This little rhyme has been stuck in my head since fourth grade, approximately.
About this book Read this bookSmiles in Rime By Edward Warloch Mumford
I searched for the last line on Google and discovered this little feature that allows me to excerpt bits from Google Book Search. Genius. The book was published in 1904. I can’t find anything about Mumford, but I’ll look.
I thought about it again when I heard Paul Offit speak the other weak. I asked him if he ever remembered the rhyme…and if mercury was ever a folk remedy for pertussis. No to both, I’m afraid.
And be warned, if thou art easily offended, this book has some…shall we say…bugfuncking racist rhymes. Those were the times, I’m afraid. Surely, I must have seen it in some anthology poetry book of nonsense rhymes as a kid. I hope.
But wait, there’s more…
In the same book, I saw the following one, which reminded me of my grandmother. At about 1997 or so, when I told her that I was going to go to grad school in Pittsburgh, Grandmom warned me about how filthy the town was. She remembered going through on train about 70 years prior.
About this book Read this bookSmiles in Rime By Edward Warloch Mumford
OK, last one…is this Mumford fella the originator of this particular tongue twister:
About this book Read this bookSmiles in Rime By Edward Warloch Mumford
Hmmm…Judging by the excerpt below, it seems Mumford nicked most of these from other sources (including Lear!). Every other page in the book is the first line of some other bit of nonsense for the reader to complete as part of $100 contest.
About this book Read this bookSmiles in Rime By Edward Warloch Mumford