The Irrepressible Yank Poem by George Ade

Wherever British drumbeats sound,
Unending 'round the world;
Wherever in some land new-found,
Our starry flag's unfurled;
Where'er the sun is known to shine,
Or winds consent to blow,
These nimble countrymen of mine,
On business errands go.
In southern isles, where nature smiles,
They sell the ' ham what am.'
Upon some cliff of Teneriffe
You'll read, ' Don't be a clam.'
In England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales,
We show our goods and make our sales,
No other drummer can outrank
The bold and enterprising Yank.

REFRAIN

Yankee, Yankee, Yankee, Yankee, Irrepressible Yank,
A regular traveling board of trade,
And a two-legged sort of a bank,
If you deal with him and don't get left,
Your lucky stars you'll thank.
This Yankee, Yankee, Yankee, Yankee, Irrepressible Yank.

We under-bid the foreign trade,
Wherever we may roam;
Our largest profit's always made
On what we sell at home.
In foreign lands we've left behind
The German and the Scotch,
Each Zulu warrior now can wind
His Waterbury watch.
In Tokio, and Borneo,
And where Euphrates winds,
The natives munch each day for lunch,
Our fifty-seven kinds.
In Egypt now the Arab chief,
Goes armed with cans of potted beef;
And ri.des, instead of camels slow,
An auto car from Kokomo.

The savage in the jungle deep
We corner in his lair;
And sell at prices very cheap,
Our new health underwear.
And where the. borealis gleams
Amid the ice and snow,
We work some very foxy schemes
Upon the Eskimo.
In Mandalay and Uruguay,
And o'er the Andes range,
Each distant spot, through us has got
A telephone exchange.
In Singapore and Zanzibar,
We plant the merry trolley car,
And Honolulu now has seen
Our nickel-in-the-slot machine.