Print This Page#02723 Print This Page
Now the new hotel is crowded with half the girls in town,
All standing 'round the office door, their names for to take down;
And some old maids, and pretty girls, that's trying to jig a man,
For the town is all gone crazy trying to win this grand sedan.
Our Mary Ann wins that sedan, just big enough for four,
Myself, Jerry Hooligan, and Ellen Kinsella, the woman lives next door,
And Kate Glavine, we won't be mean, and also Julia Tapp,
She can cuddle into Jerry while she's sitting on his lap.
This world is hard to live in, people talk behind your back,
And our lifetime picking cinders, in a tumbled down old shack;
And now their piling on such style, and for the world don't care,
Since Mary came from Boston after jigging a millionaire.
The neighbours now got scalded hearts and have us sized up fine,
Saying Jerry had to stay in bed till his shirt dried on the line;
All jealous since we rose in life, myself and my old man,
And all the eyes in Brazil's Square is watching our sedan.
They tell me, Jerry Hooligan, the circus will be grand,
With monkeys, dogs and devils, and a ladies' fine string band;
Dancers, clowns, and acrobats, and a man can walk the wire,
As high as the cathedral or perhaps a few feet higher.
Sure that's quite easy, Ellen dear, if you are trained up right,
You'd easy do the trick yourself if you got the proper diet;
Give me cotton drawers and a smoking cap and a pair of canvas shoes,
I'd knock the devil out of the circus man with a couple of roots of booze.
Published in Burke's Ballads, pp.19-20, c.1960, compiled by John White and archived at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Libraries, Centre For Newfoundland Studies - Digitized Books collection.
See more songs by Johnny Burke.
From the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:
Jig - ³ of an unmarried woman, to secure or hook a husband.
Root - stiff drink; a shot.
GEST Notes: Brazil's Square was located approximately at the intersection of Casey Street and McFarlane Street near the back or west side of the present day Delta St. John's Hotel and Conference Centre at 120 New Gower Street.
