Wealth cannot buy happiness, 1902.
words by Arthur J. Lamb
music by Harry Von Tilzer
A follow-up to A Bird in a Gilded Cage (1901). Created by the same two, this is another tear jerker about sadness and loneliness. Its maudlin sentimentality is characteristic of the turn of the century. This one is a hold over from an 1890s Victorian style.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- The last dance was over, the music had ceased
And the dancers were leaving the hall
A few men were saying their last goodbyes
To the beautiful belle of the ball
Alone by the window a youth sadly stands
His heart she had stolen away
And just as he gazed on her beautiful face
He was startled to hear someone say
Chorus
She lives in a mansion of aching hearts
She’s one of a restless throng
The diamonds that glitter around her throat
They speak both of sorrow and song
The smile on her face is only a mask
And many the tear that starts
For sadder it seems, when of mother she dreams
In the mansion of aching hearts
- Alone by the fireside, a man sadly looks
At a picture that hangs on the wall
He has never forgotten the sad, sweet face
Of the beautiful belle of the ball
He’s reading her letter, “My picture I send
I have loved you, but only in vain
Oh, try to forget that we ever have met”
Then he thinks with a heart full of pain
Sung here by Fred Feild: