Page:Tea, a poem.pdf/10

10 Been painted as dark as a demon o nht, All offered up victims, an auto da fe, At the gloomy cabals—the dark orgies of tea!

If I, in the remnant that's left me of life, Am to suffer the torment of slanderous strife, Let me fall I implore in the slang-whanger's claw, Where the evil is open and subject to law; Not nibbled, and mumbled, and put the rack, By the sly underminings of tea-party clack: Condemn me, ye gods to a newspaper roasting, But spare me! O spare me, a tea-table toasting!



fashionable parties were generally consigned to the higher classes, or noblesse, that is to say, such as kept their own cows, and drove their own waggons. The company commonly assembled at three o'clock, and went away about six, unless it was in