"Pleasure Island" by Billy Kernell (1883)

In summer months it’s all the rage, and fashionable too,

to take a little Promenade when business hours are through.

Some folks for pleasure often go to Catskill or the Highlands,

but I prefer that little spot known as Pleasure Island.

Pleasure Island, nature’s beauty you’ll find there,

Pleasure Island, lovely ladies young and fair

ev’ry one for miles around, the rich, the poor who toil, and

the Governor has been known to take a ride to Pleasure Island.

The mashers from adjoining towns on all days in the week,

can be found on Pleasure Island, the pretty girls to seek.

The English Lords, the German Dukes, the Nobility from Ireland,

come over to this county just to visit Pleasure Island.

Pleasure Island, nature’s beauty you’ll find there,

Pleasure Island, lovely ladies young and fair

ev’ry one for miles around, the rich, the poor who toil, and

the Governor has been known to take a ride to Pleasure Island.

http://www.loc.gov/item/sm1883.10586

Future U.S. President Grover Cleveland was the Governor of New York in 1883.

Pleasure Island "was located on the West bank of the Hudson River near the present day Menands/Albany City line." For more information, including photos, see http://www.colonie.org/historian/altro/.