The Bowery Grenadiers

We're a gallant bunch of heroes,
We've been organized ten years.
And we're known throughout the city
As the Bowery Grenadiers;
We've had three fights with the Houlihans
And won ten thousand cheers.
You can bet your neck you won't forget
The Bowery Grenadiers!

cho: We can lick the Brooklyn Guards
If they'll only show their cards.
We can run like the devil
If the ground is level
For about four hundred yards.
And the girls, the little dears,
They're in love up to their ears
When they see the style
And smell the hair ile
Of the Bowery Grenadiers.

When the ladies are in danger
And the flames about them roar,
We're the lads who fight through fire and smoke
For a rescue quick and sure.
But when we march on a Saturday
And the Mulligans beat tattoo
We're good old stock with a cobble rock
And a length of gaspipe, too.

Collected by John Alison, who wrote the tune).
note: Volunteer fire departments in New York in the mid-1800s were
largely Hibernian social (and anti-social) clubs; several buildings
were known to have burned down while two competing volunteer
groups slugged it out to see who would have the honor of fighting
the fire.
RG