"Stay in Your Own Backyard" (1899)
Pathetic Ballad & Refrain [Chorus]
Words by Karl Kennett
Music by Lyn Udall

New York: M. Whitmark & Sons
[Source: 106/182@Levy]

1.
Lilac trees a blooming in the corner by the glade,
Mammy in the little cabin door,
Curly headed pickaninny comin' home so late,
Cryin' 'cause his little heart is sore;
All the children playing 'round have skin so white and fair,
None of them with him will ever play,
So Mammy in her lap takes the little weeping chap,
And says, in her kind old way:

CHORUS [sung after each verse]
Now honey, yo' stay in your own back yard.
Doan min' what dem white chiles do;
What show yo' suppose dey's a gwine to gib
A black little coon like yo'?
So stay on dis side of de high boahd fence,
And honey, doan cry so hard:
Go out an' play, just as much as yo' please,
But stay in yo' own back yard.


2.
Ev'ryday the children as they passed old mammy's place,
Romping home from school at night or noon,
Peering through the fence would see this eager little face,
Such a wistful, lonesome little coon;
'Till one day the little face was gone forever more,
God had called this dusky little elf,
And Mammy in the door sat and rocked as oft before,
And crooned to her old black self: