Here's the whole thing, Jody. We usually try to post the whole song when verses are added - that way, they end up in the correct order. I added the "Coon" verse - we try to post the complete, original, unsanitized versions of songs. Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

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THE BOWERY
(words Charles H. Hoyt, Music Percy Gaunt)

Oh! The night that I struck New York
I went out for a quiet walk
Folks who are "on to" the city say
Better by far that I took Broadway
But I was out to enjoy the sights
There was the Bow'ry ablaze with lights
I had one of the devil's own nights
I'll never go there any more.

cho: The Bow'ry, the Bow'ry
They say such things and they do strange things,
On the Bow'ry! The Bow'ry!
I'll never go there any more.

I had walked but a block or two,
When up came a fellow and me he knew;
Then a policeman came walking by
Chased him away and I asked him, "Why?"
"Wasn't he pulling your leg?" said he,
Said I, "He never laid hands on me!"
"Get off the Bow'ry, you Yep (fool)!" said he
I'll never go there any more.

I went into an auction store,
I never saw any thieves before;
First he sold me a pair of socks
Then said he, "How much for the box"?
Someone said,"two dollars," I said "Three."
He emptied the box and gave it to me,
"I sold you the box, not the socks," said he,
I'll never go there any more.

I went into a concert hall,
I didn't have a good time at all;
Just the minute that I sat down
Girls began singing "New Coon in Town,"
I got up mad and spoke out free,
"Somebody put that man out," said she;
A man called a bouncer attended to me,
I'll never go there anymore.

I went into a barber shop,
He talked till I thought he would never stop
I said, "Cut it short," he misunderstood
Clipped down my hair just as close as he could;
He shaved with a razor that scratched like a pin,
Took off my whiskers and most of my chin;
That was the worst scrape I ever got in
I'll never go there any more.

I struck a place that they called a "dive,"
I was in luck to get out alive
When the policeman heard my woes,
Saw my black eyes and my battered nose.
"You've been held up!" said the "copper" fly!
"No, sir! But I've been knocked down!" said I;
Then he laughed, tho' I couldn't see why!
I'll never go there any more.


note: From a musical show "A Trip to Chinatown," 1892
Transcribed from the original sheet music, reproduced in "Favorite Songs of the Nineties" (Dover Publications, 1973)

filename[ BOWERY
play.exeÿBOWERY
RG JG JRO
OCT98

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From The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:

The Bowery. (Dutch bouwerij, a farm) A densely populated cosmopolitan street in New York City which runs through the former farm or bouwerij, of Governor Peter Stuyvesant (1592-1672). Noted for its many cheap lodging houses, saloons, and shops, it was once the haunt of the notorious ruffians called the "Bowery Boys."