
    Ere the thing went farther yet.

And the merry burgomasters
    Did decide the only way
To alleviate the evil
    Without worry or delay
Would be just to call a meeting
    Of the burghers, great and small,
And then open every wine cask
    And proceed to drink it all.

"For," they said, "when we have swallowed
    Every drop that's in the land,
There can be no more of drinking,
    It is plain to understand."
So they called a monster meeting,
    And the burghers, small and great,
Drank and drank until they were too
    Tipsy to perambulate.

But there still was wine in plenty,
    So, in sooth, the only way
Was to call another meeting;
    So they called it for next day.
Thus from day to day the burghers
    Met and swallowed seas of wine,
And they vowed the reformation
    Was a mission quite divine.

And today the worthy burghers
    In that burgh upon the Rhine
Still continue their great mission,
    And still swallow seas of wine.
And they vow they will not falter
    In their great reforming task
Till the last drop has been emptied
    From the very last wine cask.

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