High-Toned Southern Gentleman

Down in the sunny Southern clime, the curious ones may find
A ripping, tearing gentleman of an uncommon kind.
A stagg'ring, swagg'ring sort of chap that takes his whiskey straight
And frequently condemns his eyes unto an awful fate,
A high-toned Southern gentleman, one of the present time.

He always wears a full-dress coat, pre-Adamite in cut
With waistcoat of the broadest style, through which his ruffles jut
Six breastpins deck his horrid front, and on his fingers shine
Whole invoices of diamond rings
(spoken) which would hardly pass muster with the "Original Jacobs" in
Chatham Street
(sung)for jewels genuine
This "high-toned" Southern gentleman, one of the present time.

He takes to euchre kindly, too, and plays an awful hand
Especially when those he tricks his style don't understand;
And if he wins, why then he stops to pocket all the stakes
But if he loses, then he says
(spoken) to the unfortunatwe stranger wjo had chanced to win, "It's my
opinion that you are a cursed Abolitionist, and if you don't leave
South Carolina in an hour, you'll be hung like a dog!" but no offer
(sung) to pay his lossed make,
This "high-toned" Southern gentleman, one of the present time.

Of course, he's all the time in debt to those who credit give,
Yet manages upon the best the market yields to live.
But if a Northern creditor asks him his bill to heed,
This honorable gentleman
(spoken) instantly draws his Bowie knife and pistols, dons a blue cockade,
and declares that, in consequence of the repeated aggressions of the
North and its gross violations of the Constitution, he feels that it
would utterly degrade him to pay any debt whatever, and in fact that
he has at last determined to SECEDE!
This "high-toned" Southern gentleman, one of the present time.

From Songs of the Civil War, Silber
RG
APR99