American Old Time Song Lyrics: 44 Only A Bowery Boy

Theater, Music-Hall, Nostalgic, Irish & Historic Old Songs, Volume 44

ONLY A BOWERY BOY.
Copyright, 1891, by The New York Music Co.
Words by Chas. B. Ward. Music by Gussie L. Davis.

I was born down on the Bowery, right between Spring Street and Prince,
My old man and my mother has lived there ever since;
I has a crippled sister, I works hard to support,
But when we knocks off Saturdays till Monday I can sport.
My mother goe's out washing, my sister minds the place,
The old man he ain't working, but the can he likes to chase;
makes my little eight a week, I'm satisfied with dat,
On Saturday night I takes home six and dumps it in mother's lap.

Chorus.
I'm only a Bowery boy, I'm not a bad fellow at all,
I can sing, I can dance, I'm a spieler, I take in ev'ry party and ball;
Down in the fourteenth ward all the pleasures of life I enjoy,
And dis roundsman he say to the copper, "He's all right, he's a Bowery boy."

I has a little pinkey that thinks the world of me,
The other boys ain't in it, not with my sweetheart, see?
Sonic of them has more plunder and tog up more with clothes,
But that don't cut no ice with her, as everybody knows.
I takes her out on Sunday, an outing for the day;
We goes up to Glen Island or down to Rockaway.
I has my pennies with me, not much, but just enough;
I changes a five-spot into ones and chucks an awful bluff.-Chorus.