In the American folk song “Sweet Betsy from Pike,” this is one of the verses:
A miner said, “Betsy, won’t you dance with me?”
"I will that, old hoss, if you don’t make too free!
"But don’t dance me hard – do you want to know why?
“Dog on you, I’m chock full of strong alkali!”
What does that mean? What is “strong alkali,” and why wouldn’t you want to dance hard if you had it in your system?
Unless someone has a better answer, I’m gonna go with my WAG that “strong alkali” is a reference to an alkaloid compound, meaning she was doped up. Why one wouldn’t want to dance while on one remains a mystery in liht of the former popularity of Syudio 54.
My take would be that Betsy, having just crossed the deserts of the Southwest, is wearing clothes that are covered with borax or some other stron alkali. These substances can cause severe burns on bare skin. If the miner dances her hard, the borax will shake loose and burn them. YMMV. 
That makes sense since earlier in the song she crossed the “alkali desert” and apparently rolled around in the sand, much to the surprise of of Ike.
diddly eye dee die deedle,
diddly eye dee dye day
::takes a moment to determine that it just hasta be public domain::
They soon reached the desert where Betsy gave out
And down in the sand she lay rolling about
And Ike, in great fear looked on in surpise,
Saying “Betsy, get up, you’ll get sand in your eyes.”
'nutherwords, what silenus and dwyr said.
Ike ans Sweet Betsy got married of course
but Ike was so jealous he got a divorce
And Betsy, well satisfied, said with a shout,
“Goodbye forever, I’m glad you backed out”
Fond memories. When I was in grade school the upper classes would have group singing every Wednesday and Betsy was a common number. You can sing the poem “Taws the Night before Christmas” to the same melody as Betsy from Pike.
I believe it is a reference to the earlier verse:
The wagon tipped over with a terrible crash
And out on the prairie rolled all sorts of trash
A (here’s the relevant part) few little baby clothes done up with care
Looked mighty suspicious, but 'twas all on the square
In short, don’t dance me hard, I’m pregnant – NOT!
And my favorite often unheard verse:
They camped on the prairie one bright starry night
They broke out the whiskey and Betsy got tight
She whooped and she hollered and danced o’re the plain
and showed her bare bum to the whole wagon train.
And of course all did not end well:
Ike and sweet Betsy got married of course,
But Ike who was jealous obtained a divorce.
And Betsy well satisfied said with a smile
I’ve three good men waiting within a half mile.
Everybody:
Hoodle dang fal da de doo, hoodle dang fal de day.
My favorite verse is:
They stopped at Salt Lake to inquire the way,
Where Brigham declared that Sweet Betsie should stay,
But Betsy got frightened and ran like a deer
While Brigham stood pawing the ground like a steer!
Good grief! Wish I had these verses back when I was teaching school music. They would have given the principal a well-deserved case of apoplexy (he decided I couldn’t teach anything else by Gilbert and Sullivan when he heard the kids singing “Titwillow” from one of their operettas, even though it was in their basal series books, complete with explanation [he thought the “tit” part was ‘just horrible for them to sing’]). :mad: …b@st@rd…