Music of this Song for sale by Wm. A. Pond & Co., 547 Broadway, N.Y.

BORING FOR OIL.

You may talk of California, with its yellow golden shore,
The new streets of Nevada, with its mines of silver ore,
But the State of Pennsylvania the boasting now can spoil,
Great wealth is flowing from their mighty beds of oil.

CHORUS.--Work away, did away,
Drilling through the soil;
Where you go, both high and low,
They're talking of oil.

Now to this great discovery Farmer once gave birth,
He planted some potatoes pretty deep into the earth;
He took a basket out one day and took them home to boil,
When he went to take them out the pot was full of oil.

The tailor leaves his lap-board, the carpenter his plane,
The barber, blacksmith, and everyone has got oil upon the brain.
A wife unto her husband says when he goes out to toil,
What shall we have for dinner, love? he only answers Oil!

I fell across an oil barrel, my arm I then did sprain,
i went to a doctor to have it set again.
I found him digging at a well, I in a rage did boil,
Says he, Rub it with Petroleum, then take a dose of oil.

The over sits a courting, his thoughts he does divide,
One-half upon Petroleum, one-half upon his bride.
Suddenly seizer her by the waist, but she his wish to foil,
Says, Law, John, don't you know father has struck oil?

"Songs for the Week commencing Sept. 25th, 1865." in
Bryants' Songs and Programme for this Evening. New York: T.B.
Harrision & Co., Printers, 447 Broome Street. 1864.


See online here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Songs_and_Programme_for_this_Evening/-C1NCTgRCqgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22boring%20for%20oil%22%20song%20OR%20rhyme%20OR%20ballad&pg=PA685&printsec=frontcover


The first stanza is similar to the bawdy song and the last stanza hints at ribaldry.