A 1895 popular song.
Words and music by Gerald Lane.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment MIDI by James Pitt-Payne:
Corrected accompaniment audio by Vancha March:
Lyrics
Tatters, with his little broom
Stands amid the crowd
In the sunshine, in the gloom
Where the strife is loud
Lords and ladies, fine and fair
Pass him as he lingers there
Prince and peasant swell the throng
Hour by hour that crowds along
Ah! Rags and Tatters, ‘neath the city sky
Fortune little matters when Hope beats high
Fortune little matters when Hope beats high
One day came a little maid
Selling roses there
So demurely coy and staid
So divinely fair
Tatters thought her face more sweet
Than the roses at her feet
Look’d into her eyes of gray
Till he look’d his heart away
Ah! Rags and Tatters, ‘neath the city sky
Fortune little matters when Love is nigh
Fortune little matters when Love is nigh
Years have pass’d away since then
Tatters, old and gray
Now has riches, pow’r and place
So the people say
But his little love of yore
Smiles upon him nevermore
Where the white moon daisies wave
Tatters kneels beside her grave
Ah! lonely Tatters, sadly now you sigh
“Fortune little matters if Love goes by
Fortune little matters if love, if Love goes by
Sung here by Vancha March: