The Night Miss Nancy Ann's Hotel for Single Girls Burned Down

Now Miss Nancy Ann ran a boarding house with a faded sign that read

"Single rooms for single girls, no men allowed," it said

But rumor had it that a gentleman with a yen for love for a fee

Could always go to Nancy Ann's for some feminine company

Well, one night in June in the billiard

Room I was chalking up with a friend

He was set to break when the door burst open and Leo James rushed in

He yelled, "There's a fire that's just

Broke out and it's down at Nancy Ann's"

So we dropped our cues on the pool

Room floor and into the street we ran

Though the flames were hot and the smoke

Was thick, not a single life was lost

And the reason for the blaze was never found

But it long will be remembered in our local history

As the fire that fairly scandalized the town

The night Miss Nancy Ann's hotel for single girls burned down

When we got to the place, the front

Was ablaze and so was the second floor

So we cut around the side and up the

Alley and stopped beside the back door

We were catching our breath when the

Door flew open and knocked poor Leo flat

And out through the smoke ran Mayor Wills

Wearing nothing but a black silk hat

And right behind him with his shirt tail

Afire came the local chief of police

Then Banker Jones with a red-haired girl he always called his niece

Then I spied Miss Nancy Ann herself helping someone out of the fire

Her arm around the red bald head of old Judge McIntyre

A deacon, a dentist, a deputy sheriff and one state congressman

The county physician, the city mortician

Out through the flames they ran

A grand parade of girls in gowns and half-clad gentlemen

Through thick gray smoke that sweetly

Smelled of French perfume and gin

Though the flames were hot and the smoke

Was thick, not a single life was lost

And the reason for the blaze was never found

But it long will be remembered in our local history

As the fire that fairly scandalized the town

The night Miss Nancy Ann's hotel for single girls burned down

Now everybody was out of the girls'

Hotel by the time the roof caved in

And we were heading back to the billiard

Hall when Leo turned to my friend

He said, "I believe that's the funniest show I've ever seen in town

The so-called elite caught out in the

Street with their pompous purity down"

Though the flames were hot and the smoke

Was thick, not a single life was lost

And the reason for the blaze was never found

But it long will be remembered in our local history

As the fire that fairly scandalized the town

The night Miss Nancy Ann's hotel for single girls burned down