Brown Collection- II. Drinking and Gambling Songs

Brown Collection- II. Drink and Gambling Songs

II. DRINK AND GAMBLING SONGS 

20. The Drunkard's Hell

21. The Drunkard's Doom 

22. The Drunkard's Dream (I)

23. The Drunkard's Dream (II)

24. Father, Dear Father, Come with Me Now

25. The Drunkard's Lone Child

26. Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling

27. Be Home Early

28. I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again

29. Seven Long Years I've Been Married

30. The Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine

31. I'm Alone, All Alone

32. Old Rosin the Beau

33. Little Brown Jug

34. Pass Around the Bottle

35. Judie My Whiskey Tickler

36. I'll Never Get Drunk Any More

37. Show Me the Way to Go Home, Babe

38. Pickle My Bones in Alcohol

39. Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones

40. Just Kick the Dust over My Coffin

41. The Hidden Still

42. Moonshine

43. Old Corn Licker

44. Sal and the Baby 

45. Sweet Cider 

46. A Little More Cider Too

47. Sucking Cider Through a Straw

48. Drinking Wine

49. The Journeyman

50. Jack of Diamonds 

51. Shoot Your Dice and Have Your Fun 

52. I Got Mine

II. DRINK AND GAMBLING SONGS 

WINE AND WOMEN have been favorite topics of popular song at least since the days of the Carmina Burana. But in  North Carolina the women most often appear as the declared enemies of drink, and the drink itself is for the most part not the juice of the  grape but of the (often hidden and illicit) still. To take first the songs that came with the temperance movement about the middle of  the last century: some (The Drunkard's Hell,' 'The Drunkard's  Doom,' The Drunkard's Dream'— this last in two quite different  forms) attempt by lurid visions to frighten the drunkard from his  evil ways; 'Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now' and The Drunkard's Lone Child' aim to tear his heartstrings with the  pitifulness of innocent childhood wrecked by his intemperance; in  'Don't Go Out Tonight. My Darling' and 'Be Home Early Tonight'  the woman pleads in a gentler tone. In 'Seven Long Years Fve Been  IVlarried' and 'I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again' (which are closely akin to the songs at the end of the preceding section) a woman  deplores her evil plight in being the wife of a gambler and a drunkard:

Washing their little feet, putting them to bed;
In comes the drunkard, wishing that I was dead.
Oh, Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!

One of these temperance songs, 'Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine.' had a great vogue; its refrain line became a catchword, and is so yet. The Collection has it in two forms, quite  different but alike in that in both the woman pits her charms against  those of liquor and tells the man— with an unmistakable air of  triumph— that he must make his choice. 'I'm Alone' is the monologue of an old man whose life has been wrecked by drink.

But drink has, naturally, its brighter side. 'Old Rosin the Beau'  has led a very satisfactory toper's life and now very cheerfully  gives directions for his burial. Everybody knows 'The Little Brown  Jug,' though its component stanzas are seldom just the same in any  two' texts. 'Pass Around the Bottle' seems to be a soldier's march- ing song. 'Judy My Whiskey Tickler' is a college drinking song  of a hundred years "ago. Two songs, 'I'll Never Get Drunk Any  More' and 'Show Me the Way to Go Home, Babe,' are the maunderings of a drunken and happy lover. 'Pickle My Bones in Alcohol' and 'Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones' are favorites with  the Negroes. 'Moonshine' exalts the potency of the mountaineer's  favorite tipple, and 'The Hidden Still' describes the place where it  is made. And finally there is a group of songs that came originally,  one imagines, from the minstrel stage: 'Sweet Cider,' 'A Little  More Cider Too,' 'Sucking Cider through a Straw.'

Gamblers' songs are few. The best-known of them, 'The Journeyman,' is not always the song of a gambler; in 'Jack of Diamonds'  the gambler accuses that card of being the cause of his downfall;  'I Got Mine' is a vaudeville piece that has acquired wide currency,  especially among Negroes.

20. The Drunkard's Hell

This contribution to the war against the demon rum has already been reported from North Carolina (FSSH 378-80, JAFL xlv  55-8), Tennessee (FSSH 380-1), Kentucky (BKH no), Mississippi (JAFL XXXIX 169-70), and the Ozarks (OFS 11 409-10).

"Drunkard's Confession;" Nora Hick's; Mast's Gap, NC 1940 (Music)




"Drinking song" Becky Gordon; Asheville NC 1939

A. 'The Drunkard's Hell.' Reported by Miss Pearl Webb of Pineda,  Avery county, in 1922.

1. One dark and starless night
I saw an awful sight.
The lightning flashed, loud thunder rolled
Across my dark, benighted soul.
I bowed my head, and saw below
Where all the dying drunkards go.

2. My awful thoughts no tongue can tell.
And is this my place and a drunkard's hell?
I started on. got there at last.
Thought I'd take one social glass.
I poured it out and started it well —
And then I thought of a drunkard's hell.

3. I dashed it out and left the place
And went to seek redeeming grace.
The very moment that grace began
Ten thousand joys within me sprang.
I started home to change my life,
To see my long-neglected wife.

4. I found her weeping at the bed.
Because her infant babe was dead.
I told her not to cry or weep.
Because her infant babe was just asleep;
Its little soul had fled away
To dwell with God eternally.

5. I took her by her white hand —
She was so weak she could not stand —
I laid her down and breathed a prayer
That God might bless and save us there.
I started to the Temperance Hall
To take the pledge among them all.

6. One met me there with a welcoming hand.
Took me in with a Temperance Band.
Five long sober years have passed away,
Years since I have bowed my knees to pray.
Now I'll go home and live a sober life
With a good home and a loving wife.

B. 'Dark and Stormy Night.' Reported in 1937 by Professor W. Amos  Abrams of Boone, with the note: "My father got this ballad from a  friend about 1897."

1. 'Twas on a dark and stormy night
I heard and saw an awful sight.
The lightning flashed, loud thunder rolled.
Across the dark the night did stroll.

2. I heard a voice cry soft and low,
Far down beneath all drunkards go.
Come in, young man, we'll make you room,
Because your road has led to ruin.'

3. I started on, got there at last,
And thought I'd take a social glass.
I poured it out and stirred it well —
Until I thought of a drunkard's hell.

4. I dashed it out and left the place
And sought to find redeeming grace ;
I started home to change my life.
To meet my long-neglected wife.

5. I found her weeping o'er the bed
Because our sweet little babe was dead.
I told her not to mourn or weep;
Our little babe was just asleep.

6. I took hold of her pale white hand.
She was so weak she could not stand.
I bowed her down and prayed a prayer
That God might bless and save us there.

7. I felt like Paul, who once did pray;
I felt my sins all washed away.
And now I live a happy life
With a good home and a loving wife.

C. 'On a Dark and Stormy Night.' The opening stanza only, copied from  the music as contributed by I. G. Greer of Boone, Watauga county.

On a dark and stormy night
I saw and heard an awful sight.
The lightning played, loud thunder rolled
Across my dark, benighted soul.

D. 'Drunkard's Hell.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection. Uses  pretty much all the matter of A and B, somewhat dififerently arranged  in some of the items. Stanzas 2 and 3 are rather more dramatic than
in those texts :

2. I thought I saw a gulf below
Where all poor dying drunkards go.
My feelings then no tongue can tell;
This is my place — the drunkard's hell.

3. I met another weeping crowd
With bloodshot eyes and voices loud.
I heard them raise their voices, yell;
'This is your place — the drunkard's hell.'

21. The Drunkard's Doom

For the occurrence of this song elsewhere see BSM 468, and adtl  to the references there given Alissouri (OFS 11 392-3), Ohio (BSO  308), Michigan (BSSM 478, listed only), and Indiana (SFLQ iv  183-4).

'The Drunkard's Doom.' Reported by I. G. Greer. Boone. Watauga  county. With the tune. A line of each stanza is repeated in the refrain, as indicated in stanza 1.

1.  I saw a man at early dawn
Standing by the grog-shop door;
His eyes were sunk, his lips was parched;
And I viewed him o'er and o'er.

And that's the drunkard's doom ;
His eyes was sunk, his lips was parched.
And that's the drunkard's doom.

2. His little son stood by his side
As if to him did say;
'Dear father, mother lies sick at home,
And sister cries for bread.'

3. He rose, he staggered to the bar
As oft he done before.
He to the landlord whispering said,
'O, give me one glass more.'

4 The host complied with his request.
He drank the poisonous bowl.
He drank while wife and children starved.
And ruined his poor soul.

5. In about one year I passed that way.
A crowd stood at the door.
I asked the cause, and one replied,
'The drunkard is no more.'

6. I saw the hearse move slowly on.
No wife, no child was there.
They to another world had gone
And left this world of care. 

* Probably for "to him he said."

22. The Drunkard's Dream (I)

As Cox has pointed out (FSS 398). this is frequent in nineteenth-century ballad print in England, and it is also widely known in  this country. See BSM 469-70, and add to die references there  given Virginia (FSV 306-7), North Carolina (SFLQ v 144). Missouri (OFS II 393-6), Ohio (BSO 226-7), and Indiana (SFLQ  IV 188-91); it is known also in Michigan (BSSM 478, listed  merely). The five texts in our collection differ somewhat, chiefly by omissions, transpositions, and other minor variations characteristic of oral transmission.

A. 'The Drunkard's Dream.' From the manuscript songbook of Miss Lura Wagoner of Vox, secured in 1922 but probably entered in the book  some ten years earlier. With the tune.



1.  'Oh. Edward, you look so happy now;
Your clothes are neat and clean;
I never see you drunk about,
Pray, tell me where you've been.

2. 'Your wife and cliildren are all well;
You once did treat them strange.
Oh, you are kinder to them now —
How came this happy change?'

3. 'It was a dream, a warning voice,
Which heaven sent to me
To snatch me from the drunkard's curse,
Grim want and misery.

4. 'My wages were all spent in drink;
Oh, what a wretched view!
I almost broke my Mary's heart.
And starved my children, too.

5. 'What was my home or wife to me?
I heeded not her cry;
Her winsome smile had welcomed me
When tears bedimmed her eye.

6. 'My children, too, have oft awoke.
"Oh, father dear," they've said,
"Poor mother has been weeping so
Because we've had no bread."

7. 'My Mary's form did waste away;
I saw her sunken eye.
On straw my babes in sickness laid;
I heard their wailing cry.

8. 'I laughed and sang in drunken joy
While Mary's tears did stream;
Then like a beast I fell asleep
And had this warning dream.

9. 'I thought once more I'd staggered home;
There seemed a solemn gloom.
I missed my wife — where can she be? —
And strangers in the room.

10. 'I heard them say, "Poor thing! she's dead.
She lived a wretched life.
For grief and sorrow broke her lieart.
Who would be a drunkard's wife?"

11. I saw my children weeping round,
I scarcely drew my breath.
They called and kissed her lifeless form
Forever still in death.

12. "Oh father! come and wake her up!
The people say- she's dead.
Oh, make her smile and speak once more!
We'll never cry for b
read."

13. ' "She is not dead," I faintly cried
And rushed to where she lay
And madly kissed her once warm lips
Forever cold as clay.

14. ' "O Mary! speak one word to me.
No more I'll cause you pain,
No more I'll break your loving heart,
Nor ever get drunk again.

15. '"Dear Mary, speak! 'Tis Edward's voice."
"I know it is," she cried.
I woke, and, true, my Mary dear
Was kneeling by my side.

16. I pressed her to my throbbing heart,
While with joy our tears did stream.
And ever since I've heaven blessed
For sending such a dream.'

B. 'The Drunkard's Dream.' From the manuscript book of Mrs. Mary Martin Copley, obtained in 1923 by Jesse F. Carpenter of Durham.  This text lacks the awakening from the dream, ending with these lines:

My poor wife's form did waste away,
I saw her sunken eyes.
My babes on stray in sickness lay,
I heard their wailing cries.

'Oh, papa, come and wake her up!
The people say she's dead.
Just make her speak and smile once more
And we will never cry for bread.'

C. 'The Drunkard's Dream.' Obtained by Professor W. Amos Abrams,  of Boone, from Mary Bost of States ville, Iredell county. Lacks stanzas  4-8 of A and has a few other minor variants.

D. 'The Drunkard's Dream.' From Mrs. Minnie Church of Heaton, Avery  county, in 1939. This text too has lost the awakening from the dream, ending with:

'Oh, Mary, speak to me,' I said.
'I'll never cause you pain
Or will I break your loving heart;
I'll never get drunk again.'

E. 'The Drunkard's Dream." From the manuscripts of G. S. Robinson of  Asheville, obtained in August 1939. Lacks stanzas 5-8 and 12-13 of 16  and shows minor variations due to setting down the text from memory,
but retains the ending of A with an added final line: "Farewell to rum's  career."

23. The Drunkard's Dream (II)

This is quite distinct from the temperance song of the same title  given just above. That is very widely known both in England and  in America; this song I have found nowhere else. 

'The Drunkard's Dream.'  From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.

1. The drunkard dreamed of his old retreat,
Of his cozy place in the taproom seat;
And the liquor gleamed on his gloating eyes
Till his lips to the sparkling glass drew nigh.
He lifted it up with an eager glance

And sang as he saw the bubbles dance,
'Aha, I am myself again,
Here's a truce to care and adieu to pain!

2. 'Welcome the cup with its creamy foam.
Farewell to work and a mopy home.
With a jolly crew and a flowing bowl

In barroom pleasures I love to roll.'
Like a crash there came to the drunkard's side
His angel child who that night had died.
With a look so gentle and sweet and fond
She touched his glass with her little hand.

3. And oft as he raised it up to drink
She silently tapped on its trembling brink;
Till the drunkard shook from foot to crown
And set the untasted goblet down.
'Hey, man,' cried the host, 'what meanelh this?
Is thee canty sick, or the dram amiss?
Cheer up, my lad, quick the bumper quaff.'

24. Father, Dear Father, Come with Me Now

One of Henry C. Work's songs; by no means so good as 'Wake, Nicodemus,' but still it achieved a considerable popularity. It has  been reported as a folk song from Virginia (FSV 306), Kentucky (Shearin 33, BKH 144), and Arkansas (OFS 11 397). Of our  two texts one follows the original pretty closely except in the chorus, which is quite different from Work's; the other is a reduced  form but retains the original chorus (probably; see headnote to B).

A. 'Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now.' From Lois Johnson, Davidson county. No date given.

1 Father, dear father, come home with me now;
The clock in the steeple strikes one.
You said you were coming right home from the shop
As soon as your day's work was done.
The house is all dark, the fires are all out,
And mother's heen watching since tea.
With poor little Bennie so sick in her arms
And no one to help her with me.

Chorus: Hear the sweet voice of the child,
Which the night winds repeat as they roam.
Oh, who could resist this most plaintive of prayers,
'Please, father, dear father, come home.'

2. Father, dear father, come home with me now;
The clock in the steeple strikes two.

Poor Bennie is worse, indeed he is worse,
And he has been calling for you.
Indeed he is worse, ma says he will die,
Perhaps before morning shall dawn.
And this is the message she sent me to tell;
Come quickly or he will be gone.

3. Father, dear father, come home with me now;
The clock in the steeple strikes three.
The house is so lonely, the hours are so long
For poor weeping mother and me.
Yes, we're all alone; poor Bennie is dead
And gone with the angels of light;
And these were the very last words that he said;
I want to kiss papa goodnight.'

B. 'Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now.' From Bessie Lou  Hull, Shelby, Cleveland county. No date given. The chorus is perhaps miscopied ; in the original song it runs

Come home! come home! come home!
Please, father, dear father, come home.

1. Father, clear father, come home with me now,
The clock in the steeple strikes one;

You said you were coming right home from the shop
As soon as your day's work was done.

Chorus: Come home, come home,
Please, father, dear father, come home.
Come home, some home.
Please, father, dear father, come home.

2. Our light has gone out. our house is all dark.
And mother has been waiting since ten
With poor little Bennie so sick in her arms
And no one to help her but me.

3. Father, dear father, come home with me now,
The clock in the steeple strikes two;

Our house has grown cold, and Bennie is worse,
But he has been calling for you.

4. Yes, Bennie is worse, mother says he will die.
Perhaps before morning shall dawn;

But the message he sent me to bring :
'Oh, papa, dear papa, come home!'

25. The Drunkard's Lone Child

As Stout's Iowa texts show, there are two quite distinct songs bearing this title (MAFLS xxix 122-4). Ours is the former of the two. It has been reported also from Virginia (FSV 307), North Carolina (FSSH 382). the Ozarks (OFS 11 398-402), Michigan (BSSM 477. listed only), and Nebraska (Pound 55), and Spaeth gives it in Weep Some More. My Lady 191-2.

A. 'Bessie, or the Drunkard's Daughter." From the manuscript songbook of Miss Lura Wagoner of Vox, Alleghany county, in which it was  entered probably in 1912 or thereabouts.

1. Out in the gloomy night sadly I roam,
I have no mother dear, no pleasure have.*
No one cares for me, no one would cry
Even if poor little Bessie should die.
Weary and tired I've been wandering all day
Asking for work ; but I'm too small, they say.
On the damp ground I must now lay my head.
Father is a drunkard and mother is dead.

We were so happy till father drank rum;
Then all our sorrow and trouble begun.
Mother grew pale and wept every day,
Baby and I were too hungry to play.
Slowly they faded, till one summer night
Found their dead faces all silent and white.
Then, with big tears slowly dropping, I said,
'Father's a drunkard and mother is dead.'

Oh, if the temperance man only could find
Poor wretched father, and talk very kind.
If they could stop him from drinking, then
I would be so very happy again.
Is it too late, temperance men? Please try,
Or poor little Bessie must soon starve and die.
All day long I've been begging for bread,
Father's a drunkard and mother is dead.

* The B text shows how this line should rhyme.

B. 'God Pity Bessie, the Drunkard's Lone Child.' Contributed in 1921 by Miss Jewell Robbins of Pekin, Montgomery county. Eight lines only. With the air.

1. Out in the cold I wander alone,
With no one to love me, no friends, no home.
Dark is the night and the storm rages wild,
God pity Bessie, the drunkard's lone child!

2. Mother, oh, why did you leave me alone
With no one to love me, no friends, no home?
Dark is the night and the storm rages wild,
God pity Bessie, the drunkard's lone child!

C. 'Drunkard's Love Child.' Obtained from Bell Brandon of Durham. Not dated. The text is the same as B except that it has "love" for "lone."

26. Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling

The age-old struggle between the wife and the tavern has  prompted many songs. This particular one, which is reported also  by Randolph from the Ozarks (OFS 11 434), shows by the variations in the three texts in our collection that it has passed by word of mouth from singer to singer.

A. 'Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling.' Contributed by Professor W.  Amos Abrams, of Boone, about 1936.

1.  Don't go out tonight, my darling,
Do not leave me here alone.
Stay at home with me, my darling ;
I'm so lonesome when you are gone.

2. Although that life may be tempting
And your finals full of glee,*
I will do my best to cheer you.
Darling, won't you stay with me?

3. Oh, now he's gone and left me
With a curse upon his lips.

There's no one knows what I have suffered
Over that awful tucked head.-

4. I hear a knock upon the door
And footsteps upon the floor.
Now they have brought back my husband.
There he is upon the floor.

5. Now he's dying; yes, he's dying.
Soon I shall be left alone.
I ask that God go and his mercy**
And save him from a drunkard's doom.

Randolph's Arkansas text shows how this line should run: "And your friends are full of glee."

** Here again B helps out: "I pray that God's own tender mercy 
                                     May. . . ." 
 

B. 'Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling.' From Mrs. Minnie Church, Heaton, Avery county, 1930.

1. Don't go out tonight, my darling,
Do not leave me here alone;

Stay at home with me. my darling;
I'm so lonesome when you're gone.

2 Altho the life has many atemptings
And your friendship will I grieve,*
I will do my best to cheer you.
Darling, won't you stay with me?

3 Oh, no! he's gone and left me
With a curse upon his lips.
There's no one knows how I have suffered
For those **awful words he said.

4. I hear a knocking at the door,
I hear his footsteps on the floor.
Now they brought me back my husband;
Here he is upon the floor.

5. Now he's dying; yes, he's dying.
Soon I will be left alone.

I pray that God's own tender mercy
May save him from a drunkard's doom.

* For the right reading of the first two lines of stanza 2, see C and the note on this stanza in A.

** 3. "For those awful words he said" shows what is probably the right reading.


C. 'Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling." From the MSS of G. S. Robinson of Asheville, copied out in 1939.

1. Don't go out tonight, my darling,
Do not leave me here alone.
Stay at home with me, my darling;
I'm so lonely when you're gone.

2 Though the wine cup may be tempting
And our friends are full of glee,
I will do my best to cheer you.
Darling, can't you stay with me?

3. You may meet with friends and faces,
They may tell you they are true,
But remember, my dear darling,
No one loves you as I do.

4. Oh, my God! He's gone and left me
With a curse upon his lips.
You don't know how much I've suffered
From the careless cup he drank.

5. Hark ! I hear the heavy footsteps,
Hear the knock upon the door.
Here they've brought him home, my husband;
Here he lies upon the floor.

6. Oh, my God ! I cannot wake him;
For he craved his rum, his rum.
All the flowers I have cherished,
They have faded, one by one.

27. Be Home Early

This song was printed in Wehman Brothers' Good Old Time Songs No. 3 (New York, 1914), pp. 18-19, and in broadsides of earlier date, e.g., Wehman No. 551. Randolph reports it from  Arkansas (OFS iv 379-80).

'Be Home Early.' Secured by Julian P. Boyd from one of his pupils in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county, about 1927-28.


1. I have traveled through life, I have seen many a thing
That surprised me in every form.

I have been at the spade, I have been at the plow
From dark till sunrise in the morn.

Chorus:  Be home early tonight, my dear boy, my dear boy,
Be home early tonight, my dear boy.
Don't spend all your money to gamble and drink.
Be home early tonight, my dear boy.

2. At night I would go for some pleasure through town,
For I'm always for pleasure and joy.

My mother would say, when going away,
'Be home early tonight, my dear boy.'

3. One night I returned from my night's fun and joy,
I heard my poor mother was dead.

It was then the cold chills through my body did run
When I thought of the last word she said.

4. Come all you young men and take warning by me,
To your fathers and mothers attend.

For a good mother's love it must not be forgot,
When she's gone you have lost your best friend.

28. I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again

For the occurrence of this song elsewhere and its possible relation to 'When I Was Single' (given in this volume under Courting Songs), see BSM 437 and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 167) and Missouri (OFS in 69-70). 'When I Was Single,' however, has nothing to do with drink or gambling, and is besides quite different metrically from this lament of a drunkard's wife. Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county.

"I Wish I Were Single Again"; Durham, NC Minnie Mansfield 1922 [Mansfield's text (below) is different than text here with music: 

A. 'I Wish I Were Single Again.' Obtained from Mamie Mansfield, of  the Fowler School District, Durham county, in 1922. The first two  times that the word "girl" occurs in the manuscript it is followed by "gal" in parentheses, indicating no doubt that that is the way the word  is to be pronounced.

1. I left my poor old father, and broke his command,
I left my poor old mother a-wringing her hands.
Oh, Lord, I wish I was a single girl again.

Chorus: The drunkard, the drunkard is a man of his own,
Ahvays a-drinking and away from his home.
Oh. Lord, I wish I was a single girl again.

2 When I was single I wore very fine shoes ;
Now I am married my toes are sticking through.
Oh, Lord, I wish I was a single girl again.

3. When I was single I wore a very fine dress;
Now I am married rags are my best.
Oh, Lord, I wish I was a single girl again.

4. When I was single I had plenty to eat;
Now I am married it is corn bread and meat.
Oh, Lord, I wish I was a single girl again.

5. Now it is the floors to be swept, the spring to go to,
Little ones a-crying, Oh, Lord, what shall I do?
Oh, Lord, I wish I was a single girl again.

6. Washing their little feet, putting them to bed,
In comes the drunkard, wishing that I was dead,
Oh, Lord, I wish I was a single girl again.

B. 'A Drunkard.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.

1. A drunkard, a drunkard, a man of his own,
Always drinking away from his home.
Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!

2. When I was single, I had plenty to eat;
Now I am married, and it's cornbread and meat.
Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!

3. When I was single I had fine clothes to wear;
Now I am married and the rags are my best.
Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!

4. When I was single I had fine shoes to wear;
Now I am married and my toes are poking through.
Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!

5. The spring is to go to and my floors are to sweep,
The little ones are crying, they're crying for meat.
The other is crying, 'Papa, I want to go to bed.'

Lord, what shall I do? I wish I was a single girl again.

6 The bread is to bake and little ones' shoes to put on.
In steps a drunkard, and I wish I was dead.
Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!

7. When I was single I lived at my ease;
Now I am married and a drunkard to please.
Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!

C. 'The Drunkard's Wife.' Contributed by I. T. Poole of Durham in  June 1920. With the air. Brief as it is, the contributor has marked it "complete."

1. Two little children, all so very small;
Neither one is large enough to help me at all.

Chorus: Oh, I wish I was a single girl again.
Oh, I wish I was a single girl again.

2. One a-cryin', 'Mama, I want to go to bed,'
One a-cryin', 'Mama, I want a piece of bread.'

29. Seven Long Years I've Been Married

The woes of married life, for man and for woman, are the subject of numerous songs, some of which appear in this collection;  but this particular development of the theme seems to have no wide  currencv. I have found it reported elsewhere onlv from Virginia  (FSV 170), Arkansas (OFS 11 417). and Michigan (BS.SM 132).  Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county.  Something like it but not the same song is reported from Ohio  (BSO 185). Compare 'I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again' and  'The Inconstant Lover.'
Seven Long Years I've been Married- Obie Johnson 1940



A. 'Wish I'd Lived an Old Maid.' Contributed by Rosa Efird of Stanly county. But the manuscript is not dated.

1. For seven long years I've been married,
I wish I'd lived an old maid.

My husband he is oft gambling;
I'd better been laid in my grave.

Chorus: Off to the barroom he staggers,
Go bring him back if you can.
Young girls, you have never known trouble
Lentil vou marry a man.

2. He promised, when we were first married,
We'd live so happy and gay;

Every day in the week long
Go in the parlor and play.

3. Get up soon in the morning,
Work and toil all day;
Supper to cook in the evening,
The children to put to hed.

4. Off soon in the morning,
Gamble and drink all day;
At night when he comes home
He's gambled his money away.

5. Young girls, you had better take warning
In choosing you a man.
For if you have never known trouble
You'll find it with a gambling man.

B. 'Seven Long Years I've Been Married.' Contributed by Mamie Mansfield of the Fowler School District, Durham county, in July 1922. A  fragmentary text.

1. Seven long years I've been married.
I wish I'd lived an old maid.

For now it's get up early in the morning
And toil and toil all day.

2. Supper to get for the children,
And the table to all clear away.
And off to the alehouse I go
To fetch him away if I can.

Now, girls, you'll never see trouble
Until you are tied to a man.

30. The Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine

This song, particularly its refrain line, attained wide popularity in the days of the temperance movement, but I do not find it recognized as folk song except by Randolph (OFS 11 341-2, from Arkansas). In its original form — our A text — it is the work of George W. Young, and has been printed in Standard Recitations (New York, 1884), in One Hundred Choice Selections Number 16 (Philadelphia, copyright dates 1878 and 1906). and no doubt in many other publications. But about Young I can learn nothing. That indefatigable student of Americana H. L. Mencken (You Know These Lines! New York, 1935, p. 92) says the earliest print of it he knows is a temperance broadside, undated but of about 1870, but of the author be knows nothing beyond the name. He tells of another piece, no doubt suggested by Young's, that appeared in Readings and Recitations (New Y'ork, 1878), which may very likely be our B text.

'The Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine.' Obtained by Jesse T. Carpenter from the manuscript songbook of Mrs. C. T. Weatherly of Greensboro, Guilford county.

1. You are coming to woo me, but not as of yore,
When I hastened to welcome your ring at the door.
For I trusted that he who stood waiting for me then
Was the brightest, the truest, the noblest of men.
Your lips on my own, when they printed 'farewell,'
Had never been soiled by the beverage of Hell!

But they come to me now with the bacchanal sign ;
And the lips that touch liquor must never touch mine.

2. I think of that night in the garden alone
When in whispers you told me your heart was my own,
That your love in the future should faithfully be
Unshared by another, kept only for me.
Oh, sweet to my soul is the memory still
Of the lips that met mine when they murmured 'I will.'
But now to their pressure no more they incline;
For the lips that touch liquor shall never tovich mine.

3. Oh, John! How it crushed me when first in your face
The pen of the rum fiend had written 'disgrace,'

And turned me in silence and tears from that breath,
All poisoned and foul from the chalice of death!
It scattered the hopes I had treasured to last,
It darkened the future and clouded the past.
It shattered my idol and ruined the shrine;
For the lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.

4. I loved you, oh, dearer than language can tell,
And you saw it, you proved it, you knew it too well;
But the man of my love was far other than he 
When now from the taproom comes running to me.
In manhood and honor so noble and bright.
His heart was so true and his genius so bright.
And his soul was unstained, unpolluted by wine.
But the lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.

5. You promised reform; but I trusted in vain.
Your pledge was but made to be broken again.
And the lover so false to his promises now
Will not as a husband be true to his vow.
The word must be spoken that bids you depart.
Though the efforts to speak it should shatter my heart.
Though in silence with blighted affections I pine.

Yet the lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.

If one spark in your bosom of virtue remains.
Go fan it with prayer till it kindles again.
Resolve, with God helping, in future to be
From wine and its follies unshackled and free!
And when you have conquered this foe of your soul,
In manhood and honor beyond its control.
This heart will again beat responsive to thine,
And the lips free from liquor be welcome to mine.

 B. 'The Lips That Touch Liquor.' Obtained by Jesse T. Carpenter from the manuscript songbook of Mrs. Mary Martin Copley, Route 8, Durham.

1. The demon of rum is abroad in the land.
His victims are falling on every hand,

The wise and the sinful, the brave and the fair.
No station too high for his vengeance to spare.
O woman, the sorrow and pain is with you.
And so be the joy and the victory too;
With this for your motto and succor divine;
The lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.
The lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.

Chorus: With this for your motto and succor divine,
The lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine,
Shall never touch mine.

2 The homes that were happy are ruined and gone.
The hearts that were merry are wretched and lone,* 
And lives full of promises of good things to come.
Wives, maidens, and mothers, to you it is given
To rescue the fallen and point them to heaven.
W'ith God for your guide you shall win by this sign;
The lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.
The lips that touch liciuor shall never touch mine.

3. O mother, whose sons tarry long at the bowl,
Who loves their good name as you love your own soul;
O maidens, with fathers and brother and beaux.
Whose lives you would rescue from infinite woes;
Let war be your watchword from shore unto shore
Till rum and his legions shall ruin no more.
And write on your banners in letters that shine:
The lips that touch litjuor shall never touch mine.
The lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine. 

* The manuscript has here "one."

31. I'm Alone, All Alone

This lament of an old man who has lost all his one-time happiness and is now a lonely wanderer is no doubt conceived as an instrument in the fight against drink. Randolph has found it in Missouri (OFS II 424-5), and it appears three times in our collection. A song reported by Henry (FSSH 212) from Kentucky has a like refrain but is not the same song.

A. 'Far Back in My Childhood.' The manuscript says "Recorded by Mr. Coffey in . . . for the . . . Co.," which seems to mean that he sang it at some time before a recording instrument for some phonograph company.
From O. L. Coffey of Shull's Mills, Watauga county.

1. Far back in my childhood, I remember today,
I was happy and beloved ere I wandered away;
I was taught by my mother, who sleeps neath the stone
And caressed by my father; yet I've wandered here alone.

Chorus: I'm alone, all alone, and I feel I'm growing old.
Yet I wandered, oh, how lonely!
I am shivering in the cold.

2. I remember the maiden, and my heart bleeds to tell
How I loved her, her devotion! But on this I cannot
dwell.
We were wed; our path was pleasant and the sun of for
time shone;
But alas, I took to drinking: and I'm a wanderer here
alone.

3. I remember my children, how they climbed upon my knees
And I kissed my little darling in the day when I was free.
But I've squandered all my fortune and I'm now without a home,
And I know it was all from drinking; And I've wandered here alone.

B. 'I'm Alone.' From Miss Pearl Webb of Pineola, Avery county, apparently in 1921. With the music. The first three stanzas and chorus as in A, but it adds a fourth stanza:

4. Can I break the bondage? Can I break this awful chain?
Can I escape the shackle? Can I be free again?
Friends of temperance, help me! Friends, my bondage is
untold,
And I know it's all from drinking that I wandered alone.

C. Louise Rand Bascom in 1909 printed (JAFL xxii 24) a fragmentary version — the chorus, the last half of stanza 1 and the first half of stanza 3 of A— with the notation that it "has prohahly been transplanted from
the lowlands."

32. Old Rosin the Beau

For the history and occurrence elsewhere of this song, see BSM 2SS and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 132-3), North Carolina (FSRA 97), and Missouri (OFS iv 371-3)

Old Rosin The Bow- Bascom Lamar Lunsford Turkey Creek, NC No date given

'Old Rosin the Beau.' Reported by K. P. Lewis as set down in 1910 from the singing of Dr. Kemp P. Battle of Chapel Hill.

1. I live for the good of my nation.
And my sons are all growing low.
But I hope that my next generation
Will resemble old Rosin the Beau.
I've traveled this country all over
And now to the next I will go,

For I know that good quarters are waiting
To welcome old Rosin the Beau.

Chorus: And drink to old Rosin the Beau,
And drink to old Rosin the Beau,
And rake* down that big-bellied bottle
And drink to old Rosin the Beau.

2. In the gay round of pleasure I've traveled.
Nor will I behind leave a foe;

And when my companions are jovial
They will drink to old Rosin the Beau.
But my life is now drawn to a closing
And all will at last be so.
So we'll take a full bumper at parting
To the name of old Rosin the Beau.

3 When I'm dead and laid out on the counter,
The people all making a show.

Just sprinkle plain whiskey and water
On the corpse of old Rosin the Beau.
I'll have to be buried, I reckon.
And the ladies will all want to know,
And they'll lift up the lid of the coffin
Saying, 'Here lies old Rosin the Beau.' 

4. Oh, when to my grave I am going
The children will all want to go,

They'll run to the doors and the windows
Saying, 'There goes old Rosin the Beau.'
Then pick me out six trusty fellows
And let them all stand in a row
And dig a big hole in a circle
And in it toss Rosin the Beau.

5. Then shape me out two little donochs**
Place one at my head and my toe,
And do not forget to scratch on it
The name of old Rosin the Beau.
Then let those six trusty good fellows.
Oh, let them all stand in a row

And rake- down that big-bellied bottle
And drink to old Rosin the Beau.

 * So in the typescript. Miswritten for "take"?

** The manuscript adds liere in parenthesis "drinking mugs." Lomax also so explains the word. But the New International Dictionary says that "dornick" (variant spellings donnick, donnock) means a stone, a small boulder.

33.  Little Brown Jug

Very generally known and sung. See BSM 261, and for its use as a play-party song consult Botkin's The American Play-Party Song by index under "Brown Jug." It is reported also from Virginia (FSV 147) and from Missouri (OFS iii 141-2, 331, the latter as a play-party song). It appears twenty-two times in our collection, mostly in a stanza or two. All together these texts show eight distinguishable stanzas, four of them frequently and one of the four much more frequently than any of the others, four rarely. The four stanzas of frequent occurrence appear in the following text. 

A. 'Little Brown Jug.' Contributed in 1914 by Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Alleghany county.

1 My wife and I lived all alone
In a little log hut we called our own.
She loved gin and I loved rum.
Tell you what, we'd lots of fun!

2 When I go toiling to my farm
Little brown jug is under my arm.
I place it under a shady tree.
Little brown jug, 'tis you and me!

3. My wife and I and a stump-tailed dog
Crossed the creek on a hickory log.
The log did hreak and we all fell in.
You bet I hung to my jug of gin!

Ha ha ha, you and me,
Little brown jug, don't I love thee!
Ha ha ha, you and me.
Little brown jug. don't I love thee!*

4. If I had a cow that gave such milk
I'd dress her in the finest silk.

I'd feed her on the finest hay
And milk her forty times a day!

* This refrain stanza is so placed in the manuscript, probably by error. It should come after each successive stanza.

The third of these stanzas appears in eighteen of our twenty-two texts, sometimes with slight variations and frequently with nothing else except the refrain. Stanzas that appear less frequently are found in the following texts.

 

B. 'Little Brown Jug.' Collected by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, about 1915. He notes that it "has been sung in this section for over forty years, according to reliable people. Very few sing it today,
though several persons know the tune. Robert Smith recalled the above verses lately." The fourth stanza of this text, incomplete, runs:

Whiskey and brandy all played out
Little brown jug was up the spout.

C. 'Little Brown Jug.' Reported by Clara Hearne of Pittsboro, Chatham county. The third of her four stanzas runs :

As I went down the railroad track
I took my brown jug on my back.
I stubbed my toe and I went down.
And broke my brown jug on the ground.

D. 'Little Brown Jug.' Reported by Gertrude Allen (Mrs. Vaught) from Taylorsville, Alexander county. Here the third stanza (incomplete) runs :

 

Went to milk and didn't know how,
Milked a goat instead of a cow.

 

E. 'Song.' Reported by Sarah K. Watkins as known in Anson and Stanly counties. Here the second stanza runs:

Every night when I go to bed
Little brown jug does* under my head ;
Every morning when I wake up
Little brown jug turns bottom-side up.

* Miswritten, one supposes, for "goes."

 

F. 'Little Brown Jug.' As reported by Miss Doris Overton of Durham, this stanza takes a slightly different form:

Every night when I go to bed
Put the little brown jug under my head;
Every morning when I get up
Little brown jug is all dried up.

 

In Lois Johnson's version, from Davidson county, it ends more piquantly :

Next morning I gave a pull,
Jug was empty, and my wife was full !

34. Pass Around the Bottle

The Archive of American Folk Song has a record under this title from Kentucky. As we have it in North Carolina it is a drinking song only in the first two stanzas; stanza 3 is universally known since Civil War times, and stanzas 4-6 are scarcely less familiar. The refrain line shows that it is really a marching song.

A. 'Pass Around the Bottle.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection. Each stanza repeats, including the refrain line, as indicated in stanza 1.

1. Pass around the bottle and we'll all take a drink,
Pass around the bottle and we'll all take a drink,
As we go marching home.

2. Pull out the stopper and fill it up again.

3. Hang John Brown on a sour apple tree.

4. Grasshopper sitting on a sweet potato vine.

5. Old turkey gobbler come slipping up behind.

6. Old turkey gobbler kicked the hopper from the vine.

35. Judie My Whiskey Tickler

A college drinking song of a hundred years ago which seems to have dropped out of the memory of present-day collegians.

'Judie, My Whiskey Tickler.' Communicated by S. M. Davis of White Hall on the Neuse River, Wayne county, as "a song my grandfather used to sing while at Jefferson's Academy in 1839." He adds that there are two otiier stanzas which he does not know.

1 Judie, my whiskey tickler,
Judie, you debbil, you bother me so.
Woe! "Woe! Woe!
Like a red-hot potato you are all a-^low.
Woe! Woe! Woe!

2 By* faith, you are both elegant in form and face,
You walk with such stately magnificent grace!
Judie, you debbil, you bother me so.

Woe! Woe! Woe!

* So the manuscript. One supposes that it should be "My."

36. I'll Never Get Drunk Any More

The four texts here given have little in common beyond the refrain stanza. Shearin's syllabus shows that this is known in Kentucky, and Perrow (JAFL xxviii 151) reports it as sung by both whites and blacks in Tennessee. It is reported also from Virginia (FSV 308) and from Missouri (OFS 11 413-14, iii 140-1). Mrs. Sutton notes that Miss Emeth Tuttle of Lenoir found it in Mississippi.

 

A. 'I'll Never Get Drunk Any More.' Reported by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, sometime between 1914 and 1920, with the notation: "This song was once popular around here (25 or 30 years ago).
Young people sang it a great deal in those days. The tune is still well known to several of my neighbors."

1. When I go out on Sunday
What pleasure do I see?
For the girl I loved so dearly
Has gone square back on me.

Chorus: I'll never get drunk any more, any more,
I'll never get drunk any more.
I'll lay my head in my true love's door,
I'll never get drunk any more.

2. When I go out on Sunday.
My head all racked with pain,
I'll tell my little honey

I'll never get drunk again.

Once I had a fortune;
I laid it in a trunk.
I spent it all a-gambling
The night I first got drunk.

 

No title. Reported by Miss Gertrude Allen (afterwards Mrs. R. C. Vaught) from Taylorsville, Alexander county.

1. Some say that love is pleasure.
What pleasure do I see?

The girl I loved so dearly
Has turned her back on me.

Chorus: I'll never get drunk any more,
I'll never get drunk any more,
I'll lay my head in the barroom door,
I'll never get drunk any more.

2. As I go home tonight
I'll smoke my long-stemmed pipe,
I'll have no wife to bother my life,
No children to holler and squall.

3. Dem chickens they crowed for midnight,
Dem chickens they crowed for day,
Dem chickens they crowed for midnight,
And I got drunk again.

C. 'Til Never Get Drunk Any More.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton (while she was still Miss Maude Minnish) from the singing of Mrs. Woody of Jonas Ridge. Date not given.

1. One time I had an old blue hen,
I set her in a stump.

A 'possum come and got her
One night when I got drunk.

Chorus: I'll never git drunk any more, any more,
Oh, I'll never git drunk any more.
I'll lay my head in some still-house door,
But I'll never git drunk any more.

2 One time I had a fortune;
I put in a trunk.

I lost it all a-gamblin'
One night when I got drunk. 

E. 'I'll Never Get Drunk Any More.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.

1. I'll never get drunk any more,
I'll never get drunk any more;

I'll lay my head in some poor man's door,
I'll never get drunk any more.

2. Once I had a fortune,
I laid it on my trunk;

I lost it all hy gambling
One night when I was drunk.

3. Once I had a sweetheart
My laziness did ensnare;
But now I've got no money
Her poor little feet go bare.

4. Once I had fine horses,
I fed them on good hay.
I swapped them off for whiskey
One cold December day.

5. There are . . . region.
The flames they do not wilt;
But down below the spring house
You'll find them at the still.

37. Show Me the Way to Go Home, Babe

This seems to be a fragment of the desultory Negro lyric that Odum and Perrow collected, though this particular bit does not appear in their collections as published in JAFL xxiv  255-94, 351-96, XXV 137-55, xvi 123-73, XXVIII 129-90. Shearin's syllabus shows it known in Kentucky. Although our texts are much alike, it seems desirable to give them all, for comparative study.

A. 'Song.' Communicated by Ethel Hicks Buffalo from Granville county. No date given.

Good mornin', Carrie,
When you gwine to marry?
I've been dreamin' 'bout you,
My dusky babe.

Chorus: Show me the way to go home, babe,
Show me the way to go home;

I've been drunk for the past six months;
Show me the way to go home.

B. 'Oh, Goodbye, Babe, Forever More.' From Miss Jeannette Cox, Winterville, Pitt county, in 1921 or 1922.

Oh, goodbye, babe, forever more.
My boozing days will soon be o'er.
I've had a good time, as you may see;
Just see what booze has done for me.

Show me the way to go home, babe.
Show me the way to go home;
I ain't been sober since last October.
Show me the way to go home.

C. 'Negro Fragment.' This also comes from Miss Cox, and with the tune.


Show me the way to go home,
Show me the way to go home;
I ain't been sober since last October;
Show me the way to go home, babe.

Show me the way to go home.
Show me the way to go home;
I've been drunk for the last six months;
Show me the way to go home, babe.

D. 'Show Me the Way to Go Home." Reported by Wiliam B. Covington in 1913 from "reminiscences of my early youth spent in the country on the border of the sand hills of Scotland county."

Show me the way to go home,
Show me the way to go home;
I ain't been sober since last October;
Show me the way to go home, babe.

Show me the way to go home.
Show me the way to go home.
I've been drunk for the last six months;
Show me the way to go home, babe.

E. 'Show Me the Way to Go Home.' From Louise Bennett, Middleburg, Vance county. Not dated.

I ain't been sober since last October —
Show me the way to go home.
I's been drunk for de last six months —
Show me the way to go home.

F. 'Show Me the Way to Go Home.' From Antoinette Beasley, Monroe, Union county. Not dated.

I been drunk since the last month.
Show me the way to go home, babe,
Show me the way to go home.
Ain't been home since last October.
Show me the way to go home, babe,
Show me the way to go home.

G. Lucille Cheek of Chatham county reports a single line: "Haven't been sober since last October."

H. 'Show Me the Way to Go Home.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.

1. Show me the way to go home,
I'm tired and I want to go to bed.

I had a little drink about an hour ago,
And it's gone right to my head.

2. Wherever I may roam
O'er land or sea or foam.
You'll always hear me singing that song,
Show me the way to go home.

38. Pickle My Bones in Alcohol

This jocose jingle seems to have a special appeal for Negroes, though it is not confined to them nor is it, probably, of Negro origin. It has been reported from New York (ANFS 368), Tennessee (JAFL XXVIII 130), North Carolina (FSSH 438), Georgia (FSSH 438), Missouri (OFS iii 197-8), and from Negroes in  Mississippi (JAFL xxviii 130). In a form which probably is of Negro origin 'lasses and corn bread take the place of alcohol: so in a text reported from Alabama Negroes (ANFS 277) and in some of our North Carolina texts. Or the two notions may be combined, as in our A text and in Negro versions reported from Alabama (ANFS 368-9) and without specific locale by Talley (Negro Folk Rhymes 26).

A. 'When I Die.' Reported by Julian P. Boyd, Alliance, Pamlico county, as obtained from Duval Scott, a pupil in the school there.

1. When I die don't bury me deep ;
Put a jug o' 'lasses at my feet.

Put a pone o' bread in my hand,
And I'll sop my way to the promised land!

When I die don't bury me at all;
Just pickle my bones in alcohol.

Put a bottle of booze at my head and feet,
And then you know that I will keep.

For I'm a man who must have a little likker
When I'm dry, dry, dry !

B. 'When Colonel Died.' Reported by Miss Gertrude Allen (afterwards Mrs. Vaught ) from Taylorsville, Alexander county. Not dated.

1. When Colonel died with a bottle by his side

2. When I die don't bury me at all.
Just pickle my bones in alcohol.

3. Put a bottle of booze at my head and feet
And say, 'Colonel died in joy complete.'

C. 'Drinking Song.' From Lucille Cheek, Chatham county.

Oh, when I die don't bury me at all;
Just pickle my bones in alcohol.
Place a bottle of booze at my head and feet.
Tell all the girls I've gone to sleep.

D. 'When I Die.' From Miss F. Shuma, in 1920. Location not given. The same as C except the last line, which runs: "So these old bones shall rest in peace."

E. 'When I Die.' From Miss Kate S. Russell, Person county. Here the alcohol has disappeared.

When I die, want you bury me deep.
Put a jug of lasses at my head and feet.
Pone corn bread in the palm of my hand ;
Going to sop lasses in de promised land.

F. 'O When I Die Don't Bury Me Deep.' Contributed in 1919 by H. H. Hanchey as heard in the southeastern part of North Carolina. Like E, but has its last line in the more familiar form: "So I kin sop my way
to de promise land."

39. Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones

This line is found in Negro songs reported from North Carolina and Alabama (ANFS 145) which are not specifically drinking songs but are concerned, like the texts here presented, with the singer's posthumous reputation — an element which Dr. White says occurs "in various spirituals."

A. 'A Drunkard's Song.' Contributed in 1913 by William B. Covington with the notation: "Reminiscences of my early youth spent in the country on the border of the sand hills of Scotland County."

Sticks and stones may break my bones,
Say what you please when I'm dead and gone;
But I'm gona drink corn liquor till I die,
Till I die, till I die,
I'm gona drink corn liquor till I die.

B. 'Song.' From Louise W. Sloan, Bladen county. No date given.

I'm a-living high till I die,
Bet your life I'm a-living mighty high;
Oh, sticks and stones for to breaker my bones,
I know you'll talk about me when I'm gone
But I'm a-living high till I die.

C. 'Ise Gwine to Live in de Harvest.' Reported by Julian P. Boyd as obtained from Duval Scott, one of his pupils in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county.

1. Ise gwine to live in de harvest.
Till I die, till I die;

Life Ise livin' is not so very high;
Sticks and stones gwine break my bones,
I know you gwine talk about me when Ise gone;
Ise gwine live in de harvest till I die!

2. Ise gwine build me a graveyard
Of my own, of my own!

Ise gwine build me a graveyard of my own.
Sticks and stones gwine break my bones,
I know you gwnne talk about me when Ise gone.
Ise gwine live in de harvest till I die!

40. Just Kick the Dust over my Coffin

In form this is akin to 'Pickle My Bones in Alcohol,' above; but its spirit is somewhat different, the speaker being about to die of love, and perhaps it should not be here among the drinking songs. I have not found it elsewhere. The manuscript is without name in the Collection, but from surrounding circumstances it is believed to have come from Obadiah Johnson of Crossnore, Avery county.

1. Just kick the dust over my coffin.
Say, 'There lies a jovial young lad;
Pile the earth upon my carcass;*
Then carve on the stone at my head :

Chorus: Oh, ain't it a wonderful story
That love it will kill a man dead.

2 Oh, none of you bawling and squalling
Around me as tho' you'd gone mad;
Just kick the dust over my coffin

And tell my true love that I said.

* The manuscript has an alternative reading that is better: "Pile the earth high up o'er my carcass."

41. The Hidden Still

This little hymn to the moonshiner's still I have not found elsewhere.

'Down under the Hill.' Reported, probably in 1939, by S. M. Holton as known in Buncombe county.

1. Down under the hill
There is a little still,

Where the smoke goes curling through the air.
You can easily tell
By the perfume and smell
There is licker in the air close by.

2 How it fills the air
With a perfume so rare!
'Tis only known to a few.
So you wrinkle up your lip
And you take a little sip

Of the good old mountain dew.

42. Moonshine

This laudation of the potency of the mountaineers' favorite product has already been reported by Mrs. Richardson (A MS 94-5). Presumably it is the work of some native celebrant.

A. 'Moonshine.' From the manuscripts of Obadiah Johnson of Crossnore, Avery county ; obtained in July 1940.

1. Come all ye boozefighters, if you want to hear
"Bout the kind of booze they sell round here,
Made way back in the swamps and hills
Whar there's plenty of moonshine stills.

2. Whar they don't give a darn for the Volstead law
'N for prohibition they don't give a straw.
Made of buckeye, lye, and cawn,

And was bottled up in some barn.

3 One drop'll make a rabbit whup a fool dawg,
And a taste will make a rat whip a wild hawg ;
Hit'll make a mouse bite off a torn, cat's tail.
Make a tadpole have a fuss with a whale.

4 Hit'll make a feist bite off an elephant's mouth. ^
Make a fool dawg put a tiger to rout;

Hit'll make a toad spit in a black-snake's face.
Make a hard-shell preacher fall from grace.

5. A lamb will lay down with a lion
After drinkin' that ole moonshine.

Then thrown back your head and take a little drink,
And for a week you won't be able to think.

6. Then you'll just take another little bit,
Then git ready to have a fit.

First thing you know you're awfully tight
And out in the street a-tryin' to raise a fight.

7. Then you begin to feel awfully sick;
You think you feel worse than the very ole Nick.
You say that you'll never drink it any more;
But you've said that a hundred times before.

8. The moonshiners are gettin' mighty slick
And the bootleggers are gettin' mighty thick;
If they keep on bagging they better beware.
They'll be selling each other, I declare.

* So the manuscript; but the rhyme and the sense call for "snout."

43. Old Corn Licker

Of the following fragment the first line appears in a parody of 'The Old-Time Religion' reported by Perrow from South Carolina (JAFL XXVI 149), and a similar two-line fragment mider the same title is reported from Virginia (JAFL xxviii 133).

'Old Corn Licker.' Reported in 1923 or thereabouts — the manuscript is not dated — by Kate S. Russell of Roxboro, Person county.

I got drunk and lost my hat;
Old corn licker was cause of dat.

44 . Sal and the Baby

This may be a fragment of a vaudeville song. I have not found it anywhere in print, and in our collection it comes only from Duplin county.

No title. From Miss Minnie Bryan Farrior, Duplin county. No date given.

I went down town to see my lady.
Nobody's home but Sal an' the baby.
Sal was drunk, and the baby crazy ;
All that comes of being so lazy.*

* Another copy of this same quatrain has here "crazy."

45. Sweet Cider

Apparently a fragment of the song reported from Tennessee (ETWVMB 86, SSSA 184) as 'Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susan.' Ford, Traditional Music of America 41, gives it as a square-dance song, with "Paddy" in place of "Sallie." Most likely a product, originally, of the music-hall, it has lived in memory here and there in the Southern mountains.

'Sweet Cider.' Contributed by Clara Hearne of Pittsboro, Chatham county, in 1923.

Where's the mule and where's the rider?
Where's the gal that drinks sweet cider?

Refrain: Sallie, won't you have some,
Sallie, won't you have some,
Sallie, won't you have some of my hard cider?

46. A Little More Cider Too

Evidently from the minstrel stage, this has become a college song, and is so entered in Wier's Book of a Thousand Songs. It is very generally known and sung but has not often been admitted to folk-song collections. It is reported from the Midwest (Pound 66) and from the Ozark region (Ford 332-3 — with "white" and "black" where our text has "blonde" and "brunette") and Henry C. Davis (JAFL XXVII 249) lists it as sung by South Carolina Negroes.

A. 'A Little More Cider.' Reported by K. P. Lewis as taken down from the singing in 1910 of Dr. Kemp P. Battle of Chapel Hill.

1. I love the blonde girl and brunette, and I love all the rest,
I love the girls for loving me, but I love myself the best.
Oh, dear, I am so thirsty, I've just come down from
supper ;
I drank three pails of apple-jack and a tub of apple butter.

Chorus: A little more cider, cider, cider, a little more cider too,
A little more cider for Miss Dinah, a little more cider too.

2 When first I saw Miss Snowflake, 'twas on Broadway I spied her,
I'd have given my hat and boots, I would, if I had been
beside her.
She looked at me. and I looked at her, and then I crossed
the street;
And smilingly she said to me, 'A little more cider sweet.'

3 I wish I was an apple and Snowflake was another,
To tiiink how happy we would be upon the tree together!
And then the darkies all would cry. wdien on the tree they
spied her.
To think how happy we would be all squashed up into
cider.

4. Now old age comes creeping ; I grow ole and don't get bigger,
And cider sweet and sour then, but I'm the same ole
nigger.
Be the consequences what it may, long, short, or wider,
She am the apple of my eye, and I'm boun' to be beside
her. 

B. 'A Little More Cider.' Received from Otis Kuykendall of Asheville in 1939- Stanzas 2 and 3 of A, without significant variation.

C. No title. From the manuscript notebook of Mrs. Harold Glasscock of  Raleigh lent to Dr. White in 1943. Fragmentary; the first half of   stanza 2, the chorus, and the first half of stanza 1 of A, with "blacks"  and "whites" in place of "blonde girl" and "brunette."

D. 'A Little More Cider.' From Mrs. Laura M. Cromartie of Garland, Sampson county. Fragmentary, consisting of the chorus and the following:

1. Oh, I wish I was a great big horse apple
And snowflake was another.
What a pretty pair we would make
Upon the tree together!

2. How mad the darkies all would be.
When on the tree they spied us.
To think how happy we would be
All squashed up in apple cider!

3 Oh dear me, I am so thirsty!
I've just come down from supper.
I had a pail of apple-jack
And a tub of apple-butter.

 

E. 'A Little More Cider Sweet.' Obtained, apparently in 1923, by Jesse T. Carpenter from Mrs. Mary Martin Copley of Durham. The chorus  and the first three stanzas of A, without significant variations except that the chorus seems of a slightly different rhythm:

A little more cider, cider,
A little more cider sweet;
A little more cider for Miss Dinah,
A little more cider sweet.

F. 'A Little More Cider.' Contributed in 1922 by J. H. Burrus of Weaverville, Buncombe county, with the music and the notation : "This old folk-song was used for an old-fashioned reel and cotillion (or square dance)." The text here has undergone extensive changes, having picked up fragments of several other songs.

Chorus: A little more cider for Miss Dinah,
A little more cider sweet.
A little more cider for Miss Dinah,
A little more cider sweeter.

1. I wish I was an apple
And Dinah was another;

What a handsome time we'd have
Hanging on a tree together!

2. If you love me like I love you 
We'll have no time to tarry,
We'll have the old folks flying round
Fixing us to marry.

3. If I were only young again
I'd lead a different life;
I'd make some money and huy me a farm,
Take Dinah for my wife.

4. I wouldn't marry an old woman,
I'll tell you the reason why;
Her neck's so long and stringy
I'm afraid she'd never die.

5. I had rather marry Dinah
W ith an apple in her hand
Than to marry an old woman
With a house and tract of land.

 

G. 'Plantation Song.' Contributed by Virginia C. Hall (place and date not given) with the note: "This memory is of a gray whiskered old gentleman bouncing a little boy on his knee and singing to him 'plantation songs' which he had learned as a child from the Negroes on his father's plantation." Merely the first two lines of the second stanza of A., and the chorus with "sweet" instead of "too."

 

47. Sucking Cider Through a Straw

This well-known college song is ascribed in Downes and Siegnieister's Treasury of American Song 290, words and music, to Carey Morgan and Lee David. It has been reported as folk song from Virginia (FSV 172), Tennessee (BTFLS v 38-9). Georgia (ASb 329), and the Midwest (Pound 38, ASb 329). Only a fragment appears in our collection.


'The Prettiest Girl I Ever Saw.' Communicated by B. S. Russell, Roxboro. Person county. No date given.

The prettiest girl I ever saw
Was sucking cider through a straw.

 

48. Drinking Wine

This fragment has not been found elsewhere. Perhaps it is from some college drinking song.

'Drinking Wine.' Reported by Gertrude Allen (later Mrs. Vaught) from Taylorsville, Alexander county. Not dated.

Drinking- wine, wine,
Drinking wine, wine,
Ought a been three fotn- thousand years
Drinking wine.

49. The Journeyman

The song of 'The Roving Journeyman,' in which he describes his way of life and particularly his success with the girls, has undergone extensive adaptations in this country; the journeyman has become a gambler, a soldier, even a guerrilla of the Civil War. See BSM 374-5, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV
125-6), Arkansas (OFS iv 356-60), and Indiana (BSI 342-4). Fairly persistent through these transformations are the lines

She took me in her parlor
And cooled me with her fan

and the girl's dialogue with her mother, which form the substance of the texts in our collection. The title 'Broom Field Town' given to the first text seems not to occur elsewhere.

A. 'Broom Field Town.' Reported by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, as sung by Mrs. Julia Grogan of Silverstone in 1915. Smith notes : "She heard the song about twenty-five years ago. . . . Mrs. Grogan is about sixty. Her father, John Yarber, came to this county over sixty years ago . . . from the Cheraw Hills of South Carolina" and "was a popular singer here just after the Civil War."

1. I rode unto my journey
Till I came to the Broom Field Town.

2. I had not been there two weeks,
I am sure it was not three.

Till I fell in love with a pretty little girl
And she in love with me.

3. I asked her to marry me,
To see what she would say.

She said she would ask her mother
And see what she would say.

4. 'How can you treat me so,
To leave your kind old mother
And with the soldier go?'

5 'Oh, mother, oh, mother,
I love you well.

But how much I love the soldier
No human tongue can tell.'

B. 'The Rovin' Gambler.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.

1. I am a rovin' gambler,
I gambled down in town;
Whenever I meet with a deck of cards
I lay my money down.

2. I gambled down in Washington,
I gambled down in Spain;

I'm going down to Georgia
To gamble my last game.

3. I had not been in Washington
Many more weeks than three,

When I fell in love with a pretty little girl
And she fell in love with me.

4. She took me in the parlor.
She cooled me with her fan;

She whispered low in her mother's ear,
'I love that gambling man.'

5. 'Oh, daughter, oh, dear daughter,
Why do you treat me so?

To leave your dear old mother
And with a gambler go?'

6. 'Oh, mother, oh, dear mother,
You know I love you well;

But the love I have for the gambling man
No human tongue can tell.

7. 'I can hear the train a-coming,
Coming round the curve.
Whistling and blowing

And straining every nerve.

8. *Oh, mother, oh, dear mother,
I'll tell you if I can;

If ever you see me again
I'll be with a gambling man.'

C. 'Journeyman.' Collected by M. F. Morgan in Nash county "from an old lady." Note that while in A the man is a soldier and in B a gambler, he is here simply a journeyman, as in the original song; and that here the girl, not the man, is the narrator.

1. I went along the other day,
I met a journeyman.

I fell in love with [the] journeyman
And he fell in love with me.

2. I took him [into] my parlor,
I cooled him with my fan;

I whispered in my mother's ear,
'I love that journeyman."

3 'Daughter, daughter, daughter,
Don't you tell me so;

For if you love that journeyman
Away from me you go.'

50. Jack of Diamonds

A gambler's song — in one text the song of the gambler's wife. It is known in Tennessee (JAFL xxviii 120-30), Mississippi (FSM 207-8), Texas (CS [1910 ed.] 292-4, TNFS 279-80, OSC 303-5, the last two from Negroes), and the Ozarks (OFS in 405-9); 'Hustling Gamblers,' also reported from Tennessee (SSSA 102-4, ETWVMB 23-5), has the "Jack o' Diamonds" phrase; a song reported from Kentucky (FSMEU 223-4) voices the complaint of a gambler's wife but it is not the same song. Our four texts vary considerably, wliich is not surprising, for like many other American folk songs it is an aggregate of stanzas some of which may be used in other songs.

Jack of Diamonds- Bascom Lamar Lundsford- Turkey Creek NC 1921

 

A. 'Jack of Diamonds.' Reported by Edna Whitley — unfortunately without indication of time or place. Stanza 2 seems incomplete.

1. Jack of diamonds, I know you of old,
You raveled my pockets for silver and gold.
For silver and gold,
You raveled my pockets for silver and gold.

2 I'm ragged, I'm ragged, I am ragged, I am ragged,
I know it's nobody's business how ragged I go.

3 I'll tune up my fiddle, I'll raise my bow,
I'll carry sweet music wherever I go.

Wherever I go,
I'll carry sweet music wherever I go.

4. It's not this long journey I'm dreading to go,
It's leaving this country and the people I know,
And the people I know,
It's leaving this country and the people I know.

B. 'A Card- Player's Song.' From Thomas Smith, Silverstone, Watauga county, probably in 1915; with the notation: "This song has been sung in this part of the country a good many years. I heard some card players sing it 18 or 20 years ago. There are several people near here who still sing it." The music was noted by Dr. Brown.

1. Jack of diamonds, I know you, I know you of old,
You've robbed my poor pockets of silver and gold.

2. I've played cards in England, I've played cards in Spain,
And I'm goin' to old Ireland to play my last game.

C. 'Jack o' Diamonds." Obtained from Obadiah Johnson of Crossnore, Avery county, in 1940. Here it is in the mouth of the gambler's wife. The second stanza is one of the movable bits of folk lyric; see BSM 487, 488.

1. Jack o' diamonds. Jack o' diamonds. I know you of old,
You've robbed my poor pockets of silver and gold.

2. I'll build me a log cabin on yon mountain high.
Where the blackbirds will see me as they pass me by.

3. My children are crying for the want of some bread ;
My husband's a gambler; I wisht I was dead.

D. 'Jack o' Diamonds." Reported by Evelyn Moody of Stanly county; not dated. Only a single couplet.

Jack o' diamonds. Jack o' diamonds, I know you of old;
You lost me a fortune in silver and gold.

D. 'Ace and Deuce of Diamonds'- H.C.  Martin; Boone NC 1936

Ace and duece of diamonds,
How we juggled the bones.
Way down on the riverbank,
Danville is my home.

51. Shoot Your Dice and Have Your Fun

From Howell J. Hatcher, Trinity College student, December 5, 1915, with music. As in White ANFS 364 (without music).

Shoot your dice and have your fun,
I'll have mine when the police come.
Police come, I didn't wanta go;
I knocked him in the head wid a forty- fo'.

51. I Got Mine

White (ANFS 195-9, 200) says that this was originally a vaudeville song that attained wide popularity among the Negroes, and gives texts from North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Perrow had already (JAFL xxiv 369) reported it from the singing of Negroes in Mississippi. The texts vary rather widely.

A. 'I Got Mine.' Contributed by Otis Kuykendall of Asheville in 1939.

1 I went out to a nigger crap game;
It was against my will.

Dem coons got all my money
Except a greenback dollar bill.

A hundred dollar bet was on the table,
The nigger's point was nine ;
Just then a cop stepped through the door
And I got mine.

Chorus: I got mine, boys, I got mine;
I grabbed that hundred dollar bill.
Through the window I did climb,
Ever since then been wearin' good clothes,
Living on chicken and wine;
I'm the leader of Society
Since I got mine.

2. I went out to a buzzard feast;
The eatables they were fine.

Half an hour before that table was set
Dem coons all formed in line.
When they brought that eagle in
Their eyes began to shine.
One grabbed that eagle by the neck,
But I caught on behind.

3. A coon in front thought he had the whole thing,
But I got mine.

I tried to get through the window,
But I didn't get through in time;
I eat my meals from a mantel piece
Since I got mine !