In Jersey City- Thaddeus Napiorski (NJ) 1929 Henry D
[My title. From Mellinger Henry, Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands (New York: J. J. Augustin, 1938). His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
57 THE BUTCHER BOY
While versions, C, D, E, and F of this song were not from the Southern Highlands, they were recalled by the reading of versions A and B, and are included for the sake of comparison. See W. Roy Mackenzie's "The Quest of the Ballad," p. 9; Cox, No. 145; Pound, No. 24; Lomax, p. 397; Sandburg, p. 3 24 (title is "London City"); Spaeth, "Weep Some More, My Lady," p. 128 (title is "In Jersey City"); Journal, XXIX, 169; XXXI, 73; XXXV, 360; XXXIX, 122; Phillips Barry, Ancient British Ballads, etc. (A privately printed list), No. 41; Arthur Palmer Hudson's "Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore," p. 31; Bradley Kincaid's My Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old-Time Songs, Chicago, 1928, p. 43 ; Flanders and Brown, p. 15.
D. [In Jersey City] This is another version of the song that did not come from the Southern Highlands. It was recorded by Thaddeus Napiorski, a student in Dickinson High School, Jersey City, N. J., 1929, after listening to the reading of version B.
1. In Jersey City where I did dwell,
A butcher's son I loved so well.
He went and stole my heart away
And now with me he will not stay.
2. He takes other girls upon his knee,
And tells them things he will not tell me;
I go upstairs and set me down
With pen and ink I write this down.
3. My mother comes late one night,
And finds that I am not in sight;
She goes upstairs and breaks down the door,
And sees me hanging on the wall.
4. She takes a knife and cuts me down
And in my bosom this note she found:
"Oh, mother dear, what have I done?
I killed myself for a butcher's son.
5. "When I am dead and to heaven gone,
Bury me by the lily pond;
Put at my head a marble stone;
Down at my feet another one;
Put at my bosom a golden dove
To show the world that I died for love.'