Maybe we can settle this "I Learned About Women From 'Er". Frank Crumit recorded this in 1928. The words come from Kipling's poem "The Ladies", published in 1896. Kipling's poem contains eight verses. Crumit used five of these verses and called his song "I Learned About Women From 'Er". He thankfully left out Kipling's fifth verse which was too racist even for 1928. (Also the second verse which contains the unfortunate line "The things you will learn from the yellow and Brown/They'll help you a lot with the White!") (Good for Frank!) He left out Kipling's last verse, which contains a famous Kipling quote: "For the Colonel's Lady and Judy O'Grady/Are sisters under their skins!" I, personally, think Crumit chose wisely; his five verses tell the story nicely. I do miss the famous quote, though.

The music was composed by Frank himself, and is a beautiful tune. I sing this song often, but rarely (never?) in public, which is probably cowardice on my part, because it is a lovely song reflecting another age.

The lyrics quoted by Art Thieme are correct, other than misspelled placenames (Prome, Meerut)and the wrong phrase I mentioned earlier (jemadar-sais). The lyrics quoted by Stewie are incorrect. (Correct, by the way, means that they are Kipling's lyrics.) Bear Records' attributing the song to Geobel Reeves is horribly wrong and is a slight to both Kipling and Crumit, and is unworthy of Bear Records.

Lorne Brown