From The Onward Reciter, Volume XIII, edited by Thomas E. Hallsworth (London: S. W. Partridge & Co., 1884):

THE CHILD'S APPEAL.
Mrs. Nellie H. Bradley.

(This incident is a true one. The writer heard a lady tell of her sending her little girl after her drunken father, and of the words the child used.)

1. Please don't sell my poor father rum,
He's reeling already, you see;
I'm 'fraid when he gets home to-night
He'll beat my dear mother and me.
Alone in our dark little room
She's dreading to hear him come
He treats us so bad when he's drunk—
Oh! don't sell him any more rum.

2. I heard mother praying last night
(She thought I was quite sound asleep);
She asked God her husband to save,
His soul from temptation to keep.
She cried like her poor heart would break;
So, thinking 'twould comfort her some,
I told her I'd beg you to-day
Not to let him have any more rum.

3. Why don't you have something to sell
That will not make people so sad,
That will not make dear mothers grieve,
And kind fathers cruel and bad?
Won't Jesus be angry with you,
And punish you for it some day,
If you keep on doing the thing
That's breaking folks' hearts in this way?

4. The Bible says, "Woe unto him
That giveth his neighbour strong drink";
That "woe" means a curse, mother says—
Don't drive me out, please, for I think
I ought to stay here till he goes;
I must help him home if I can,
For, if he should fall in the street,
Who'd care for a poor, drunken man?
Ah! me, it is hard—and I know
You're angry because I have come;
Forgive a poor, sad little girl
And don't sell my dear father rum!