by Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864)
On the seventeenth day of September you...
Language: English
On the seventeenth day of September you know, Took place in our city the great baby show; They shut up the factories and let out the schools, For the Seventeenth day was the day of all fools. Chorus: Sing tu ral lala lu ral lal lu rall lal lay, Sing tu ral lala lu ral lal lu rall lal lay, Sing tu ral lala lu ral lal lu rall lal lay, Sing tu ral lala lu ral lal lu rall lal lay. They made a procession of wagons and boats, Of raccoons and oxen (they all have their votes) Sledge hammers, triangles and carpenter's tools, One thousand and eight hundred horses and mules. They had gemmen ob color join in their games And jokers and clowns of all ages and names They had pop guns and tin pans and all kinds of toys And a very fine party of women and boys. They had young men on horse back, so nice and so gay Aged Seventeen years on this Seventeenth day, And the ladies all thought they were bold cavaliers These bright looking lads aged seventeen years. They had grim border-ruffians, I'll bring to your mind, And they've plenty more left of the very same kind, They drank from a flask and played cards on the way, And the children looked on, on this Seventeenth day. They had Ohio Yankees of Western Reserve Who live upon cheese, ginger cakes and preserve, Abolition's their doctrine their rod and their staff, And they'll fight for a sixpence an hour and a half. Now was it not kind in these good simple clowns To amuse all the children in both of our towns To shut up their work shops and spend so much money To black up their faces, get tight and be funny. They called it a council of freemen you know But I told you before 'twas a great baby show, For when they had met they had nothing to say But "Poor Bleeding Kansas" and "Ten Cents A Day". Then their ship Constitution was hauled through the street With sixteen small guns she was armed compleat But the brave ship of State by which Democrats stand Carries thirty-one guns with old Buck in command. In the year '45 when the fire laid us waste Old Buck gave us five hundred dollars in haste They then took his money and lauded his name But he's now "Ten cent Jimmy", their banners proclaim.
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Authorship:
- by Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864), title 1: "The Abolition Show", title 2: "The Great Baby Show" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864), "The Abolition Show", alternate title: "The Great Baby Show", published 1856. [voice and piano] [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Laura Prichard [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2015-12-26
Line count: 45
Word count: 411