Down In the Lehigh Valley

Let me sit down a minute stranger,
I ain't done a thing to you
You needn't start your cussing,
A stone got in my shoe.

Yes, I'm a tramp, what of it?
Some folks say we're no good,
But a tramp has to live I reckon,
Though they say -we never should.

Once I was young and handsome,
Had plenty of cash and clothes,
But that was before I tripped,
And gin colored up my nose.

It was down in Lehigh Valley
Me and my people grew
I was the village blacksmith
Yes, and a good one, too.

Me and my daughter Nellie,
Nellie was just sixteen,
And she was the prettiest creature.
The valley had ever seen.

Beaus she had a dozen.
They came from near and far.
But most of them were farmers,
And none of them suited her.

Along came a stranger,
Young, handsome, straight and tall.
Damn him, I wish I had him,
Strangled against that wall.

He was the man for Nellie,
Nellie knew no ill,
Her mother tried to tell her,
But you know how young girls will.

Well, it's the same old story,
Common enough you'll say,
He was a smooth tongued devil,
And he got her to run away.

It was less than a month later,
That we heard from the poor young thing;
He had gone away and left her,
Without a wedding ring.

Back to our home we brought her,
Back to her mother's side,
Filled with a raging fever,
She fell at our feet and died.

Frantic with grief and trouble,
Her mother began to sink,
Dead in less than a fortnight,
That's why I took to drink.

Give me a drink bartender,
And I'll be on my way,
I'll tramp till I find that scoundrel,
If it takes till judgment day.

Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Nov. 1921. pp.37-38.


See here: https://archive.org/details/CaptainBillysWhizBang/page/n38/mode/1up?q=%22sit+down+a+minute%2C+stranger%22




This is reproduced in The Hobo's Hornbook, 1930. pp.41-43.