WA2K Radio is now on the air, Part 3

BACCHUS IN IOWA.

A true lay of to-day, full of comfort for Sir Wilfrid and
his merry men.
" Hillo ! " says Sixentus to Bacchus one day,
" I vote we skedaddle out Iowa way.
A teetotal place ? Ah, my boy, what of that ?
They '11 dodge any law who 're in love with your vat.
The artists all paint us two gods of the bottle
Each squeezing a cluster of grapes down his throttle.
Of course we were ne'er such a couple of noddies.
The juice of the grape never entered our bodies,
Until by fermenting, for tippling made good,
And a life of long years in the goatskin or wood;
But these Iowa topers have hit on a plan
Which I think you will own is a topper, old man.
To dodge the harsh law that prohibits strong drink.
They make grapes—indiarubber—and what do you think?
Why they fill them, oh, not with crude juice of the vine,
But with genuine full-bodied, odorous Wine !
They sell these in bunches and boxes, you see,
And a bibulous soul, on the strictest Q. T.,
Can take them about like his weed or his grub,
And so be independent of wine-shop or pub.*
That's something like grape-sucking. So I propose-'
But already the god of the rubicund nose
Was off to the West, followed close by Silenus.
They've not dropped a line, but I fancy, between us,
That in Iowa, where though the Law makes a crime of it,
Men tope, they are having a capital time of it.

* Vide Si. James's Gazette, February 25.