Once I was happy,
but now I'm forlorn
Like an old coat that
is tattered and torn
Left in this wide world to
weep and to mourn
Betrayed by a maid in her teens
Now this girl that I love,
she was handsome,
and I tried all I knew her to please,
but I never could please her one quarter so
well as the man on the flying trapeze.
Oh, he floats through the air
with the greatest of ease
This daring young man
on the flying trapeze
His actions are graceful,
all girls he does please
My love he has stolen away
One night I, as usual,
went to her dear home,
Found there her father and mother alone.
I asked for my love
and it soon was made known,
To my horror that she'd run away.
Without any true soul
she fled in the night,
With him, with the greatest of ease.
From two stories high
he had lowered her down
To the ground on his flying trapeze
Oh, he floats through the air
with the greatest of ease
This daring young man on
the flying trapeze
His actions are graceful,
girls, he does please
My love he has stolen away
Some months after that I went into a hall
And to my surprise I found there on the wall
A bill in red letters that did my heart go
As she was appearing with him
Oh, taught her gymnastics
and dressed her in tights
To help him to live at his ease
He had made her take on
a masculine name
And now she goes on the trapeze
Oh, she floats through the air
with the greatest of ease
You'd think her a man
on the flying trapeze
She does all the work while
he takes his ease
And that's what's become of my love