Here is the original text of Harrigan's "Buffalo," as it appeared in "Harrigan and Hart's Mulligan Guards Songster" (1873). No tune is given: BUFFALO. Written by NED HARRIGAN From Buffalo I've just come down On the good boat Danger; A long, long trip on the Erie, boys, I feel just like a stranger. We'd heavy fogs, aaf wlnud [sic] storms, Forget 'em I never shall; I'm every inch a sailor boy, On the E-ri-a Canal. CHORUS. For the Erie is a rising, And the gin is getting low; I hardly think you'll get a drink, Till we get back to Buffalo. We were loaded down with barley, When we bid good-bye; When a pirate bore upon us, With an awful wicked eye. I saw him through the spy-glass, I put up a flag of truce; I saw it was the Three Sisters, Four days from Syracuse. For the Erie, &c. Three days' out we struck a rock, Of Lackawanna Coal; It gave the boat an awful shock, And stove in quite a hole. I halloed to the driver, On the tow-path's treaden dirt; He came aboard and stopped the leak, With his flannel undershirt. For the Erie, &c. In two years we reached the Hudson. We hadn't slept a wink; The crew mutinized Because I refused to drink. Keep up your courage, then I cried, I'll safely bring you in; And when we strike a grocery store, We'll swim in barrels of gin. For the Erie, &c. The storm went down, we went ashore, Me and Sal and Hank; Greased ourselves with tallow-fat And slid out on a plank. Sal is in the Poor House, boys, The crew is all in jail, I'm the sole surviving moke, Left to tell the tale. SPOKEN: So haul in your bow-line, Stand by your sorrel mule, Low bridge, boys, dodge your heads; Don't act just like a fool. This is a very abrupt ending. Its location at the very bottom of the page suggests that "For the Erie, &c." may have been omitted. "Moke" means here a stupid or worthless person. (It may be the source of current "mook," idiot.)
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