Lyr Req: Riding Down from Bangor

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Riding Down from Bangor
From: GUEST,Nila Aronow
Date: 02 Sep 16 - 08:35 PM

My mother sang it to me in the late '30s and '40s in New Jersey with some variations from the versions above::

From six months of fishing, off the coast of Maine,
From the town of Bangor, came a Pullman train.
Whiskers all extended, small mustache as well,
Oh see that Harvard student. Say, doesn't he look swell.

Seated at the window, no one at his side,
Through an Eastern village the Pullman train did ride,
Enter aged couple. Take the hindmost seat,
Enter pretty maiden, so (bashful)? and petite.

Bashfully(?) she falters, "Is this seat engaged?"
They see the aged couple, so happily arranged.
.........

Here I run out of words. They go through the tunnel but I cannot remember anymore words until the last line:

But doesn't that tiny hairpin in his mustache just look swell?

Was hoping to find the words to fill in my blanks, but none of the versions cited match the way I remember my mother singing it.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE KISS IN THE RAILWAY TRAIN
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Aug 17 - 05:14 PM

This seems to be another song of the same genre; at least the tale is similar:

From the sheet music which can be seen at The British Library Online Gallery of Victorian Popular Music:


THE KISS IN THE RAILWAY TRAIN
Words by Watkin Williams, music by C. H. Mackney
London: B. Williams, 1864.

1. Some say a trip by rail to please it cannot fail;
To me it brings nought but pain
When I think of an event which happened when I went
Riding in a railway train—
When I think of an event which happened when I went
Riding in a railway train.
'Twas going on a trip, for a salt water dip
To Brighton and back again,
That I met a young spark who stole away my heart
While riding in a railway train.

2. He was handsome, wore a watch, and sported a moustache,
Of which he appeared quite vain;
Yet very courteous he made ample room for me
By his side in the railway train—
Yet very courteous he made ample room for me
By his side in the railway train.
What he whispered on the way, of course I needn't say,
But his eyes pierced me through again,
And very soon he placed his arm round my waist
While riding in the railway train.

3. When the tunnels we got near, I expressed to him a fear,
Being terribly afraid of the same;
And scarcely we were in, than I felt above my chin,
Such a tickling in the railway train—
And scarcely we were in, than I felt above my chin,
Such a tickling in the railway train.
When the darkness had cleared, how strange he appeared!
His moustachios I looked for in vain,
Oh! goodness! what a fix! They were sticking to my lips
While riding in the railway train.

4. The passengers all smiled, when he snatched them off wild,
To place them on his lips again.
When the train quickly stopped, a guard in hurried got,
And stared at us all in the train—
When the train quickly stopped, a guard in hurried got,
And stared at us all in the train.
My spark blew his nose, for concealment, I suppose,
But the guard said, "I know your little game.
A message I have got by telegraph to stop
Your riding in a railway train."

5. Why they should serve him so, just then I didn't know.
They took him back to town again;
But looking on the ground, my empty purse I found;
Then I knew why they took him from the train—
But looking on the ground, my empty purse I found;
Then I knew why they took him from the train.
Young maids, stay at home, 'stead of travelling alone,
Lest you'd be served just the same;
And never let a spark slyly kiss you in the dark,
While riding in a railway train.