In 1986 L. Douglas Henderson of Artcraft Music Rolls in
Wiscasset, Maine created a player-piano roll of this tune.
Read his description at
http://wiscasset.net/artcraft/rolls5.htm
to find out how he selected the words and music for his
particular arrangement.

I own the roll and perform and sing it on appropriate
occasions. Musically it is an excellent arrangement, and
showcases the style of music and comedy popular in 1904.

The original words of the song do put it into the category
of "coon song". The words of such songs and even the name
of this genre are unacceptable today, but they are part of
history and as such deserve to be preserved. Performances
should be bracketed by careful historical explanations.

The razor in the lyrics is one of three common tokens of the
comic stereotype of blacks a hundred years ago. The other
two were a watermelon, usually stolen, and a top hat. The
sheet music cover shows the Preacher wearing a top hat. Why
the hat? Presumably during slave times it was a problem for
free black men in the South to avoid slave catchers, men who
would pick up unowned blacks as runaway slaves. Ownership of
a good hat presumably announced to all that the wearer was
a free gentleman, and not a slave.