The Drunkard's Lone Child- Mona Cruse 1895
[The Lester S. Levy Collection has sheet music for "Father's a Drunkard and Mother Is Dead", dated 1866. Words are credited to "Stella, of Washington", with music by Mrs. E. A. Parkhurst (Meade has words by Parkhurst and music by Merrite Driver). The song has entered tradition and has been collected by Randolph and Brown. There are three early country recordings from the 1920s, first by Wilmer Watts in 1927. This is closely related to "Drunkard's Lone Child" credited to Henry C. Work and recorded by Vernon Dalhart in 1925. Jimmie Rodgers recorded a variant titled, "A Drunkard's Child" in 1929.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE DRUNKARD'S LONE CHILD
1. Out in the gloomy night sadly I roam,
I've no mother now, no friends, no home;
Nobody cares for me, no one would cry,
Even if poor little Bessie should die!
Barefoot and tired, I've wandered all day.
Asking for work, but I'm too small, they say;
On the damp ground I must now lay my head
Father's a drunkard and Mother is dead.
CHORUS Mother, oh! why did you leave me alone,
With no one to love me, no friends, and no home!
Dark is the night and the storm rages wild;
God pity Bessie, the drunkard's lone child.
2. We were so happy till Father drank rum
Then all our sorrows and troubles begun
Mother was tired and wept all the day
Baby and I were too hungry to play.
Slowly they faded 'till one summer night
Found their sweet faces all silent and white
And with big tears slowly dropping I said,
Father's a drunkard and Mother is dead.
(Remembered by L. L. McDowell as sung at Gum Spring near the Old Camp Ground in White County, Tennessee, by Mona Cruge about the year 1895. Remembered also by Mrs. McDowell from the songs of her childhood.)