The Pills Of White Mercury

As I was a-walking by the banks o' the Ugie

Come, my dear friends, and this story I'll relate

I spied a dear comrade all dressed in white flannel

Dressed in white flannel and cruel was his fate

Oh the mercury was beating, the limestone was reeking

His tongue all in flames hung over his chin

A hole in his bosom, his teeth were a-closing

Bad luck to the girlie that gied him the glim

Chorus (after each verse):

And had she but told me, oh when she dishonored me

Had she but told me of it in time

I might have been cured by those pills of white mercury

Now I'm a young man cut down in my prime

My parents, they warned me and oft times they chided

With those young flash girls do not sport and play

I never listened, no, I never heeded

I just carried on in my own wicked way

It's down on the corner two flash girls were talking

One to the other did whisper and say

"There goes that young man who once was so jolly

Now for his sins his poor body must pay"

Oh doctor, dear doctor, before your departure

Take all these bottles of mercury away

Send for the minister to say a prayer over me

So they can lay my poor body in the clay

Now get you six fellows to carry my coffin

Six pretty fair maids to bear up my pall

Give each of them there a bunch of red roses

When they pass by me, they'll not know the smell