The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120997   Message #4234064
Posted By: GUEST,Julia Lane
09-Jan-26 - 05:14 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Party at Odd Fellows Hall
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Party at Odd Fellows Hall
I have found this in two Maine sources- The Kneeland Miscellany (songs of James Kneeland , Searsport, 1914) and Horace Beck's unpublished dissertation "Downeast Ballads" where he titles it "The Fight at the Orangemen's Hall". He says "This song apparently enjoyed considerable popularity around the turn of the century as a music hall tune. However, it appears to have gone into tradition. Mr. Rollins Maxwell of Philadelphia knows it and Mr. Howard Lee, also of Philadelphia, states that he recorded it from a lumberman near Dover, New Hampshire."

However his transcription is
THE PARTY AT ODD FELLOWS HALL which he recorded from Dale Potter of Kingman, ME in 1947

Now I met my friend Patrick MacKinnon
One evening on Washington Street.
Said he'd to me,"Hi Titvie Nolan,
Here's a ticket that will give you a treat."

I looked on the card which he gave me,
'Twas not very large nor very small.
It read,"'hit a Gent and a Lady
To the party at Odd Fellows Hall."

Hi paid fifty cents for my ticket,
Then I called on Miss Bridget McCann
She said she would go to the party
For I was sich an elegant man.

We went down and jumps on the hurdy,
And driver said,"Where shall I call?"
And I, in a dignified manner
Said,"You may drive us to Odd Fellows Hall!"

To the party I met friend MacKinnon,
He wore a green badge on his breast,
A pink necktie tucked in his shirt front,
Oh my soul, he was stylishly dressed.

And when he waltzed off with Miss Bridget,
Sure I wasn't in it at all.
Said I to myself,"Pat MacKinnon
There's more than one man in this hall."

I waited until he had finished
Then up to him boldly I goes.
Said hi to him,"Patrick MacKinnon,
Now where did you borrow them clothes?"

"You're a liar," says Pat in a moment.
"Sir, what was that name you just called?"
And the next moment I and Pat Kinnon
Were a-wiping up Odd Fellows Hall.

Next morning before Judge MacNaulty,
Patrick and I were brought in.
"Ten dollars," said he,"or ten days sir."
Sure Pat nor I hadn't a ten.

So we took a short trip down the harbor,
To be sure I was feeling quite small,
When he gave us ten days at the Island,
For a scrapping at Odd Fellows Hall.