Here's my transcription from a recording at The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The recording is full of pseudo-German (or Swiss?) dialectical pronunciations which I didn't try to reproduce:


SAUERKRAUT IS BULLY
As sung by George P. Watson
Edison Blue Amberol disk 1903, 1913

1. If you will only listen to who I speak about,
I ain't a-going to tell you how to make that sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut ain't made of liquor, as ev'ryone suppose,
But of that little flower we call the cabbage-rose.
Sauerkraut is bully. I told you it was fine.
I think I ought to know, for why? I eat him all the time.

[CHORUS, SWITCHING TO ¾ TIME] Then it's sauerkraut, yes, it's sauerkraut.
Why, it's good you know, for we like it so.
Then it's sauerkraut, yes, it's sauerkraut,
Only five cents one pint.
[YODEL]

2. When sauerkraut commence to smell, that he can smell no smeller,
We put him in that little barrel what's way down in the cellar.
We put him in that barrel and stamp him with our feet.
We stamp him and stamp him to make him nice and sweet.
Sauerkraut is bully. I told you it was fine.
So help me, cheese and crackers! I eat him all the time. [CHORUS AND YODEL]

[Here the recording seems to segue into a different song, although the web site doesn't say anything about it:]

3. Now show me that gal what never will have a dear little baby boy,
A very good child what never will cry and make a man blessed and glad.
Some people seek pleasures away from their home while I mine fire do keep.
Och! The fire ...(?) bright I could sit me all night while rocking those babies to sleep.
[YODEL]
Mama will come home in the sweet by and by.

4. Now I'm just thirty-five and my dear little wife is just ten years younger than me.
She's full of enjoyment and plenty of fun, and oft times goes out for a spree.
She leaves me behind those babies to mind, the house in good order to keep,
While away she does roam far away from her home while I rock those babies to sleep.
[YODEL]
Mama will come home in the sweet by and by.

5. One night when I got those babies to sleep, I took a short walk down the street,
And there to my surprise, I saw 'fore my eyes my wife with a policeman, six feet.
At first I got wild, I ...(?) and smiled, since I've been taking a peep,
They'd been huggling and kissling all in their while, while I rocked those babies to sleep.
[YODEL]
Mama will come home whenever she pleases.