From the musical “The Marriage Market”, 1913
Words by M. E. Rourke
Music by Jerome Kern
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- A dainty bit of lace
Fixed in the proper place
May call a man’s attention to a pretty face
And colors peek-a-boo
A lot of damage do
When willful eyes will wander
Where they ought not to
But after all is said and done
There’s nothing more disastrous to a man
Than pongee or tussore
Or silk of any kind
When pretty maidens seize
Upon it’s many million possibilities
Chorus
So, take care of little maids
Who wear silk stockings and silk “never mind!”
Silk things of every kind
They may seem as mild as buttermilk
But all the girls are smoother than a little bit of silk
- This truth you cannot shirk
A million pitfalls lurk
In ever made up form of caterpillar work
And so my little rhyme
May warn some man in time
While courting danger with a confidence sublime
Had Mister Serpent found when tempting Mother Eve
The apple crop had all been gathered I believe
That interesting tale would still have been no myth
For cornsilk he’d have them experimented with
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: