Bluegrass Messengers

Printer's Boy- Sylvia Vaughan (IN) 1938 Brewster B

[From Southern Folklore Quarterly - Volumes 2-3 - pages 208-209, 1938. Version of the Lexington Murder. Several details proves it an old version.

R. Matteson 2016]

The Printer's [Apprentice] Boy- Communicated by Miss Sylvia Vaughan, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County [version 2 from Vaughan]

My father bound me to a printer's boy^[1]
Just eighteen years ago
He bound me to some millionaire^[2]
That I might learn some trade.

2. Twas there I spied a pretty fair miss
On her I cast my eye;
I asked her if she'd marry me,
And to me she didn't deny.

3 My father he persuaded me
To take her for my wife,
And the devil he persuaded me
To take away her life.

4 I asked her if she'd take a walk
In some far and distant land,
Where we might have some secret talk
And make our wedding plans.

5 I took her by the lily-white hand
And led her to the place;
I drew a stake out of the fence
And struck her in the  face.

6 I drew the stake the second time
Just as I did the first,
And from her eyes and nose and mouth
The gushing blood did burst.

 7 Upon her bended knees she fell;
For mercy's sake she cried ;
"O Johnnie, my dear, don't murder me here;
I'm not prepared to die."

8 I taken her by her lily-white hand
 And slung her around and around,
 And took her to the river so deep
And slung her in to drown.

9. When I returned to my millionaire
At ten o'clock that night
What do you think the millionaire thought
When I rose up in his sight

10. "What's the occasion for so much blood
Upon your hands and clothes?"
The only reply that I could make
Was "the bleeding of the nose."

11 I taken the candle right out of his hand,
Went back into my room ;
And there I lay all trembling
For the murdering I had done.

12 There I lay [upon my bed]^[3],
[I could get] no peace, no rest;
It seemed as if the flames of hell
Were rising in my breast.

13  Young men, from me a warning take;
Unto your love prove true,
And do not let the devil get,
The upper hand of you.

1. apprentice
2. miller
3. I've added missing text in brackets