lib'rals and tories alone you get -- 1886

Speranza 1886 two lovely black eyes o what a surprise only for telling a man he was wrong. strolling so happy down Bethnal Green, this gay youth you might have seen, Tompkins and I with his girl between, oh what a surprise I prais'd the Conservatives frank and free, Tompkins got angry so speedilee, all in a moment he handed to me, two lovely black eyes next time I argued I thought it best, to give the conservative side a rest, the merits of Gladstone I freely pressed, when oh, what a surprise the chap I had met was a Tory true, nothing the Liberals right could do, this was my share of that argument too, two lovely black eyes! the moral you've caught I can hardly doubt, never on politics rave and shout, leave it to others to fight it out, if you would be wise. better, far better it is to let, lib'rals and Tories alone, you bet, unless you're willing and anxious to get, two lovely black eyes. Charles Coborn first sang this song in 1886 at the Paragon Theatre, in the Mile End Road.