The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #51910   Message #793018
Posted By: masato sakurai
28-Sep-02 - 12:10 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Riding Down from Bangor
Subject: Lyr Add: THE EASTERN TRAIN
From Sigmund Spaeth, Read 'Em and Weep: The Songs You Forgot to Remember (Doubleday, 1927, pp. 122-123; with music):

THE EASTERN TRAIN
This song, also known as The Pullman Train, is said to have originated in Scotland, but is now thoroughly Americanized. There are many versions, although everyone agrees as to the main facts of the charmingly romantic story.
The editor [i.e., Spaeth] first heard it in the late 'Nineties (when it was already an old song) while camping in the Thousand Islands, wherew it was part of the extensive repertoire of the Macgurn sisters, now living in Detroit. [...]

Coming down1 from Bangor on an Eastern2 train,
After weeks3 of hunting in the woods4 of Maine,
Quite extensive whiskers, light mustache as well,
Sits a student fellow, tall and fair and swell.

Empty seat behind him, no one at his side,
As into a pleasant station the Eastern train doth glide.
Enter agèd couple, take the hindmost seat,
Enter lovely maiden, bewitching and petite.

Blushingly she murmured, "Is this seat engaged?"
See the elder couple properly enraged!
Student, quite delighted, sees her ticket "through,"
Thinks him of the tunnel and knows what he will do.

So they sit and chatter, as the cinders fly,
Until the student fellow gets one into his eye.
Maiden, sympathetic, turns her quick about
And says, "Sir, if you please, may I try to take it out?"

Soon the student fellow feels her gentle touch,
And hears her soft murmur, "Does it hurt you much?"
Whiz! bang! boom! Into the the tunnel quite,
And all is glorious darkness, as black as Egypt's night.

Out into the daylight glides the Eastern train,
Student's hair is ruffled just the slightest grain,
Maiden is all blushes,5 and there next appeared
A tiny little ear-ring, caught in student's beard!

1Or "up" as the case may be.
2This became eventually a "Pullman train," although that type of car would have made the story impossible.
3The Macgurns sang "six months' shooting."
4Or "wilds."
5This and the preceding line are something sung "Student's beaver's ruffled, etc. Maiden's hair is rumpled."

~Masato


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