A Night At Dago Tom's
Oh yesterday, I t'ink it was, while cruisin' down the street,
I met with Bill. — "Hullo," he says, "let's give the girls a treat."
We'd red bandanas round our necks 'n' our shrouds new rattled down,
So we filled a couple of Santy Cruz and cleared for Sailor Town.
We scooted south with a press of sail till we fetched to a caboose,
The "Sailor's Rest," by Dago Tom, alongside "Paddy's Goose."
Red curtains to the windies, ay, 'n' white sand to the floor,
And an old blind fiddler liltin' the tune of "Lowlands No More."
He played the "Shaking of the Sheets" 'n' the couples did advance,
Bowing, stamping, curtsying, in the shuffling of the dance;
The old floor rocked and quivered, so it struck beholders dumb,
'N' afterwards there was sweet songs 'n' good Jamaikey rum.
'N' there was many a merry yarn of many a merry spree
Aboard the ships with royals set a-sailing on the sea,
Yarns of the hooker
Spindrift
, her as had the clipper-bow, &mdash
"There ain't no ships," says Bill to me, "like that there hooker now."
When the old blind fiddler played the tune of "Pipe the Watch Below,"
The skew-eyed landlord dowsed the glim and bade us "stamp 'n' go,"
'N' we linked it home, did Bill 'n' I, adown the scattered streets,
Until we fetched to Land o' Nod atween the linen sheets.
From SALT WATER POEMS AND BALLADS, edited by John Masefield, published by The MacMillan Co., NY, © 1916, pp. 38-39; first published in SALT-WATER BALLADS, © 1902.Another fine tribute to having a spree in "Sailortown," a term first used by this poet for describing the waterfront area that sailors frequented."Santy Cruz" is a reference to bottles of rum.The header graphic, "Fandango-house and cantina, Acapulco, 1890's," is by Stan Hugill from SAILORTOWN, edited by Stan Hugill, published by Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, UK, ©1967, p. 235.Charley Noble
