Paris of America

Good gentleman stroller
Take your lady down Broad Street
In the Paris of America
Regard the fountains and the finery
But don’t spark your imagination
For your fears are just around the corner
Where there are riots and disease
Savages walk the streets
Brawling Irish thieves
Down on Bedford Street
Well you should see it for yourself good sir
Let me take you to the dens and the hovels
No need to see the wild west
You could lose your life on Bedford Street
There’s a vice for every degradation
So beware a friendly invitation
They breed like a disease
Flourish and fill the streets
See the bawdy houses breathe
Down on Bedford Street
Come with me down Sorrow’s Circuit
Through the grog shops and the barrooms
The savagery of a scalping Redman
Ain’t nothing for our Philadelphian ruffian
A war of extermination
Is being threatened by that «Jacobin club»
So as you curtsy on the boulevard
Plans are being hatched on Bedford Street
To build the barricades on Broad
You’ll be the first up against the wall
With a rag stuffed in your mouth
In front of a baying angry crowd
Swinging from a beam
Down on Bedford Street