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.