From “The Happiest Night of His Life”, 1910
Words by Junie McCree
Music by Albert Von Tilzer
The sheet music:
Lyrics
- Life is just a constant gamble
Thro’ it’s different games we scramble
Nothing certain in its ramble
Just a guess from post to post
In this world of haste and hurry
In this life of fear and flurry
Are two beings “Love and Worry”
They are first and uppermost
Love will lead while worry trails you
When he finds that love has failed you
To his side he has impaled you
On the dagger point of hate
Worry leaves a scar that’s markless
Love is brilliant, worry sparkless
One is light, the other darkness
Wither way we go is fate
Refrain
The first smile from your girl is the morning of love
And the first kiss is still the forenoon
You’re engaged right away
Marriage is the mid-day
One o’clock starts the sweet honeymoon
At three, four and five the babies arrive
Their happiness you’re dreaming of
But divorce, wrong or right
Brings on darkest midnight
In the twenty-four hours of love
- Love is not alone for classes
Love is made for all the masses
To your mind’s eye place your glasses
Peer into the underworld
See the girl who once was pretty
Graceful, cultured, bright and witty
Now the belle in hell’s own City
Since her past has been unfurled
What has brought her to this level
To this life of ribald revel
In the clutches of the devil
Was it worry, was it love?
Love came first with arms extended
Then divorce came undefended
Happy days in worry ended
Spelling hawk instead of dove
Refrain
The sad smile on her face is the sunset of love
And the light in her eyes seems to dim
‘Tis the evening of life
For a once faithful wife
Just a shudder when she thinks of him
The flickering spark in her heart grows dark
Her spirit has flown up above
Just a pure life made coarse
By the arch fiend divorce
In the twenty-four hours of love