Laudanum example, the wife of the US president Abraham Lincoln, was a laudanum addict, as was the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was famously interrupted in the middle of an opium-induced writing session of "Kubla Khan" by a "person from Porlock". Initially a working class drug, laudanum was cheaper than a bottle of gin or wine, because it was treated as a medication for legal purposes and not taxed as an alcoholic beverage. Laudanum was used in home remedies and prescriptions, as well as a single medication. For example, a 1901 medical book published for home health use gave the
An Old Master bullocks bent to their yoke, and lifted the waggon from the gluepot. He was 'An Old Master'." A reviewer in "The Telegraph" (Brisbane) noted: " Mr. Dennis's work is not confined to the rhyming in slang, which were the sole attraction of some of his earlier and lucrative efforts. "An Old Master," with which the volume opens, stands out as one of Mr. Dennis's best." An Old Master "An Old Master" is a poem by Australian poet C. J. Dennis. It was first published in "The Bulletin" magazine on 4 August 1910, and later in the poet's poetry collection "Backblock