<h2>THE FAMOUS MULLIGAN BALL</h2>
<h3>BY FRANK L. STANTON</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Did ever you hear of the Mulligan ball—the Mulligan ball so fine,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Where we formed in ranks, and danced on planks, and swung 'em along the line?<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Where the first Four Hundred of the town moved at the music's call?<br/></span>
<span class="i0">There was never a ball in the world at all—like the famous Mulligan ball!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Town was a bit of a village then, and never a house or shed<br/></span>
<span class="i0">From street to street and beat to beat was higher than Mulligan's head!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And never a theater troup came round to 'liven us, spring or fall,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And so Mulligan's wife she says, says she: "Plaze God, I'll give a ball!"<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">And she did—God rest her, and save her, too! (I'm liftin' to her my hat!)<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And never a ball at all, at all, was half as fine as that!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Never no invitations sent—nothin' like that at all;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">But the whole Four Hundred combed their hair and went to the Mulligan ball.</span><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1104" id="Page_1104"></SPAN></span><br/></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">And "Take yer places!" says Mulligan, "an' dance till you shake the wall!"<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And I led Mrs. Mulligan off as the lady that gave the ball;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And we whirled around till we shook the ground, with never a stop at all;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And I kicked the heels from my boots—please God—at the famous Mulligan ball.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Mulligan jumped till he hit the roof, and the head of him went clean through it!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">The shingles fell on the floor pell-mell! Says Mulligan: "Faith, I knew it!"<br/></span>
<span class="i0">But we kept right on when the roof was gone, with never a break at all;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">We danced away till the break o' day at the famous Mulligan ball.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">But the best of things must pass away like the flowers that fade and fall,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And it's fifty years, as the records say, since we danced at Mulligan's ball;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And the new Four Hundred never dance like the Mulligans danced—at all,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And I'm longing still, though my hair is gray, for a ball like Mulligan's ball!<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">And I drift in dreams to the old-time town, and I hear the fiddle sing;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And Mulligan sashays up and down till the rafters rock and ring!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Suppose, if I had a woman's eye, maybe a tear would fall<br/></span>
<span class="i0">For the old-time fellows who took the prize at the famous Mulligan ball!<br/></span>
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1105" id="Page_1105"></SPAN></span></div>
</div>
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