A favourite book of mine "Bawdy Ballads and Lusty Lyrics", Droke House Publ. Indianapolis, 1935, ,1950, has this poem. In the Introduction it says:

This classic, by Hugh D'Arcy, was first printed in 1887, and titled "The Face upon the Floor." It is amusing to note that it was never intended to point out the perils of stron drink, but merely to portray the degradation of an artist tortured by the loss of his sweatheart. The poem was seized by the W.C.T.U., and later the Ani-Saloon League, the title altered, and millions of copies distributed as propaganda.