Floyd Collins
Floyd Collins descended into a "sandhole" cave, near Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky, on January 30, 1925. Missed next day, he was
found by his brother, trapped by a landslide. Attempts to rescue
him, continuing until February 16, when he was discovered to be
dead, excited the whole nation. Oland D. Russell, who wrote a
-summary account of the occurrence, in "Floyd Collins in the Sand
Cave," American Mercury, November 1937, concludes with the re-
mark: "Phonograph records that recited The Death of Floyd Col-
lins in doleful lament to the accompaniment of hillbilly music
outsold all other of the Americana series for a few years, but they
are no longer on the market." He quotes a version from which the
following differs in a number of verbal details which suggest oral
transmission. Perhaps no American ballad owes more, for its wide
diffusion, to the phonograph than does 'Floyd Collins.'
'Floyd Collins.' From the manuscript book of Miss Edith Walker,
Boone, with a note accompanying the transcript which shows how de-
tails of Collins's misfortune have become folklore:
Floyd Collins was a young man who spent much of his time exploring
old caves. He had been wanting to explore an old sandstone cave in
Kentucky. Before he entered the cave it is said that he dreamed that
he was imprisoned there. He told his dream to his parents and they
begged him not to explore the standstone cave. However, their pleadings
were in vain. Floyd entered the cave and it fell in on him, catching
him by the leg Doctors went into the cave and amputated his leg,
hoping to save him thus. [According to Russell, op. cit., amputation was
impractical because the surgeons could not reach Collins's leg.] Before
he could get out, the cave fell in on him again. The doctors escaped,
but he could not. For quite a time the rescue party communicated with
him and fed him through pipes. During this time they were trying to
reach him by digging through the mountain to him, and they had almost
reached his body when he died.
Of a version close to Miss Walker's, Jean Thomas, in Blue Ridge
Mountain Country (New York, 1942), p. 237, says: "This ballad was
written by fifty-year-old Adam Crisp who lived in Fletcher, North
Carolina, at the time of Collins' death. Crisp could neither read nor
write but composed many ballads."
NATIVE AMERICAN BALLADS 499
I O come all you young people
And listen while I tell
The fate of Floyd Collins,
A lad we all knew well.
His face was fair and handsome ;
His heart was true and brave.
His body now lies sleeping
In a lonely sandstone cave.
2 How sad, how sad the story-
It fills our eyes with tears.
The memory, too, shall linger
For many, many years.
A broken-hearted father
Who tried his boy to save
Will now weep tears of sorrow
At the door of Floyd's cave.
3 'O mother, don't you worry.
Dear father, don't be sad.
I'll tell you all my troubles
In an awful dream I had.
I dreamed I was a prisoner;
My life I could not save.
I cried, "Oh, must I perish
Within this silent cave ?" '
4 The rescue party labored,
It worked both night and day.
To move the mighty barrier
That stood within the way.
To rescue Floyd Collins,
This was their battle cry :
'We'll never, no, we'll never
Let Floyd Collins die !'
5 But on that fatal morning
The sun rose in the sky.
The workers still were busy:
'We'll save him by and by!'
But oh, how sad the ending:
His life they could not save.
His body then lay sleeping
In the lonely sandstone cave
6 O, come all you young people.
And listen to Floyd's fate.
And get right with your Maker
Before it is too late.
500 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
It may not be a sand cave
In which we find our tomb,
But at the bar of judgment
We, too, must meet our doom.
'Floyd Collins' Death.' From Miss Pauline Miller ; without date or
address. The only significant differences occur in the last stanza.
6 Young people, all take warning —
This is for you and I :
We may not be like Collins,
But you and I must die.
It may not be in sandstone cave
In which we find our home
But at the Mighty Judgment
We all must meet our doom.
c
'Floyd Collins.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection. Eighteen
four-line stanzas, the first six of which correspond, with verbal variations,
to the first three eight-line stanzas of A. Stanzas 7-12 (printed below)
add details not present in the other versions. Stanzas 13-18 then cor-
respond to stanzas 4-6 of A.
7 'Oh ! Floyd,' cried his mother,
'Don't go, my son, don't go.
It would leave us broken hearted
If this should happen so.'
8 Though Floyd did not listen
To advice his mother gave.
So his body now lies sleeping
In a lonely sandstone cave.
9 His father often warned him
From follies to desist ;
He told him of the danger.
And of the awful risk,
10 But Floyd would not listen
To advice his father gave.
So his body now lies sleeping
In a lonely sandstone cave.
11 Oh ! how the news did travel ;
Oh ! how the news did go.
It traveled through the papers
And over the radio.
NATIVE AMERICAN BALLADS 501
12 A rescue party gathered;
His life they could not save.
But his body now lies sleeping
In a lonely sandstone cave.
--------
212
Floyd Collins
Although the recorded song as sung by H. J. Beaker was transcribed, the
score is omitted to avoid possible copyright infringements.