To All Gay Young Clerks.
"The Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store" (1868)
(Gay Young Clerk in a Dry-Goods Store)
As Sung by Emerson Allen and Manning's Minstrels
Comic Song and Chorus.
Written and Composed
by William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907

[Source: 024/024@Levy]

1.
[Solo]
O listen now and I'll sing a song,
[Chorus]
How are you ladies, Howdy;
[Solo]
I'll sing it all for it won't take long,
[Chorus]
Ah! ladies ha-ha!
[Solo]
It's about a chap, perhaps you know,
I'm told he is "Nobody's beau,"
But maybe you all knew that before,
He's a lively clerk in a Dry-Goods Store.

CHORUS
O! Augustus Dolphus is his name,
From Skiddy-ma-dink they say he came,
He's a handsome man and he's proud and poor,
This gay young clerk in the Dry-Goods Store.

2.
[Solo]
His eyes they are of a dark sky-blue,
[Chorus]
How are you ladies, Howdy;
[Solo]
His hair light brown and his moustache too,
[Chorus]
Ah! ladies ha-ha!
[Solo]
And he wears eye glasses on his nose,
And he never looks down at his toes,
For fear he'll fall on a cellar door,
This dashing clerk in a Dry-Goods Store.

3.
[Solo]
He wears side whiskers on his jaws,
[Chorus]
How are you ladies, Howdy;
[Solo]
Won't none of you hear him for his cause
[Chorus]
Ah! ladies ha-ha!
[Solo]
Why almost ev'ry lady knows
He's a nice young man,
For he wears good clothes,
He's a handsome chap as I said before,
He's a gay young clerk in a Dry-Goods Store.

4.
[Solo]
He smiles at all the girls he meets,
[Chorus]
How are you ladies, Howdy;
[Solo]
And you smile at him on the crowded streets,
[Chorus]
Ah! ladies ha-ha!
[Solo]
Why don't you make him "come to tow,"
I know he wants a mother-in-law.
Do as your parents did before,
You and the clerk in the Dry-Goods Store.