OK, the copyright date is 1926, but that was the 1935 printing - with no indication that anything had been altered.

The 1930 printing gives five stanzas, the second being the one about Cavite, which was dropped in subsequent editions.


The 1930 (and 1926?) printing also includes the following jocular stanza, which was also soon deleted. (The U.S. Navy Subic Bay Naval Base on the island of Luzon was established in 1899.):

From the school of application
To the shores of Subig [sic] Bay.
We've avoided exertation [sic]
In the most ingenious way;
Admiration of our mattresses
Is the finest thing we've seen,
For it answers to the question,
Why the hell is a marine?

The 1930 text also quotes Davis a little differently: "The two following verses I wrote at Camp Meyer in 1911 when on an expedition."

Thus (unless an actual 1926 printing shows something different!) Davis was pretty clearly claiming the Cavite stanza besides "Why the hell is a marine?" Neither has been sung for many decades.

The 1930 volume (and 1926?) also includes a "Navy Version":

It was out there on the Albany
In the Asiatic fleet.
The marines were so damn lazy
They could only sleep and eat.
From eight bells to the dog watch,
On deck they're never seen.
Oh, the question that we ask you is,
"Why the Hell is a Marine?"