"The Attache" (1845)
Written & Adapted to Music
by John Hill Hewitt, 1801-1890

Baltimore, MD: F. D. Benteen

1.
Oh! where is my lover? tell me, I pray?
Has any one seen him passing this way?
He's tall and he's slender, and dresses quite neat,
High crown on his head and high heels on his feet.
Can no one inform me if such they have seen?
With strip'd velvet waistcoat and spectacles green;
He wears an imperial, and combs his hair back,
With down on his chin and mostache quite black.

2.
He says he's _attache_ to some foreign count,
And speaks broken English -- as surely he ought;
He sings so divinely -- such pathos -- such grace,
That music's soul breathes from each twist of his face.
He told me he lov'd me -- that I don't believe,
For such a nice fellow is bound to deceive;
Yet he's just the being to flirt with awhile,
To make the belles jealous and old people smile.

3.
Some say he's a swindler, and lives by his means,
_Au fait_ at a flirt with a miss in her teens;
But this is all scandal -- by envy began,
I know that my lover's a very nice man.
If any one's seen him, I wish he would say,
For he borrow'd ten dollars of me yesterday --
Besides finger rings, and a necklace of gold,
Which some people tell me -- this morning he sold!