Hi,

The "Twenty-Eighteen" chorus is mysterious. The earliest extant version dated 1871 says the maid "had to say "Yes" or "No" by the time the figures were counted.

Frank Harte said she had the odds and evens of it (she had it all). Harte, who sang it with Campbell's "Spanish Lady" text may have gotten his version from the 1948 one published by Burl Ives who got his version from an Irish bartender in NYC.

Others have suggested that she was counting down money, and now you have said, it's her customers.

Personally I don't think the meaning of the "Twenty-Eighteen" chorus has much to do with "Madam" or "Spanish Lady".

I also think original intention of the two opening stanzas from the bawdy antecedent is lost on the 1800s-1900s versions of Madam/Spanish Lady. The painting was an attempt to create a universal image of her bathing at the water throth.

Richie