McNally’s Row of Flats
Words by Ed Harrigan; Music by Dave Braham (1882)
Down in Bottle Alley, lived Timothy McNally
A wealthy politician and a gentleman at that
Admired by the ladies, the garsoons* and the babies (*boys),
That occupy the building called McNally's Row of Flats.
Chorus:
There was Ireland and Italy, Jerusalem and Germany,
Chinese and Africans and a paradise for rats.
Jumbled up together in the snow and rainy weather
They constitute the tenants in McNally's Row of flats.
That great conglomeration of men from every nation
The tower of Babylonium couldn't equal that.
Peculiar institution where the brogues without dilution
Rattled on together in McNally's Row of Flats.
Chorus
Bags of rags and papers, tramps and other sleepers,
Ladies of the night and lots of other cats
Lyin’ on the benches an dyin’ there by inches
From the open ventilation of McNally's Row of Flats
Chorus
It never was expected that the rent would be collected
They levied on the furniture, the bedding, and the slats
It's then you'd see the rally as they battled down the alley
Evicted from the building called McNally's Row of Flats.
Chorus X2