To Byron Lee Fox
"I'll Marry No Man If He Drinks" (1866)
As sung by little Effie Parkhurst, with great 
applause, at the Temperance Meetings in 
New York and Brooklyn.
Words by Dexter Smith
Music by Mrs. Effie A. Parkhurst, 1836-1918
(aka Mrs. Druer)

Horace Waters, No. 481 Broadway
Plate Number: 1290
[Source: 098/112@Levy]

1. I know I may be an old maid, 
May live and may die all forlorn 
Of that I am not much afraid, 
For that I suppose I was born, 
But one thing I know well enough, 
No matter what any one thinks, 
Although you may call it all stuff, 
I’ll marry no man if he drinks, 
I’ll marry no man if he drinks.

2. I see my friends wed every day,
To husbands so good and so kind,
They make “splendid matches” they say,
I think that their wives must be blind;
For Harry and Alfred are men
Who stagger and groan like a Sphinx,
And so I repeat it again,
I’ll marry no man if he drinks!
I’ll marry no man if he drinks!

3. No matter how poor I may be,
No drunkard’s home e’er can be mine;
Cold water’s the one draught for me,
I never will drink of the wine;
And maidens be cautious and wise,
No matter what ‘Miss Grundy’ thinks,
Old topers and tipplers despise,
And marry no man if he drinks!
And marry no man if he drinks!