Dying Hobo- Wright (KY) 1957 Roberts B
[From: In the Pine, Roberts 1978. An excerpt of his notes follow. All the "Dying Hobo" versions must be considered to possibly be cover songs from earlier recordings. The first stanza only is from "The Dying Hobo."
R. Matteson 2015]
Only one other instance of the ballad, it seems, has been collected in Kentucky-Combs FKH, p. 8. I have five in my collection. Two of them have the opening stanza about the hobo (one mentioned by Davis, MTBV, but not printed. None suggest the cause of Collins's sickness (girlfriend, mermaid of Coffin's Type A), or the lily from the grave motif (Type C). Three contain the mother's attempt at consolation (Coffin's Type B); some have the turtle-dove ending (Type D).
B. THE DYING HOBO- collected by Ardy Wright in 1957 from Lestle Wright, both of Pike County.
Out on a western hobo trip
On one cold December day
In an empty boxcar
A dying hobo lay.
Can't you see that pretty little girl
Sewing her silks so fine?
And when she heard her sweetheart was dead
She laid her silks aside.
O daughter, O daughter, why do you weep?
There's many more boys than George.
O Mother, O Mother, he's the one that I love
He's the one I always agreed.
She traveled up and she traveled down
Till she came where poor George was laid,
And when she came to where he was laid
This is what she said.
Lay back, lay back his coffin lid
Lay back the linen so fine,
And let me kiss his pale blue lips,
I know he'll never kiss mine.
Can't you see that turtledove
A-flying from pine to pine
Pining for its own true love
So why not pine for mine?