A food song from “Alone At Last”, 1915.
Words by Benjamin Hapgood Burt and Roy Atwell.
Music by Silvio Hein.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment midi by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. It is often times a question
In this age of indigestion
As to what to eat and what to leave alone
For each microbe and Bacillus
Has a different way to kill us
And in time they always claim us for their own
There are germs of every kind
In any food that you can find
In the market or upon the bill of fare
Drinking water’s just as risky
As the so-called deadly whiskey
And it’s often a mistake to breathe the air
Refrain:
Some little Bug is going to find you some day
Somе little Bug will sneak behind you some day
Thеn he’ll send for his bug friends
And all your earthly trouble ends
Some little bug is gonna find you some day
2. The inviting green cucumber
Get’s most everybody’s number,
And the green corn has a system of its own.
Though a radish seems nutritious,
Its behavior is quite vicious,
And a doctor will be coming to your home.
Eating lobster cooked or plain
Is only flirting with ptomaine,
While an oyster sometimes has a lot to say,
But the clams we eat in chowder
Make the angels chant the louder,
For they know that we’ll be with them right away.
Refrain:
Some little bug is going to find you some day,
Some little bug will creep behind you some day,
Then he’Il get into your gissard
If you lose him you’re a wisard
Some little bug is going to find you some day
3. Take a slice of nice fried onion
And you’re fit for Dr. Munyon,
Apple dumplings kill you quicker than a train
Chew a cheesy midnight “rabbit”
And a grave you’ll soon inhabit
Ah, to eat at all is such a foolish game.
Eating huckleberry pie
Is a pleasing way to die
While sauerkraut brings on softening of the brain
When you eat banana fritters
Every undertaker titters,
And the casket-makers nearly go insane
Refrain:
Some little bug is going to find you some day,
Some little bug toill creep behind you some day,
With a nervous liltle qurver
He’ll gloe cirrhosis of the liver;
Some little bug is going to find you some day
4. When cold storage vaults I visit
I can only say what is it
Makes poor mortals fill their systems with such stuff.
Now, for breakfast, prunes are dandy,
If a stomach-pump is handy
And your doctor can be found quite soon enough.
Eat a plate of fine pigs-knuckles
And the head-stone-cutter chuckles,
While the grave-digger makes a note upon his cuff.
Eat that lovely red bologna
And you’ll wear a wooden kimona.
As your relatives start scrapping ’bout your stuff
Refrain:
Some little bug is going to find you some day.
Some little bag mill creep behind you some day,
Eating juicy sliced pineapple
Makes the Sexton dust the chapel;
Some little bug is going to find you some day
5. All those crazy foods they mix
Will float us ‘cross the River Styx,
Or they’ll start us climbing up the milky way.
And the meals we eat in courses
Mean a hearse and two black horses
So before a meal some people always pray.
Lucious grapes breed pendicitis
And the juice leads to gastritis
So there’s only death to greet us either way
And fried liver’s nice but, mind you
Friends will soon ride slow behind you
And the papers then will have nice things to say
Refrain:
Some little bug is going to find you some day,
Some little bug will creep behind you some day,
Eat some sauce, they call it chill
On your breast they’ll place a lily
Some little bug is going to find you some day.