Artist: May Irwin
Author: traditional
Label: Victor
Year: 1907

As The Bully. Introduced it in 1895 in musical comedy The Widow Jones with racist lyrics. Roud #4182. Dates from the days when keelboats and flatboats reigned supreme on the Mississippi- and Ohio River shores. Any crew had its own bully, the alfa-man, the strongest one, entitled to wear a feather on his hat. Soon as two of these keelboats landed on the same shore, any excuse was good to start a fight and when only one boat appeared, the bully of the town was challenged, long as he dared to show up ("I'm looking for the bully, the bully of the town, but the bully can't be found").