This is one of my favorite songs. I remember my grandfather and father singing it, and hearing it off and on thru the years. Recently, I came into possession of an old songbook from the late 1920's that had quite a lot of verses for the silly thing in it, with even some pencilled in additions (!), so I decided to compile those verses I already had with those from the songbook and stick 'em out here for everybody to enjoy.
June 14, 1999: I found more verses yet for the silly thing! These seem to be circa 1930 - 1950 from the slang used, and some of them are slightly sex-oriented (but not offensive, I hope).
December 15, 2008: More verses added!
I have included variant verses where they differed from each other more than just one line. Where the variant was only one line, I placed the variant following the original line in smaller letters like this.
Remember that the song originally was somewhat denigrating towards minorities. I have kept those references in, for the sake of study, but the modern reader might find them offensive. Rest assured that I do too.
It's a good song anyway, and worth preserving .... and singing.
OTHER VARIANTS
