"I Wonder Why Bill Bailey Don't Come Home" (1902)
Words by Frank Fogerty
Music by Woodward and Jerome

1.
I'm almost broken-hearted,
I wish that I was dead,
Since me and Bill Bailey parted,
And a brakesman I did wed;
Bill knows that I do love him,
And that my love is true;
I begged him to forget the past,
what more could a poor gal do;
I once...was a poor wash-woman,
didn't have a [big] Markee,
But since...then Uncle Ephram died,
and left all his dough to me;
When I got the cola I surely thought
that homeward, Bill would stray,
But I was wrong, and 'pon my word,
I can't figure what is keeping him away.

CHORUS
I wonder why Bill Bailey don't come home;
You know Bill that you haven't got to roam,
You've got my heart and you know, too,
that all this money is waiting for you;
And you gwine to leave your baby all alone!
To get him back I've tried most ev'ry way.
Even wrote to Beatrice Fairfax yesterday;
He's the onliest man in the world for me,
and we'd certainly live in luxury,
I wonder why Bill Bailey don't come home.

(CHORUS)

2.
In a 'mobile one eve-ning,
Bill Bailey passed my place,
And since then I've been grieving,
For he gave me the frozen face;
I sat down to my supper,
I couldn't eat a bite,
And I had to take Castoria
for to make me sleep that night;
If William would come back to me,
he could live just like a king,
With ev'ry that at his command,
and nothing for to worry him;
With a French chaffour for his automac,
a gent to place his bets.
Why, he could even have a Turk,
for to make that man his Turkish cigarettes.

(CHORUS)
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