252. Sadie


252
Sadie

Henry's SSSA 39 includes a Tennessee version of this low-life
ballad, lacking stanzas 4 and 5 and showing some verbal differences.
'Out Last Night,' in Bess Alice Owens' "Songs of the Cumberlands"
(JAFL XLix 221), a fragment of three stanzas, corresponds to the
first three stanzas of the following. Davis lists it in FSV 274.

'Sadie.' From Mrs. Minnie Church, of Heaton, Avery county; no date.
but between 1930 and 1939.

1 I was out last night making my round ;
I met my Sadie and I shot her down.

I run home and jumped in bed,

A forty-four caliber under my head.

2 I woke next morning at half-past nine.
The horses and hacks were formed in line ;
Sports and gamblers gathered around

To carry my Sadie to the burying-ground.

3 Then I got to studying of the deed I'd done;
I jumped out of bed and away I run.

I made a good run but a little too slow ;
They overtook me in Jeryco.

4 Standing on the corner reading a bill.
Up stepped the sherf Mr. Thos. Hill,

Says, 'Young man, ain't your name Brown ?

Do you rem [ember] the night you shot Sadie down?'

5 'My name's Brown, my name's Lee;

I murdered Sadie in the first degree —

First degree, second degree ;

If you've got any papers please read them to me.'

6 They took me to town, dressed me in black,
Put me on the train, sent me back.

 

598 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

I had no friends to go my bail ;

They shoved me back in the county jail.

7 The sheriff called court; the judge took his stand,
He held them papers in his right hand,

Says, 'Fourty long years, fourty long night ;
You'll have to wear them ballin stripes.'

8 Now all young men take my advice :
Never do take your Sadie's life.

It will cause you to weep, it will cause you to mourn.
It will cause you to loose your Home Sweet Home.