Part 13 (1/2)

Bert Williams with ”Oh, _I_ Don't Know?”

Into the night go one and all.

Where's Lizzie Raymond, peppy jade?

The braggart Lew, the simple Joe?

And where the Irish servant maid That Jimmie Russell used to show?

Charles Sweet, who tore the paper snow?

Ben Harney's where? And Artie Hall?

Nash Walker, Darktown's grandest beau?

Into the night go one and all.

L'ENVOI

Prince, though our children laugh ”Ho! Ho!”

At us who gleefully would fall For acts that played the Long Ago, Into the night go one and all.

To a Prospective Cook

Curly Locks, Curly Locks, wilt thou be ours?

Thou shalt not wash dishes, nor yet weed the flowers, But stand in the kitchen and cook a fine meal, And ride every night in an automobile.

Curly Locks, Curly Locks, come to us soon!

Thou needst not to rise until mid-afternoon; Thou mayst be Croatian, Armenian, or Greek; Thy guerdon shall be what thou askest per week.

Curly Locks, Curly Locks, give us a chance!

Thou shalt not wash windows, nor iron my pants.

Oh, come to the cosiest of seven-room bowers, Curly Locks, Curly Locks, wilt thou be ours?

Variation on a Theme

June 30, 1919.

Notably fond of music, I dote on a clearer tone Than ever was blared by a bugle or zoomed by a saxophone; And the sound that opens the gates for me of a Paradise revealed Is something akin to the note revered by the blessed Eugene Field, Who sang in pellucid phrasing that I perfectly well recall Of the clink of the ice in the pitcher that the boy brings up the hall.

But sweeter to me than the sparrow's song or the goose's autumn honks Is the sound of the ice in the shaker as the barkeeper mixes a Bronx.

Between the dark and the daylight, when I'm worried about The Tower, Comes a pause in the day's tribulations that is known as the c.o.c.ktail hour; And my soul is sad and jaded, and my heart is a thing forlorn, And I view the things I have written with a sickening, scathing scorn.

Oh, it's then I fare with some other slave who is hired for the things he writes To a Den of Sin where they mingle gin--such as Lipton's, Mouquin's, or Whyte's, And my spirit thrills to a music sweeter than Sullivan or Puccini-- The swash of the ice in the shaker as he mixes a Dry Martini.