Pills of White Mercury
Dave Gunning
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As I was walking by the banks of the Ugie
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Come my dear fellows and a story I will tell
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I spied a dear comrade, dressed in white flannel
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Dressed in white flannel and cruel was his fate
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The mercury was beating, the limestone was reeking
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His tongue all in flamed hung over his chin
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With a hole in his bosom, his teeth were a closin'
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Bad luck to the girl who gave it to him
[Chorus]
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And had she but told me, when she dis honoured me
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Had she but told me of it in time
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I might have been cured by those pills of white mercury
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But now I'm a young man cut down in my prime
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My parents they warned me and oftimes they chided
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With those young flash girls do not sport and play
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But I never listened, no I never heeded
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I just carried on in my own wicked way
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It was down on the corner two flash girls were talking
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One to the other in a whisper did say
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There goes that young man who once was so jolly
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But now for his sins his poor body must pay
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Oh doctor, dear doctor be fore you de parture
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Take all these bottles of mercury away
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And send for the minister to say a prayer over me
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Then you can lay my poor body in the clay
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Now get you six fellows to carry my coffin
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Six pretty fair maids to bear up my pall
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And give each of them a bunch of red roses
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So when they pass by me they'll not know the smell