I am told, without documentation but from his encyclopedic knowledge of American pop music from just before 1900 into the 1950s by a friend here in the Pacific Northwest that Ragged But Right is actually a Phil Harris song from one side or the other of 1920. That would fit with the other citations, Riley Puckett and such, who would likely have learned it directly or indirectly from recordings. It fits with late ragtime period pop lyrics, which Phil Harris continued to produce from the acoustic, electric, electronic, and on into digital recording periods. Not many did that! The booze (that was so central to the character he played on Jack Benny's radio show) must have preserved him well!
My local source is John Frielingsdorf of Suquamish, WA, whom many here before my PNW time will remember as the host of an American Pop Music of the first half of the 20th century radio show on KRAB (RIP). KRAB was the WBAI or KPFA of Seattle until the early 80s.
Carter