I transcribed this while Mudcat was down, and I couldn't verify whether it had already been posted. Now I see a nearly identical copy is already the DT but, curiously, the verses are in a different order.

My transcription from the sheet music at The Maine Music Box. Other collections also have copies:


OH! DIDN'T HE RAMBLE
"The latest fad in town, introduced by the famous minstrel George H. Primrose."
Words and music by Will Handy*
Adaptation by Bob Cole*
New York: Jos. W. Stern & Co., ©1902.

1. Old Beebe had three full-grown sons, Buster, Bill and Bee,
And Buster was the black sheep of the Beebe family.
They tried their best to break him of his rough and rowdy ways.
At last they had to get a judge to give him ninety days.

CHORUS: Oh, didn't he ramble, ramble?
He rambled all around, in and out the town.
Oh, didn't he ramble, ramble?
He rambled till the butchers cut him down.

2. This black sheep was a terror, oh, and such a ram was he,
That every "copper" knew by heart his rambling pedigree;
And when he took his ladder out to go and paint the town,
They had to take their megaphones to call the rambler down.

3. He rambled in a swell hotel; his appetite was "stout."
When he refused to pay his bill, the landlord kicked him out.
He reached to strike him with a brick, but when he went to stoop,
The landlord kicked him in the pants and made him loop the loop.

4. He rambled in a gambling house to gamble [sic] on the green,
But there they showed the ram a trick that he had never seen.
He lost his roll and jewelry, and nearly lost his life.
He lost the car that took him home and then he lost his wife.

5. He rambled through the tunnel once on board a moving train.
Another train came rumbling in and rammed him out again.
It rammed him just a block, and then they caught him on the fly,
And with a ton of dynamite they rammed him to the sky.

6. He rambled to an Irish wake on one St. Patrick's night.
They asked him what he'd like to drink; they meant to treat him right.
But like the old Kilkenny cats, their backs began to arch
When he called for orange phosphate on the seventeenth of March.

7. He rambled to the races to make a gallery bet.
He backed a horse named Hydrant, and Hydrant's running yet.
He would have had to walk back home; his friends all from him hid.
By luck he met old George Sedam; it's a damn good thing he did.

- - -
* Wikipedia says:

[Bob] Cole left the production company [Black Patti's Troubadours, after a pay dispute], taking away his own written scripts and songs. His fame and reputation soon plummeted as he was denounced as a thief and troublemaker by the company's white managers, Voelckel and Nolan; thus, he bore a disgraceful image that no future production manager would hire. In just a short period of time, Cole transitioned from a successful, popular comedian and show manager to a mere nobody left to suffer amongst others in the unemployment line. Due to his impure reputation in society, Cole was forced to publish songs under an alias that masked his identity – he used the name Will Handy for his later works soon after his own name was tainted.

Instrumental versions of this song have been a staple of New Orleans jazz bands, but the lyrics are rarely sung. Jelly Roll Morton recorded a version in which he sang only the chorus. Also recorded by Al Hirt, Kid Ory, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and many others. It crossed over a bit into old-time country music, and was recorded by Charlie Poole, Fiddlin' John Carson, and Pete Seeger.