The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170522 Message #4123937
Posted By: Jim Dixon
23-Oct-21 - 05:57 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: One of His Legs is Longer than It ...
Subject: Lyr Add: ONE OF HIS LEGS IS LONGER THAN IT ...
The above song was so popular that it was made into a campaign song for the People’s Party (a.k.a. Populist Party) of Kansas. From a booklet: Campaign Songs as Sung by the National Quartette (Topeka: M. D. Henderson [n.d.]), page 7.—It can be seen at the website of the Kansas Historical Society.
ONE OF HIS LEGS IS LONGER THAN IT REALLY OUGHT TO BE (Campaign version) (Sung to the same tune as the original.)
1. Once more the old Republicans are hungry for a fray. They find when without office that the devil is to pay, So at the beck of Leland[1] with his apple-jack and cup, They held a fixers’ jamboree and Morrill[2] quick put up.
CHORUS 1: But one of his legs is longer than it really ought to be. When he goes against Lewelling,[3] daylight he’ll never see. He’ll wish Ed Hoch[4] had beaten him with a piece of an elm tree, For one of his legs is longer than it really ought to be.
2. Think of Blue[5], Buchan[6], and boodle—oh, what a lovely lot! In choosing one for Congress, drop a nickel in the slot. Draw out a thousand ballots, just to give the boys a chance, And then fall back on Funston’s[7] name—but change it first to “pants.”
CHORUS 2: For one of his legs is longer than it really ought to be. The music of his gentle voice is badly out of key. “Farewell to fog-horn serenades” will be the people’s plea, For one of his legs is longer than it really ought to be.
3. Way down in Barber County is a certain Chester Long,[8] Who thinks he’ll go to Washington, but that is where he's wrong. He wants to try on Jerry’s[9] shoes—the largest in the box— But they will never fit his shins unless he drops his socks.
CHORUS 3: For one of his legs is longer than it really ought to be. He cannot fool the Populists; they have his pedigree. The gang plank he will have to walk—no pass on Santa Fé[10]— For one of his legs is longer than it really ought to be.
4. No ring can rule this commonwealth, no money bags control— That’s the kind of calamity we shout with heart and soul. The soup is boiling thick and hot; they won’t have long to wait. The Pops will down the plutocrats and drive them from the state.
CHORUS 4: For all of their legs are longer than they really ought to be And so they try to straddle, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The Pops will trim their scalps this fall clear down to the knee, For all of their legs are longer than they really ought to be.