MARY THE ELEPHANT (Chuck Brodsky) In the Sparks Brothers Circus They smoked only cheap cigars A two bit travelling circus. 10 to 15 railroad cars With a not so high high wire And some leaks around the tent Educated sea lions And four or five elephants In the Clinch River Valley A little mining town Not too far from Kingsport There's no one still around That can tell it like it happened And just stick to the facts Not get mixed up with legends Or start filling in the cracks Red was Mary's handler They'd hired him that day He'd rode in on a box car And he just sort of stayed He got a job as janitor At the Riverside Hotel Until the circus came to town He bid everyone farewell He knew nothing about elephants But what was there to know? They were big, they were dumb And they walked kind of slow They had trunks for grabbing peanuts And to stuff them in their mouths He figured that was pretty much all You need to know about 'em So they handed Red a stick For the afternoon parade Only once did he whack Mary It was his only mistake She wrapped her trunk around him Threw him to the ground Stepped upon his head There were children all around Now contrary to the rumors She was never tried She never was convicted Of any homicide She never went to prison No one sentenced her to hang Like the storytellers told it And the singers often sang It was front page in the papers From Statesville to Little Rock From barbershops to filling stations Mary was the talk Sparks Brothers Circus They just couldn't be going around With such an unpredictable creature They would have to put her down It's said they fired bullets But it was too small a gun They tried some electricity But she wasn't even stunned It was all done in the spirit of Good clean family fun In the entertainment business You give the people what they want They shipped Mary in a railcar To Erwin, Tennessee They advertised a hanging 3000 came to see The ringleader announced It would be in the railroad yard When the matinee was over And there'd be no extra charge They left her hanging half an hour Till somebody got her down The people got their money's worth Pity the poor clowns Who weren't really smiling When they dumped her in a grave That had been dug by a steam shovel And was as big as a cave The town won't put a marker Above where Mary lies They don't want the attention Or lawsuits to arise She never went to prison No court sentenced her to hang Like some storytellers told it And some singers often sang
For the story and pictures you know what to do http://www.blueridgecountry.com/archive/mary-the-elephant.html
|