The Digital Tradition MIDI links aren't working just now, but most of the "sheet music" and online MIDI files seem to come from the Digital Tradition.

The version in Linscott isn't much different:

IN OLD POD-AUGER TIMES
(Comical Brown)

I'll sing to you of the good old times
When people were honest and true;
Before their brains were addled and crazed
By everything strange and new;
When every man was a workingman
And earned his livelihood;
And the women were smart and industrious
And lived for their family's good;
Of the days of Andrew Jackson
And of old Grandfather Grimes;
When a man wasn't judged by the clothes he wore
In old pod-auger times.

Our young men loaf about the streets
And struggle with bad cigars,
They stay out nights when they should be home
With their daddies and their ma's;
They wear tight trousers, likewise tight boots,
And guzzle lager beer,
And when their daddies foot the bills
They find 'em pesky dear;
But when we old men were farmers' boys
We'd neither dollars nor dimes,
But we worked from daybreak till candlelight
In old pod-auger times.

Young gals didn't hug nor kiss their fellers
Whenever they came to court,
Nor paddle around upon roller skates,
Nor pound the pianoforte;
But they kept the men at a good arm's length,
And made 'em know their place,
And they played upon washboards and kettles and brooms
With amazin' skill and grace;
They didn't lie abed till eleven A.M.
But got up in the morning betimes,
And they didn't elope with the old man's coachman,
In old pod-auger times.

The old men didn't drive fast hosses,
Nor gamble with keerds (cards) and dice,
Nor they didn't run church lotteries,
For it wasn't considered nice;
But now they'll gamble and drink mean rum,
And lead hypocritical lives,
And wives run away with each other's husbands,
And husbands with other men's wives;
Folks didn't have delirious trimmin's (delirium tremens),
Nor perpetuate horrible crimes,
For the cider was good and the rum was pure,
In old pod-auger times.

Notes: from the book of Comical Brown's Songs

This very popular ballad of the last century was composed by Comical Brown, an itinerant entertainer who traveled through the East giving a one-man show. The pod-auger was a bit used to bore wooden piping.

lyrics and notes from Folk Songs of Old New England, collected and edited by Eloise Hubbard Linscott (The MacMillan Company, 1939) [1993 Dover reprint of the 1962 Second Edition], page 251.

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I haven't found a recording of this song, but it appears that Rich Bala may have recorded it on his Hudson Valley Traditions album. If anybody would like to record it for us, I'll be glad to post an MP3. The Linscott book does have a melody. I'll transcribe it on request.

-Joe Offer, joe@mudcat.org-