Rags: The New American Musical: Greenhorns

IMMIGRANT
I remember summer evenings
Sitting, you and I
While the cranes were calling
In the eastern sky
Sometimes we don't love things
'Till we tell them goodbye
Oh my homeland
My homeland
Goodbye

OFFICER
Anyone who's ever had tuberculosis
Over here
In this line

Anyone who has a white card

MAN
White card?

OFFICER
In the barge

WOMAN
A barge?

OTHER WOMAN
That means we're in! We made it!

OTHER MAN
Now we're Americans!

OFFICER
Get in the barge!

IMMIGRANTS
Long live Columbus!
Long live Columbus!
Long live Columbus!

CHILDREN
Christo-Christopher Columbus

OFFICERS
Another load of greenhorns fresh off the boat
Another wave of refugees
To fill the mills and factories
A little grist
For the capital system
It's a bunch of greaseballs greasin' the wheels
A little oil for the machine
Greenhorns, let 'em come
If we can get 'em while they're green
Greenhorns
Greenhorns
Greenhorns
Who wants to pay for their manual labor?
With a hunk of hunkies huntin' for jobs
It takes a year to get 'em clean
Greenhorns, ship 'em in
They keep our pockets full of green

REBECCA
I'm supposed to meet my husband, Nathan Hershkovitz. Have you seen him?

OFFICER
Anyone here a tailor?

REBECCA
He's about this tall with a mustache

MAN
I'm a tailor

OFFICER
You want a job in Tennessee, over here

REBECCA
Nathan Hershkovitz. Have you seen him? Have you seen him?

OFFICERS
Another load of greenhorns fresh off the boat
Another load of human dirt
To sew the cuff on every shirt
And help the rise
Of free enterprise
They call them wretched refues, taking a whiff
And you'll discover what they mean
Greenhorns, heaps and lops
But long as greenhorns work the shops
Pick the crops
Eat the slops

IMMIGRANTS
Long live Columbus

OFFICER
Grease the cops

IMMIGRANTS
Long live Columbus

OFFICERS
The load of greenhorns never stops
Let's keep America

EVERYONE
Long live America
We'll keep America
Green



Credits
Writer(s): Charles Strouse, Stephen Lawrence Schwartz
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com

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