from my own repertory:

The Shanty Boy On The Big Eau Claire (It is Romeo and Juliet transposed to the lumber woods of America. A wonderful song from W.N. Allen --wrote under the name of SHAN T> BOY -- about 1885.)

Indeed, there are many thousands of these sad songs. Life being rather sad and tragic, this fact comes through in the songs.
If you doubt this fact, it is possibly because you haven't lived long enough to see the truth of it.

Art Thieme