Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie wrote that "in 1919 in officers’ barracks at Bordeaux, France, I heard a lusty individual recite" an unexpurgated version of "this notorious speech."

Anearlier record of a possibly bawdy version appears in the 1908 "Lucky Bag" of the U.S. Naval Academy :

“Here Welshimer took the floor and delivered a thirty-minute speech against the advisability of changing the name of Arkansas. We regret that we are unable to reproduce this speech in full.”