"Tout aux tavernes et aux filles." <br /> Suppose you screeve? or go cheap-jack? <br /> Or fake the broads? or fig a nag? <br /> Or thimble-rig? or knap a yack? <br /> Or pitch a snide? or smash a rag? <br /> Suppose you duff? or nose and lag? <br /> Or get the straight, and land your pot? <br /> How do you melt the multy swag? <br /> Booze and the blowens cop the lot. <br /> Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or mack; <br /> Or moskeneer, or flash the drag; <br /> Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack; <br /> Pad with a slang, or chuck a fag; <br /> Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag; <br /> Rattle the tats, or mark the spot; <br /> You can not bank a single stag; <br /> Booze and the blowens cop the lot. <br /> Suppose you try a different tack, <br /> And on the square you flash your flag? <br /> At penny-a-lining make your whack, <br /> Or with the mummers mug and gag? <br /> For nix, for nix the dibbs you bag! <br /> At any graft, no matter what, <br /> Your merry goblins soon stravag: <br /> Booze and the blowens cop the lot. <br />THE MORAL <br /> <br /> It's up the spout and Charley Wag <br /> With wipes and tickers and what not. <br /> Until the squeezer nips your scrag, <br /> Booze and the blowens cop the lot.<br /><br />William Ernest Henley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/villon-s-straight-tip-to-all-cross-coves/
