[DISCLAIMER: This song contains antiquated racial language. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]
A popular song from 1900.
Words and music by Frank Leo.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment:
Lyrics
1. Boys, have you ever seen my Dinah?
She’s got thrown out of Carolina
She is as lazy as a coon can be
That’s where she sits all day
The first time I met her it was at a church bazaar
I ask’d her if she’d be my little Uamvar
She said I’d have to get permission from her Pa
Papa said he’d only be too glad
Hark those bells, hark those bells
I should like to call your notice to those bells
Chorus
My gal is not a shy gal, but she’s a fly gal
Knows what she’s at, list the mocking bird
He gets half-a-crown a week for doing that
And I know, as well as you know
Perhaps you don’t know, perhaps you might
That’s where she sits all day
I’d like to find out where she sits at night
2. My gal is very fascinating
I don’t believe in over-rating
In the jug department of a public house
That’s where she sits all day
She used to be up ev’ry morning with the lark
Go picking cotton in her father’s private park
One day she started picking pockets for a lark
Now she’s picking oakum for a change
Hark those bells (bells don’t ring)
Hark those bells (bells ring slightly)
I’m inclined to think those bells
Want lots of harking
3. She’ll be my wife if I persuade her
I very often serenade her
Sixty-seven inches round the diaphragm
That’s where she sits all day
When we are married I intend to have a spree
I’ll ask the coalman and the chimney sweep to tea
They’ll bring their banjos and she’ll kid herself, you see
That she’s in her Carolina home
Hark those bells (shout off) Hey
Hark those bells (shout off)
I shall punch you on the nose when I come off
Sung here by Fred Feild: