Chapter 2

CALIFORNIA JOE, 3abcb, 17: A prospector during the California gold-fever, in 1850, saves a girl of thirteen years from Indians, and gives her over to her uncle, Mat Jack Reynolds. Later, she almost shoots, by accident, her saviour, thinking him a Sioux.

POLLY, MY CHARMER, 4aa, 9: An adventurous youth, on the point of going West, is detained by the charms of "Polly." He wishes he were like Joshua, in order to prolong his moments with his love, by making the sun stand still.

JESSE JAMES, 2aa3b2cc3b and 2aa3b2cc3b, 4: A lyric concerning the robbing of "the Danville train" and "the Northfield raid"; the escape of Jesse and Frank James to the West, and Jesse's death at the hand of "Bob Ford."

HANDSOME FLORA, 3abcbdefe, 6: Her lover, in prison for stabbing his rival, tells his yet constant devotion to the "Lily of the West," the "girl from Mexico."

VII.

_The songs of this group are of the "good-night" type, being the meditations or confessions of criminals, while in prison and, usually, under sentence of death._

MACAFEE'S CONFESSION (BETTY STOUT), ii, 4aabb, 17ca: Orphaned at five years of age and reared by his uncle, MacAfee becomes wayward; later he marries, but falls in love with Betty Stout, poisons his wife, and speaks this confession under sentence of death.

BEAUCHAMP'S CONFESSION, 4aabb, 7: Under sentence of death by Judge Davidge, for the murder of Sharpe (see VIII, end), Beauchamp pictures the meeting of himself and his victim in hell.

JACK COMBS'S DEATH SONG, ii, 4abcb and 4abcb, 3: Jack Combs, dying, tells of his murder by an unknown man, and gives directions for his burial rites. (Based upon The Dying Cowboy, page 15.)

TOM SMITH'S DEATH SONG, ii, 3a(_bis_)4b3c and 3a(_bis_) 4b3c, 2: The condemned man, standing on the scaffold, asks his friends not to lament his death, since he is leaving them in peace on earth.

THE RICH AND RAMBLING BOY, iii, 4aabb, 8ca: He marries a wife whose "maintenance" is so great that he is compelled to "rob on the broad highway." He is sent to Frankfort [Ky.] prison, but in this song he pictures his pardon and return home.

[IN ROWAN COUNTY JAIL], 3abcb, 6: While here awaiting trial for robbery, the prisoner is visited by his sweetheart Lula, with "ten dollars in each hand," to "go on his bail."

LAST NIGHT AS I LAY SLEEPING, 3abcb, 6: A prisoner in the Knoxville [Tenn.] jail dreams of his home and sweetheart, but is rudely awakened by the turnkey to hear his death-sentence passed.

EDWARD HAWKINS, 4abcb, 9ca: Under sentence of death for murder, he warns his comrades by his example, welcomes death bravely, and invites them to see his execution twenty-eight days hence.

ROWDY BOYS, metre as below, 5: A "rowdy" youth scorns his mother's warning, serves a term in the Frankfort State Prison for homicide, and comes back home still a "rowdy." The first stanza is:

I heard my mother talking; I took it all for fun. She said I would ride the Frankfort train, before I was twenty-one.

VIII.

_The songs of this group are epic; rather than lyric as are those in VII, above. They are recitals of local tragedies--murders, assassinations, feudal battles, and disasters._

THE CAUSE AND KILLING OF JESSE ADAMS, ii, 3abcb, 25: A detailed recital of a domestic tragedy on the Brushy Fork of Blaine: Adams, overhearing his wife and her paramour, shoots her and attempts suicide.

FLOYD FRAZIER, 3abcb, 16: A recital of Frazier's murder of Ellen Flannery: he hides her body under a pile of stones; later, is arrested, makes confession, and is placed in Pineville, Ky., jail to await execution.

TALT HALL, ii, 3abcb, 8: A recital of Hall's murder of Frank Salyers, his arrest in Tennessee, his confinement in the Gladeville, Va., jail, and his execution in Richmond, Va.

WILLIAM BAKER, 3abcb, 12: A recital of Baker's murder of one Prewitt in Clay County, Ky.: he hides the body in the woods and tells Prewitt's wife that her husband had deserted her.

POOR GOENS, 4aabb, 5: A recital of the betrayal and murder of Goens for the purpose of robbery, on Black-spur Mountain.

THE ROWAN COUNTY TRAGEDY, ii, 3abcb, 26: A detailed account of a feudal battle in Morehead, Ky., on election day, and of the succeeding events connected with the arrest of the participants.

JOHN T. PARKER, 4aabb, 12: An account of the drowning of Parker in the Kentucky River one winter night, as, with three companions, he essays to cross, but their boat is capsized in the wash from the steamboat Blue Wings.

[JEEMS BRAGGS], 4a3b4c3b, 8: A protest against the Governor's pardon of Braggs, upon the eve of his execution, for the murder of one Prewitt.

THE ASSASSINATION OF J. B. MARCUM, 3aa6b3cc6b and 3aa6b3cc6b, 13: A detailed recital of the shooting of Marcum as he stood in the court-house door at Jackson, Ky., with animadversions upon the identity of his slayers and an account of their various trials.

THE IRISH PEDDLER, 4a3b4c3b, 7: An account of the murder of an old peddler and his wife, shot from ambush one June morning for the purpose of rifling their wagon.

JOHN HARDY, iii, 4a3b4c3b, 6: An account of Hardy's shooting a man in a poker game, of his arrest, trial, conviction, conversion and baptism, and of his execution and burial on the Tug River.

JEREBOAM BEAUCHAMP, 3abcb, 33: A recital of the murder of Beauchamp done upon Solomon P. Sharpe, Attorney-General of Kentucky, at Frankfort in the winter of 1824. (Cf. William Gilmore Simms' novel of the same name, and see VII, 2.)

IX.

_The songs of this group relate to various occupational pursuits. Of course, many of those listed elsewhere could be placed here also._

THE MOONSHINER, 4aa, 3: "For seventeen years I've made moonshine whiskey for one dollar per gallon, at my still in a dark hollow. I wish all would attend to their business and leave me to mine. God bless the moonshiner!"

WALKING-BOSS, metre as below, 3: A teamster's song in couplets, with refrain, beginning:

Get up in the morning 'way before day, Feed old Beck some corn and hay. Get up in the morning soon, soon; Get up in the morning soon.

THE STEEL-DRIVER, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 11: John Henry, proud of his skill with sledge and hand-drill, competes with a modern steam-drill in Tunnel No. Nine, on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Defeated, he dies, asking to be buried with his tools at his breast.

ROSIN THE BOW, 3abcb, 4: A lyric of an old fiddler buoyant even in the face of approaching death: he asks for wine and women at his funeral rites.

ROSIN THE BOW: a fragment as follows:

I'll tune up my fiddle, I'll rosin my bow, And make myself welcome wherever I go.

THE OLD SHOEMAKER, 4a3b4c3b and 4a3b4c3b, 4: Lately become a freeman, with five pounds laid up, and half a side of leather, he sings of Kate, the woman to make his content complete.

THE FARMER'S BOY, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 9: An orphan lad, he obtains employment from the farmer, later to marry his daughter and inherit thus the farm.

OLD GRAY, 6aabb, 5: Song of a teamster, who, lured by the still-house, hauls four loads of coal per day, instead of six; becoming drunk, he rides Old Gray off to a country frolic one night, whither his father follows him, and brings him back to his duty in the morning.

THE WAGGONER'S LAD, ii, 2abcb (or 4aa), 15: A complaint, arranged as a _debat_, of a lorn and loving lass against the teamster lad, as he departs from her.

OLD NUMBER FOUR (THE F. F. V., STOCKYARD GATE), ii, 6aabb, 10ca: George Allen, engineer, stays at the throttle as train Number Four on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad plunges into a fallen boulder near Hinton, W. Va., and bids his fireman jump to safety, while he himself dies a hero's death.

[RAILROAD BOY], 4a3b4c3b and 4a3b4c3b, 5: A maiden's song in scorn of all men save the railroad conductor, with his striped shirt, handsome face, and diamond ring.

THE OLD MILLER, 4aabb, 7: Dying, he questions his sons in order to choose one of them as his successor in the mill. Dick will take a peck as toll from each bushel; Ralph will take half; Paul will take all. But his wife assumes direction at his death.

LYNCHBURG TOWN, 4a3b4c3b, 3: A teamster's song as he takes his tobacco to the Lynchburg (Va.) market.

X.

_The songs of this group are of partisan or sectional character._

KAINTUCKY BOYS, 4abab and 4ab, 5. A _debat_ between a Virginia lad and the Kentucky maiden whom he comes to woo. She scorns lands and money, and lauds the superior manliness of the Kentucky lads.

BUCKSKIN BOYS, 4abab 9: The above adapted to the praises of the "boys" of Owsley County (Ky.).

GOEBEL AND TAYLOR, 4a3b4c3d, 3: Composed soon after the assassination of Wm. Goebel, the Democratic contestant for the Governorship of Kentucky in 1900: He is lauded, while Taylor, his opponent, is condemned as a demagogue and conspirator, who "ought to be in purgatory or some other unhealthy spot."

JAMES A. GARFIELD: A fragment, as follows:

Mr. James A. Garfield is dead, Oh, Mr. James A. Garfield is dead. I will weep like a willow, And I'll mourn like a dove; Mr. James A. Garfield is dead.

XI.

_Here are grouped songs whose main theme is love, subdivided as below. Many are hardly "popular" in the strict sense: though current among the folk, they differ from the true folk-song, or "song-ballet." On the other hand, many bear a striking resemblance to certain of those listed in I and II, above._

1. SONGS OF CONSTANT LOVE.

AVONIA (RED RIVER VALLEY), ii, 4a3b4c3b and 4a3b4c3b, 4: A constant lover's song of farewell to Helen, as she leaves the vale of Avonia.

BARNEY AND KATE, 4abab, 6: Barney, maudlin with drink, comes one winter's night to Kate's window and implores her to admit him. She sends him packing. He goes away whistling, rejoicing in her chastity.

KITTY WELLS, 4ababcdcd and 3abab, 3. Her lover's Lament upon her death. The refrain is:

While the birds they were singing in the morning, And the ivy and the myrtle were in bloom, The sun on the hill-top was dawning, It was then we laid her in the tomb.

NORA O'NEIL, 4a3b4a3b, 5: Her lover's invitation to Nora to meet him "at the foot of the lane" when the nightingale sings in the dusk.

SWEET BIRDS, ii, 4a3b4a3b and 5aa, 6: A maiden's song of longing for her absent lover: she asks the birds to bear her message of devotion to him and to bring him back secure in his affection for her.

[CONSTANT JOHNNY], 4aa, 14: A maiden sings her devotion to her absent sailor lover. He returns and they are married.

LORLA, 4aabb, 2: A lover's elegy over the grave of Lorla beneath the elm, as he recalls the golden willow under which they once sat on violet banks.

LONESOME DOVE, 4a3b4c3b, 5: A constant husband sings his resolve to return like a lonesome dove to his wife and children in "Californy."

LONESOME DOVE, 4aabb, 8: The singing of a dove bereft of its mate reminds a constant husband of his Mary, recently dead of consumption.

PRETTY SARO, iii, 4aabb and 4aabb, 6ca: Her absent lover sings of his devotion, wishing he were a priest and knew how to write to her, or a dove to fly to her.

COME, ALL YE JOLLY BOATSMAN BOYS, 7aabb, 5: A ribald song of a sailor to his amorata by night, and the birth of the child nine months later.

A PACKAGE OF OLD LETTERS, ii, 8aa, 11: A dying maiden bids her sister bring them from their rosewood casket to read them to her again, and asks that at her death they be buried with her.

JACK AND MAMIE, 6aabb and 4aaa3a, 4: Jack plunges into the water to recover the hat of his girl sweetheart, Mamie. Jack, the man, leaves her for a long voyage, and his ship never returned.

SWEET SUMMER EVENING, 4abcb, 7: The poet one summer evening overhears a mother chide her daughter for her devotion to her roving sailor lover, who soon appears and bids her an affectionate farewell.

WAIT FOR THE WAGON, 3abcbdefe and 4a(_ter_), 4: A lover's call to Phyllis to jump into the wagon with him a-Sunday morning; he tells her of the cabin he has built for her, and wooes her to marry him.

LOVELY NANCY, 4abcb, 5: A dialogue, in quatrains, between Nancy and her lover, whom she wishes to accompany on his voyage to the West Indies.

NANCY TILL, 4aabb and 4aabb, 4: A serenade by her lover "down in the canebrakes close by the mill," urging her to be ready to go with him "a-sailing on the Ohio."

[EPHRIAM AND LUCY], 4a3b4c3b and 4a3b4c3b, 4: The night before their wedding-day, amid night-hawks, owls, and whippoorwills, "we danced by the light of the moon."

2. SONGS OF LOVE INCONSTANT.

[SHE WAS HAPPY TILL SHE MET YOU], 4aa5b4cc5b4dd5e4ff5e and 4ababcc5b, 2: A husband forsakes his wife; later, becoming repentant, he returns to seek her at the house of her mother, who forbids him access to her.

[BEDROOM WINDOW], 4abcb, 5: The lover by night calls his sweetheart to awake. She warns him away, saying that her father is armed to repulse his presence. He vows to have her for his own. A suggestion of his sinister motive closes the song.

I'LL HANG MY HARP ON A WILLOW TREE, ii, 4a3b4a3b4c3d4c3d, 3: A lover voices his resolve to forsake the charms of his fickle mistress to court a warrior's fate at the Saracen's hand on the field of Palestine.

THERE WAS A RICH OLD FARMER, ii, 3abcb, 9ca: The singer recites his farewell to father and sweetheart to seek his fortune, and his faith in her--until a letter arrives telling of her marriage to another man.

JACK AND JOE, 4a3b4b3c and 4a3b4b3c, 3ca: Both are sailors, away from home. Jack, returning first, is commissioned by Joe to kiss his sweetheart Nellie for him. When Joe returns, like Miles Standish, he finds that Jack and she are married.

ALL ON THE BANKS OF CLAUDA, 3abcb, 10: By this stream the poet overhears a maiden's complaint against her fickle Johnny. Like Oenone, she prays the mountain to hear her, and implores Cupid to fire his heart anew.

THE AUXVILLE LOVE, 4aabb, 6: A merchant's daughter, "in Auxville town or Delaware," love-lorn, gathers flowers, Ophelia-like, and dies under a green pine on the mountain.

CUCKOO, ii, 4aabb, 5ca: A love-lorn maiden's warning to her sex not to be deceived, as she, by false men in springtime when the cuckoo calls.

WE HAVE MET AND WE HAVE PARTED, ii, 4abcb and 4abcb, 5ca: A maiden's scornful farewell to her fickle lover, as she returns him the presents and letters he has sent her.

IF I HAD MINDED MAMMA, 3abcb and 3abcb, 6: A maiden's regret that she has been deluded by a faithless lover:

He is like the blue-birds ever That flies from tree to tree; And when he sees another girl He never thinks of me.

I USED TO LOVE, 4abcb and 4abcb, 4: A maiden voices her complaint against the "dark-eyed girl," her successful rival, and her wish for "coffin, shroud, and grave," to end her woe.

THE BUTCHER'S BOY, iii, 4aabb, 8ca: A maiden voices her complaint against the New York butcher's boy, once her childhood playmate and lover, who now has forsaken her for a wealthier girl; then goes upstairs and hangs herself, leaving a note pinned on her breast.

THE PALE AMARANTHUS, 4aabb, 5: A maiden's complaint against her faithless lover, whom she vows to forget.

I HAVE FINISHED HIM A LETTER, 4abcb and 4abcb, 7: A maiden's complaint against her lover, who has forsaken her for Annie Lee.

CAN YOU THEN LOVE ANOTHER?, ii, 3abcbdefe and 3abcb, 3: A lorn maiden's plaint:

Say, must I be forgotten, Cast like a flower aside? Have I from memory faded, Once all your joy and pride?

TO CHEER THE HEART, ii, 3abcbdefe and 3abcbdede, 4: A maiden's complaint against her faithless lover. He is the son of a "rich merchant," she, the daughter of a "laboring man." "But why need I care? For I have another man."

A POOR STRANGE GIRL, 4aabb, 7: The poet one May morning overhears a damsel complaining against her faithless lover, and against her loss of friends and home.

PRETTY POLLY, 4aabb, 5: A lover recites his visit one evening to her home, where he sees his rivals enjoying her company. He retires to a grove, sucks comfort from his whiskey bottle, and wishes that she were drowned, floating on the tide, that he, like a fisherman, might draw her in his net to shore.

HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD AND CRY, 4aabb, 2: A fragment (two quatrains), apparently a complaint of a lover to his faithless sweetheart.

THE DYING GIRL'S MESSAGE, ii, 4abcb, 15: Her death-song to her mother, breathing forgiveness for her faithless lover, and closing with a vision of Christ waiting to receive her.

A second version contains only an elaboration of this last motif.

THE COLD, DARK SCENES OF WINTER, 3abcb, 9: In the winter the lover woos his fair, but is rejected. In the spring, her mind changing, she writes him of her love for him. He replies that meanwhile his heart has changed in turn and that he is already married to another.

LOVING HANNER, 3abcb, 9: The lover sings his devotion to her, but in the face of her coolness and her parents' opposition, vows to go on a long voyage to try to forget her--but in vain.

MY BONNIE LITTLE GIRL, 4a3b4c3b, 4: Courting her too slow, the singer finds his sweetheart has fled with another man.

LOVELY NANCY, ii, 4aabb, 5ca: A bachelor's warning against "courting too slow": Sweet William goes on a voyage; meanwhile Nancy, his sweetheart, writes him of her marriage to another. William dies of grief and Nancy, of remorse.

I'M SCORNED FOR BEING POOR (VAIN GIRL), 3abcb, 8: A lover's farewell to his sweetheart, who has forsaken him to be married to a wealthy stranger from New England.

LITTLE NELLIE, 4a3b4c3b, 8: She forsakes her lover, the singer, to marry wicked, wealthy Mr. Brown, who is a drunkard--and dies of a broken heart.

THE SQUIRE, 2abcb, 10: The wealthy young squire, being rejected in love by pretty Sally, vows to dance on her grave when she dies.

LITTLE SPARROW (A REGRET), ii, 4abcb, 5ca: A complaint of a love-lorn maiden warning her kind against the faithlessness of all men.

THE AWFUL WEDDING, 4abcb, 7: At the marriage feast each guest is asked for a song. The bride's former lover sings his unchanging affection for her. She swoons and spends the night in her mother's bed, where she is found dead the next morning.

THE YOUNG MAN'S LOVE, 2aa, 9: The singer one evening overhears a young man lamenting the faithlessness of his sweetheart, who scorns him for his poverty.

[MAGGIE], 3a3b4c3b and 2abab (approximately), 7: A story of Maggie, the constant wife, who seeks in bar-room and dry-goods store her faithless husband, who has eloped with Lula Fry. Failing to find him, she wanders to the cemetery, and thence to the railroad trestle, where she is killed by train No. Four.

JOE HARDY, 4a3b4c3b, 6: A maiden's explanation to her jilted lover that when she plighted her troth in Bangor, she had not then met Joe Hardy, whom she now adores.

3. SONGS OF LOVE THWARTED.

LOVELY JULIA, iv, 4abcb, 9ca: Crossed in love by her parents, she leaves the city, goes upon a mountain, and plunges a dagger into her breast. Her lover finds her and in like manner dies with her.

JOHNNY DOYLE, 2aa, 14ca: A maiden, who loves Johnny, is forced by her parents to prepare to marry Samuel Moore. Just as the priest enters, her earrings fall to the floor and her stay-laces burst. She is carried home fatally ill. The mother now proposes to send for Johnny Doyle, but it is too late--she is dead.

ANNIE WILLOW, iii, 4a3b4c3b, 8: Her lover dreams of her and goes to her uncle's house to visit her. Upon being told that she is absent, he fights his way in with drawn sword and takes her away with him.

GREENBRIAR SHORE, 4aa, 10: An amorous youth recites his love for Nancy on Greenbriar Shore. Her father chases him away with an "army of a thousand or more." The sad lot of womankind deplored.

4. SONGS OF ABSENT LOVERS REUNITED.

THE SINGLE SOLDIER (THE SAILOR LOVER, JOHN RILEY), v, 4abcb, 8ca: "A pretty fair damsel in a garden" is wooed by a passing soldier (or sailor). She rejects him, saying her lover is absent in the wars. Assured of her faithfulness, he proves his identity by taking their betrothal ring from his pocket.

ANNIE AND WILLIE, 4a3b4c3b, 7: He bids her farewell at the seashore and goes on a long voyage. After three years he returns, and, disguised as a beggar, tests her devotion, draws the "patch from his eye," is recognized, and marries her. (Cf. The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington, page 8, above.)

PRETTY POLLY, 4aabb, 8: Pining for her soldier lover, who is absent in the "town of renown," she goes in the guise of a trooper to seek him, becomes his room-mate for the night, and discloses her identity in the morning.

5. SONGS OF THE MURDEROUS LOVER. (CF. I FOR SIMILAR BALLADS.)

FLORELLA (FLOELLA, FAIR ELLA, JEALOUS LOVER), iv, 3abcb, 11ca: Her lover comes one moonlit night to her cottage window and persuades her to wander with him "through meadows dark and gay." She reluctantly follows, and is murdered by him, forgiving him with her dying breath.

LITTLE OMY WISE (LITTLE ANNA), iii, 4aa, 13: John Lewis seduces her with promises, lures her to Adam's Spring, murders her, and throws her body into the stream. She is "missen," the body is found, the murderer views it and confesses the crime.

MILLER-BOY, ii, 4a3b4c3b, 12ca: Johnny, the miller's apprentice, falls in love with a Knoxville girl. One night the pair go walking; he murders her with a fence-stake, explains the stains on his clothes as due to nose-bleed, but is convicted. (Cf. Lizzie Wan, Child, No. 51, and Waxford Girl, page 13.)

POLLY VAUGHN, 2abcb (approximately), 4ca: One evening dressed in white she goes walking, takes refuge from a shower under a holly bush, is mistaken for a swan by her lover, Jimmy Randal, and shot.

ROSE COLALEE (COLLEEN?), 4a3b4c3b, 2: She is murdered on the bank of a river, by her lover, who, intoxicated with Burgundy wine, is persuaded by his father's promise of money, to slay her.

NOTE.--_Amid the flotsam and jetsam of popular parlor-songs everywhere current the following have come to hand. They are hardly worth preserving, even by title, save for the fact that in spite of their pseudo-literary tang they are fellow travelers by oral tradition with the true folk-songs and song-ballads._

The list is: The Old, Old Love is Growing Still; There's a Spark of Love Still Burning; I'll Remember You, Love, in My Prayers; The White Rose; I'll Love Thee Always; Jack and Mary; Willie and Kate; Won't You Ever Come Again?; Fond Affection; Will You Love Me When I'm Old?; Nell and I had Quarrels; Tell Me Why You've Grown so Cold?; I Want to be Somebody's Darling; By the Gate; The Broken Engagement; Say You'll be Mine in a Year; I Cannot be Your Sweetheart; Kiss Me Again; Just Going Down to the Gate; Darling, We have Long been Parted; Our Hands are Clasped; Only Flirting; I Loved You Better than You Knew; Mollie Darling; The Jealous Girl; The Independent Girl; Willie, Come Back; Free Again; The Hawthorn Tree; The Sailor Lad; I'll be All Smiles Tonight; Love, I've been Faithful; Maggie's Secret; I Rather Think I Will; Little Sweetheart; Meet Me in the Moonlight; He's Got Money, Too; After the Ball; Sweet Bunch of Daisies; In the Shadow of the Pines; On the Banks of the Wabash; Mary has Gone with a "Coon."

XII.

_This group contains two-part songs, arranged dialogue-fashion, like a debat or a tenson. All contain love-themes, as in XI above. In spite of the obvious logical cross-division, it has seemed well to print them as a separate section._

I'LL GIVE TO YOU A PAPER OF PINS, ii, 4aab3b, 13: The lover offers the maiden in alternate quatrains various gifts to induce her to marry him. She replies in alternate quatrains, refusing him. Finally, he offers "the key of his chest." She accepts, but he scorns her mercenary love.

MADAM, I'VE A-COURTING COME, 4a3b4c3b, 7: The lover in the first three quatrains offers his various forms of wealth to induce the lady to marry him. She refuses in the fifth stanza his mercenary love. He makes reply in the sixth and she in the seventh.