From the musical “Dream City the Magic Knight”, 1907.
Words by Edgar Smith.
Music by Victor Herbert.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
When a little maid suburban
All unused to manners urban
Spends a week in New York town
‘Tis the first of her impressions
That to judge by their expressions
City folks talk upside down
For their language seems to vary
From the good old dictionary
And their words are all their own
Mine all seemed quite rudimental
When I overheard the “central”
Use this slanguage on the phone
Refrain:
Oh, the ways of New York
In the matter of talk
Are so strange that I’m much afraid
The language they speak
Can’t be learned in a week
By a shy suburban maid
Sung here by Fred Feild: