Railroad Boy- Mrs. Hornbeak (FL-KY) 1950 Morris A
[From: Folksongs of Florida; Morris, 1950. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
THE BUTCHER BOY
(Archive 983-B3)
This is an English peasant song for which there are several variants from Florida. For English versions, see Kidson and Moffatt, Folksongs of the North Countrie,p. 10; and JFSS, I, 212; V, 181, Kittredge in JAFL, XXXV, 361, makes an analysis of this piece and finds snatches from "The Cruel Father" and "There Is an Alehouse in Yonder Town." Cox sees in "The Butcher Boy" an amalgam of several broadsides; "Sheffield Park," "The Squire's Daughter," "The Brisk Young Sailor" (more commonly known as "There Is an Alehouse in Yonder Town"), and a well-known English folksong, "The Sailor Boy."
The Florida variants are many and for the most part follow the conventional pattern and plot. Variant B has a unique concluding stanza., the last line of which is reminiscent of the coquettish drawing-room song' "When apples grow on the lilac tree."
A. "RAILROAD BOY." Recorded from the singing of Mrs. J. F. Hornbeak, Moss Bluff, who learned the song in Kentucky.
In Jersey City there once did dwell,
A railroad boy, I loved him well.
He courted me my life away,
And now with me he will not stay.
There is another place in town
Where he often goes and sits around;
He'll take some strange girl upon his knee
And tell her things that he won't tell me.
It's grief, oh, grief, I'll tell you why:
It's because she has more gold than I.
Her gold will melt, her beauty fly,
And she'll be as poor as I.
So dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet;
Upon my breast a lonesome dove
To show this world that I died for love.