Young Tip’s Broom

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YOUNG TIP’S BROOM.

Air — “Buy a Broom.”

Come, patriots, come, and let’s clear out the kitchen,
Let’s sweep out the parlor and clean the east room,
Drive the Reformer whose fingers are itching
To strangle our trade — so take a new broom!
Take a broom, young Tip’s broom?
Come, every Republican, handle a broom!

To put out this Grover, who long has annoyed us,
And all his associate lords of misrule,
Will be the best business that ever employed us
Since helping to put the school dunce on his stool.
Take a broom, young Tip’s broom?
Come, Randall, and handle our youthful Tip’s broom

We’ve high tariff duties, let’s dare to maintain them
In spite of this Grover, Carlisle and them all;
The signs they can’t read, so let Daniel explain them —
Interpret the writing that’s writ on the wall.
Take a broom, young Tip’s broom?
Come, all ye Protectionists, handle a broom!

When the contest shall come, let us all do our duty,
And make a clean sweep of our thirty-eight rooms;
We’ll send the Experiment’s crew and their booty
To South Seas exploring with lots of old brooms.
Take a broom, young Tip’s broom?
Come, patriot sweepers, and use a new broom!

Reform the Reformers and sweep out corruption!
Let tyrants and spoilsmen, with faces of gloom
Hear the rumbling and throes of the earthquake’s eruption,
The voice of the nation deciding their doom.
Take a broom, young Tip’s broom?
To sweep out corruption — come, take a new broom.

To end all this warring, defaulting and scheming,
This war upon labor, and credit, and banks,
On commerce and trading a new light is gleaming;
The people will soon put an end to their pranks
With a broom, young Tip’s broom,
They’ll drive out the spoilers by using Tip’s broom.

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Notes:

The “Broom” is the new broom that sweeps clean.

The “Reformer” is Grover Cleveland.  His “fingers are itching” to strangle trade by lowering tariffs.

Young Tip is Benjamin Harrison.

Randall is Representative Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania who, even though a Democrat, favored protectionism.  Carlisle is John G. Carlisle, Democrat of Kentucky, Speaker of the House.  “Daniel” is Daniel from the Bible, who was able to read the handwriting on the wall.

The “thirty-eight rooms” are the states in the United States.

The lines about “the Experiment” and the South Seas are baffling me for the moment.

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Tomorrow: Log Cabin Song