| |
| A MERMAID’s not a human thing, | |
| An’ courtin’ sich is folly; | |
| Of flesh an’ blood I’d rather sing, | |
| What ain’t so melancholy. | |
| Oh, Berta! Loo! Jaunita! Sue! | 5 |
| Here’s good luck to me and you— | |
| Sing rally! ri-a-rally! | |
| The seas is deep; the seas is wide; | |
| But this I’ll prove whate’er betide, | |
| I’m bully in the alley! | 10 |
| I’m bull-ee in our al-lee! | |
| |
| The Hooghli gal’er face is brown; | |
| The Hilo gal is lazy; | |
| The gal that lives by ’Obart town | |
| She’d drive a dead man crazy; | 15 |
| Come, wet your lip, and let it slip! | |
| The Gretna Green’s a tidy ship— | |
| Sing rally! | |
| The seas is deep; the seas is blue; | |
| But ’ere’s good ’ealth to me and you, | 20 |
| Ho, rally! | |
| |
| The Lord may drop us off our pins | |
| To feed ’is bloomin’ fishes; | |
| But Lord forgive us for our sins— | |
| Our sins is most delicious! | 25 |
| Come, drink it up and fill yer cup! | |
| The world it owes us bite and sup, | |
| And Mimi, Ju-Ju, Sally; | |
| The seas is long; the winds is strong; | |
| The best of men they will go wrong— | 30 |
| Hi, rally! ri-a-rally! | |
| |
| The Bowery gal she knows ’er know; | |
| The Frisco gal is silly; | |
| The Hayti gal ain’t white as snow— | |
| They’re whiter down in Chili. | 35 |
| Now what’s the use to shun the booze? | |
| They’ll flop your bones among the ooze | |
| Sou’-west-by-Sou’ the galley. | |
| The seas is green; the seas is cold; | |
| The best of men they must grow old— | 40 |
| Sing rally! ri-a-rally! | |
| |
| All round the world where’er I roam, | |
| This lesson I am learnin’: | |
| If you’ve got sense you’ll stop at home | |
| And save the bit yer earnin’. | 45 |
| So hang the odds! It’s little odds, | |
| When every ’eathen ’as ’is gods, | |
| And neither two will tally: | |
| When black and white drink, wimmin, fight— | |
| In these three things they’re all alright— | 50 |
| Sing rally! ri-a-rally! | |
| |
| When double bunks, Fo’castle end, | |
| Is all the kind that’s carried, | |
| Our manners they will likely mend— | |
| Most likely we’ll be married. | 55 |
| But till sich time as that be done, | |
| We’ll take our fun as we’ve begun— | |
| Sing rally! | |
| The flesh is weak; the world is wide; | |
| The dead man ’e goes overside— | 60 |
| Sing rally! rally! | |
| |
| We’re given and lost to the girls that wait | |
| From Trinity to Whitsund’y, | |
| From Sunda Strait to the Golden Gate | |
| An’ back to the Bay o’ Fundy; | 65 |
| Oh, it’s Mabel, Loo, an’ it’s Nancy-Poo, | |
| An’ ’ere’s good luck, an’ I love you— | |
| Sing rally! | |
| Oh, it’s cents an’ dollars an’ somebody hollers— | |
| The sun comes up an’ the mornin’ follers— | 70 |
| Sing rally! | |
| |
| We’re given an’ lost to the octoroon, | |
| The Portugee cruiser painty, | |
| The Chinkie gal with ’er eyes ’arf-moon, | |
| An’ the Japanee darlin’ dainty. | 75 |
| Oh, it’s Tokio-town when the sun goes down, | |
| It’s ’arf-a-pint and it’s ’arf-a-crown— | |
| Sing rally! | |
| ’Er spars may lift an’ ’er keel can shift, | |
| When a man is done ’e ’s got to drift— | 80 |
| Sing rally! Ho, rally! | |
| |
| The Hooghli gal ’er face is brown, | |
| The Hilo gal’s a daisy, | |
| The gal that lives by ’Obart town | |
| She’d drive a dead man crazy. | 85 |
| So, pretty an’ plain, it’s Sarah Jane | |
| ’Uggin’ an’ kissin’ an’ ‘Come again!’ | |
| Sing rally! ri-a-rally! | |
| The seas is deep; the seas is wide; | |
| But this I’ll prove what else betide, | 90 |
| I’m bully in the alley, | |
| Ho! Bullee in the Al-lee. | |
| |
