Not Gain, but Loss

Is there gain in whisky drinking ?
Will it bring your purse more money?
Will it bring you riches quicker?
Will it make your life more sunny?
Will it make your friends admire you
With a wholesome approbation?
Will it help, at all, to fire you
With true, manly aspiration?

Is there gain in whisky drinking?
Will it give you strength to labor,
Lead you on to higher thinking,
Make of you a kinder neighbor,
In your business bring successes,
To your family give true pleasure,
Holy love, the joy that blesses,
Happy hours and tranquil leisure?

Is there gain in whisky drinking?
No; it leads to loss unmeasured,
Leads to every form of losing^___
Loss of things most highly treasured,
Losses quite beyond conceiving
Quite beyond the wildest dreaming;
Losses, too, beyond retrieving^___
Yes, quite far beyond redeeming.

Is there gain in whisky drinking?
No; 'twill surely make you poorer;
And a path to downfall quicker
'Twould be hard to find^___or surer.
Loss goes e'er with liquor using,
Deepest loss and ruin direst.^___
Shunning it is wisest choosing,
If thou good and gain desirest.

Quillings In Verse
John Edward Everett
(Smith Center: ^___. 1912)
Pages 38-39