Genre:

Song, Drollery

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Language, Controversy, Universities, Race

    Written from the perspective of a black singer, remarks on 'de row' between University of Cambridge and University of Oxford over the legitimacy of 'telegram' as a word derived from ancient Greek. Thinks the word 'more tickle dis nigger's ear' and ''zackly fit de nigger's lip, /And de debble may care for him scholarship'. Requests 'dat lilly new word wid de lubly sound' be confirmed using 'Johnson' (a reference to Samuel Johnson's dictionary) and concludes by praising the word as 'a 'greeable name'.