The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7324   Message #3685163
Posted By: Joe Offer
12-Dec-14 - 02:46 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Great American Bum
Subject: ADD Version: We Are Four Bums (Sandburg)
Sandburg's version is just a bit longer than what Jon Bartlett posted above.

WE ARE FOUR BUMS
(from Sandburg)

We are four bums, four jolly good chums,
We live like royal Turks;
We're having good luck, in bumming our chuck,
God bless the man that works.

We are four bums, four jolly good chums,
We live like royal Turks;
We're having good luck, in bumming our chuck,
To hell with the man that works.

from Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag (1927), page 192

Notes: If a man shall not work neither shall he eat...Is that so?...A bums' song...heard among glee club boys and among persons who go to the Barber's College for a haircut...