MOTHER, MAY I GO OUT TO SWIM? (BATHING SONG)

Sung by Julian Eltinge of Cohan & Harris' "Honey Boy" Minstrels
Word and Music by Lester Keith

A sweet little peach from Manhattan Beach
Was strolling upon the sand,
And met a young sport from jolly Newport
Who thought she was perfectly grand
She murmured to him, "I'd go take a swim,
But I am engaged to be wed,
Though it's very warm, it's very bad form."
"Yours looks good to me," he said
She answered right away, "To Ma I used to say"
[Chorus]
Mother may I go out to swim,
Yes my darling daughter,
Hang your clothes on a hickory limb,
But don't go near the water.
You may look cute in your bathing suit,
But act just as you oughter,
Now and then you can flirt with the men,
But don't go near the water.

This dapper young swell then said to the belle,
"Please come out and dine with me,
It's quite impolite, but come out tonight,
I love you and you must agree,"
She answered in haste, "It's very bad taste
To dine with a stranger I'm told:"
But her taste was fine for champagne and wine
Cost him twenty dollars cold,
And afterwards he thought, Of what her mother taught
[Chorus]

Copyright 1908. [With music. I suspect the songwriters Keith Lester, Lester W. Keiffer, Lester Keith, and Lester W. Keith are the same person, but who was he? For the chorus see the Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes]