A popular song from 1900.
Words by Arthur J. Lamb.
Music by Harry Von Tilzer.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Near a house a carriage waited
Soon a fair girl stepped inside
When a beggar woman stopped her
Help in pity’s name she cried
Smilingly the rich girl faced her
I’ve a strange idea said she
Will you come along poor woman
To a masquerade with me
There’ll be many strange disguises
No one will the difference tell
It will cause a small sensation
Doubt not I will pay you well
In the carriage stepped the beggar
Both were quickly driven ‘long
Till they entered in the ballroom
Gazed at by a won’dring throng
Chorus
One was a girl in a ragged dress
One in a silken gown
One had come from a wretched slum
One from a mansion in town
Wealth and poverty side by side
A contrast that none could forget
For a man’s false heart was exposed that night
When Wealth and Poverty met
- All unmasked and then a young man
Stepped up to the rich girl’s side
When the beggar turned upon him
So we meet at last she cried
From her dress she took a picture
And unto the throng she said
There’s his photo with my own
And our dear baby who is dead
Tis too true the rich girl answered
His false love I now will scorn
And her dark eyes flashed with anger
As she told the man “be-gone”
Then she whispered to the beggar
Through this world no more you’ll roam
Ours shall be a lifelong friendship
You shall share my heart and home
Sung here by Vancha March: