R--is for the right, I’ll try to teach you my boy. U--means the union that our hearts will enjoy. B--is used in blotting sorrow’s memory, too. Y--is that your yearning heart will always be true. M--is for the million times you wanted to go to school. O--shows how this old world treats when mother’s lying cool. N--is for my natural love to you I plainly give. T--is just to teach us how to love and live. The placing of these letters tells how the story goes. And the only name I love and spell is my Ruby Montrose.
All through life you’ll be like a pearl to me, Just to have and hold you for my own; With tender love, so great, then our lives I will relate, And dream of you my dear when I’m alone. Nights I’ll always pray that you may see the day When you won’t be afraid to spell your name. We’ll study night and day, this will help you on your way, And relieve your tender heart of its bashful pain. To me then came my trial and it seemed if heaven smiled On those dear sweet letters that spells her name.
Time promised me Some day to unfold A lifelong happiness Bound with a goal. I’m patiently awaiting Along the way, Attentive as a child At its daily play. My heart ne’er chills From the long winter’s cold. It’s wanting that happiness Bound with a goal. At times I’m sad With nothing to say, I should be gay as a rose Of a bright summer’s day. But looking for the story So sweet to be told Are you my little happiness Bound with a goal? If fate takes away This promise so dear, There’ll be a chain Of my wasted years. Link by link To count and hold, Trying to find my happiness Bound with a goal.
Once more around and I’ll go home, It’s really a shame how I’ve learned to roam. Oh! but what’s the use? I’ve got a good excuse That outnumber the bubbles in this glass. Ah, ah, ah, ah, drink up, boys, and do it fast, For with your old pal it may be the last. You wonder why I have this knife? Yes, I got it, got it just to kill my wife; It’s the only thing for me to do, Since fate brings about that she’s not true, Stop, oh, don’t coax me, friends, You can see I’m near my end. Now you shoved me over that chair And I’ve seen the time you wouldn’t dare; But that’s when bloomed the rose of my life And I had the love of my sweet wife. Now think, it was stolen, by a dirty cur, And in my life it’s put a blur. Yes, I’m the guy that lives next door, Where my crying babe sits on the floor. Wait; I’m going to that swell cafe, My wife’s there, and lead astray. Ah! this is your secret place to dine. And for me, ’twasn’t hard to find, Why not let me meet your friend? He’s beneath the notice of cultured men. Ah! that’s the Italian that carried the note, And he would meet death if I could clutch his throat. Me no caree letter no time, Me com a dis a placa, drinka Italiana wine. Shut up, don’t you dare to speak, You’re part of the cause, you dirty sneak. Ah! and here’s the Jew that hauled your trunk, And the boat that brought him over really should have sunk. Oh! Meister, vate, vate you speak to me rongs, I spyed in this yard an o’ pair tongs. Who’s that Chinaman? I guess he cooked the meal, And he will land in glory quick as I can grab this steel, Woo Long, Sing Lee, Fong Low, Well, old man, I’ll spare your head, For in that language I don’t know what you said. Me noee cookee disee placee, Me gotee laundry, washee lacee. Ask your friend to buy me a drink; Ah! thanks old pal, but I called you a slink. What! is she crying, She’s thinking of our lives, that’s very trying. Oh! now I know just what she sees A once happy husband and living good as you please, There’s a painting in her memory, how I hated drink and gamble; And how I spent my evenings home, for I had no mind to ramble. Then along come you, another suited man, But she being weak, like the most of us, prosperity she couldn’t stand, Then I took to this drug ’Cause it eased the nerves in my head, And ever since I’ve wished that she and I both were dead. Ah! let go of my throat, don’t let him, me boys, Let go of my throat, I tell you. Oh! mercy, There’s my little babe, her voice calls, But woman and liquor is the cause of it all.