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SHE WAS POOR BUT SHE WAS HONEST
Weston & Lee
As recorded by Billy Bennett, 1930; also on “Vintage British Comedy, Vol. 1” (2011)

It’s the syme the ’ole world over.
It’s the poor what gets the blyme.
It’s the rich what gets the pleasure.
Isn’t it a bloomin’ shyme?

She was poor but she was honest,
Though she came of ’umble stock,
And an honest heart was beating
Underneath her tattered frock.

’Eedless of her mother’s warning,
Up to London she had gone,
Yearning for the bright lights gleaming,
’Eedless of tempta-shy-on.

But the rich man saw her beauty—
She knew not his base design—
And ’e took her to a ’otel
And bought her a small port wine.

Then the rich man took her riding,
Wrecker of poor women’s souls,
But the devil was the chauffeur,
As she rode in his Royce Rolls.

In the rich man’s arms she fluttered
Like a bird with a broken wing,
But he loved her and he left her.
Now she hasn’t got no ring.

It’s the syme the ’ole world over.
It’s the poor what gets the blyme.
It’s the rich what gets the pleasure.
Isn’t it a bloomin’ shyme?

Standing on the bridge at midnight,
She says: “Farewell, blighted love!”
There’s a scream, a splash, good ’eavens!
What is she a-doing of?

See; she sinks into the water
On a night as black as pitch.
As she comes up for the third time,
She says: “Curse the idle rich!”

Soon they dragged ’er from the river.
Water from her clothes they wrang.
They all thought that she was drownded,
But the corpse got up and sang:

It’s the syme the ’ole world over.
It’s the poor what gets the blyme.
It’s the rich what gets the pleasure.
Isn’t it a bloomin’ shyme?

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Discographical information at 45worlds.com.