The Purple Dress- Mateby (NC) 1934 Niles B
[From The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, 1961. Is this a fragment Child 173?
R. Matteson 2015]
The Purple Dress
(Niles No. 51 B)
The Purple Dress- As written by a maid in the Battery Park Hotel, Asheville, N. C., in August 1934. Her name, according to my notes, was Annie Matesby. There was no music.
1. "Take off, take off my purple dress,
But let my petticoat be.
Tie a rag around my eyes
So death I cannot see.
2. "Last night I washed Miss Mary's feet.
Tonight I wet her hair,
Tomorrow my reward will come
I'll walk that gallows stair."