Page:The Smart Set (Volume 1).djvu/63

Rh "The Very Latest Thing?" he said;
 * "Long have I sighed for something New!

O Roses Yellow, White and Red,
 * Let others sip; mine shall be Blue!

The Flavor was not Nice, 'tis true,
 * (He felt a Pain inside his Waist).

"It is not well to overdo,"
 * Said he, "a just-acquired taste."

The Shower passed; he joined in haste
 * His friends. With condescension great,

Said he, "I fear your time you waste; Real Roses are quite out of date."

He argued early, argued late,
 * Till what was erst a

Grew to a Fierce, Inordinate
 * Craving for Artificial Rose.

He haunted Garden Parties, Shows,
 * Wherever Ladies Congregate,

And in their Bonnets thrust his nose
 * His Craving Fierce to Satiate.

At last he chanced, sad to relate,
 * Into a Caterer's with his Pose,

And there Pneumonia was his Fate
 * From sitting on an Ice Cream Rose.

O Reader, shun the Harmless Pose.
 * They buried him, with scant lament,

Beneath a Common Brier-Rose,
 * And wrote:

HERE LIES A DECADENT.