From the musical “Alice and the Eight Princesses”, 1905.
Words by Glen MacDonough.
Music by Victor Herbert.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- There was once a married lady on a journey went away
To visit all her relatives, a month or so to stay
But when she suddenly came home when hubby wasn’t there
She found two foreign hairpins and some almost golden hair
Then the scene with which she welcomed him was terrible to see
But when ’twas o’er, the husband said, “You are unjust to me
They’ve lady burgulars today, and while away I’ve been
Some female Raffles blonde and bold has gone and broken in”
Refrain
And much to his surprise she did believe him
To clear him quite his story didn’t fail
And from all shade of doubt it did relieve him
For he knew how to tell a fairy tale
- There was once a married bank clerk who off to the racetrack went
To be upon a real good thing the money saved for rent
And when back home he’d walked again the idol of his soul
Told him that she had need to spend a section of his roll
“My love,” he said, “upon those notes I found there was a curse
For ev’ry one of them had been in Rockefellers’ purse
The thought of tainted money all my soul with horror fills
So I rushed unto the river and threw in those blighted bills”
Sung here by Vancha March: