[WARNING: This song contains antiquated racial stereotypes. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]
(At a Swell Cake Walk)
A popular song from 1901
Words by James T. Powers
Music by Max Dreyfus
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. Missus Jackson gave a ball
Grand cakewalk and tea
Admission it was forty cents
She’d check your razor free
The tickets all read, “Full dress!”
At the door there was a fight
For a coon with a big black swallowtail
Came in with trousers white
They all cried, “My! go bar him out”
Den they told some awful tales
And said, it was the latest style
Worn by the Prince of Wales
Chorus
Missus Jackson walked like this
Mister Johnson gave the Memphis twist
Then they walked the floor together
O those dresses raised such talk
The only thing to mar the pleasure
Was dem white pants at a swell cakewalk
2. A committee waited on him
Said, “Those pants must go!”
They offered back his forty cents
That nigger he said, “No!”
Said he, “I’ll run this ball, you bet
Those pants have come to stay!”
Then he pulled out his carver
And the band began to play
“Throw him down, McCloskey!”
Dat time it meant a fight
And when they finished with that coon
Those trousers wasn’t white
Sung here by Fred Feild: