To Miss Fannie "Zoe" Nixon 
of Hot Springs, Ark.
"Old Fashioned Roses Are Sweetest" (1887; 1888)  
Words & Music by
William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907  

Boston, MA: Oliver Ditson & Co.
Plate No. 52905-3.

[Source:
from the Music Library at the University of South Carolina
Digital ID No. 3353
Call Number: Sheet music Large 1014] 

1. The moon in its beauty was beaming,
The stars from the bright sky were shining,
And the birds in their nesthomes wre dreaming,
The streamlet its music was chiming;
I met Nellie walking alone in the lane,
The nightingale chorus did greet us,
When she gave me a rose with a kiss as she said
“The old fashioned roses are sweetest.”

CHORUS [sung after each verse]
Nellie, my darling, my only true love,
Your form is the fairest and neatest;
And I’ll always remember, 
when form is the fairest and neatest;
And I’ll always remember, 
when walking thro’ life,
That the old fashioned roses are sweetest.

2. I told her goodbye, I must leave her,
She said she would love me the better,
That the parting alone would not grieve her,
If I’d send her my love in a letter,
When we parted that night she said she would write,
That our loves and our lives woud be fleetest,
Till we meet soon again, and we’d walk down the land
Where the old fashioned roses are sweetest.