O'REILLY'S GONE TO HELL

O'Reilly was a soldier, the pride of "Battery B,"
In all the blooming regiment, no better man than he;
The ranking duty noncom, he knew his business well;
But since he tumbled down the pole O'Reilly's gone to hell.

(Chorus)
O'Reilly's gone to hell, since down the pole he fell;
He drank up all the bug juice the whisky man would sell.
They ran him in the mill. They got him in there still.
His bobtail's coming back by mail. O'Reilly's gone to hell.

O'Reilly hit the bottle after six years up the pole;
He blew himself at Casey's place and then went in the hole;
He drank with all the rookies anf shoved his face as well.
The whole outfit is on the bum. O'Reilly's gone to hell.
Chorus

O'Reilly swiped a blanket and shoved it up, I hear;
He shoved it for a dollar and invested that in beer.
He licked a coffee cooler because he said he'd tell.
He's ten days absent without leave. O'Reilly's gone to hell.
Chorus

They'll try him by court martial; he'll never get a chance
To tell them how his mother died or some such song and dance.
He'll soon be down in Battery "Q" a-sleeping in a cell,
A big red "P" stamped on his back. O'Reilly's gone to hell.
Chorus

Note: "This song by Colonel General E. Griffin was sung to the tune of 'When Reuben Comes to Town.'"

SOURCE: Edward Arthur Dolf, "Sound Off!": Soldier Songs From Yankee Doodle to Parley Voo (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1929, pp. 54-56), with music.

~Masato