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Last winter was a hard one
Mrs. Riley did you hear?
Itâs well you should have known it
Itâs been for many a day
Your husband wasnât the only one
Who sat beside the wall
My old man McGinnis
Couldnât get a job at all
Chorus:
So rise up, Mrs. Riley
Donât give away to blues
You and I will cut a shine
In bonnet and new shoes
Hear the young ones cry
Neither sigh nor sob
Weâll wait til times get better
And McGinnis gets a job
The politicians promised them
Work on the boulevard
To work with pick and shovel
Load stone on the cart
Six months ago they promised them
This work weâd surely get
I tell you my good woman
They are promisinâ it yet
Bad luck to them Eyetalians
I wish theyâd stayed at home
Weâve plenty of our own kind
To eat up all our own
They come like bees in summertime
Swarminâ here to stay
And contractors they hire them
For forty cents a day
They work upon the railways
They shovel snow and slush
Thereâs one thing in their favor
Eyetalians never get lush
They bring their money home at night
Take no dinner wine
Thatâs one thing I wish I could say
For your old man and mine
Now, springtime is a-cominâ
And work weâll surely get
My manâll get his job again
He makes a handsome clerk
Iâll see him climb the ladder
As nimble as a fox
Yes heâs the one to handle
That old three cornered box