I

Harper's Weekly (Oct. 8, 1892) p. 967:

There was an old soldier and he had a wooden leg,
But he had no tobacco, so tobacco he would beg;
Said the sailor to the soldier, Why don't you save your rocks?
And then you'll have tobacco in your old tobacco-box.

[In a story set in the army in the southwest.]


Weekly Journal-Miner (Prescott, Ariz.) (Nov. 26, 1890), p.3:

Just put your money
In your little pile of rocks,
And you'll always have tobacco
In your old tobacco-box.

II

The Times (Philadelphia) (Feb. 14, 1892), p.16:

In the words of the old "geazer [sic]," immortal in song, "Save up your shillings and roll up your rocks and you'll always have tobacco in your old tobacco box."

III

Harper's Weekly (Oct. 8, 1892) p. 967:

There was an old soldier and he had a wooden leg,
But he had no tobacco, so tobacco he would beg;
Said the sailor to the soldier, Why don't you save your rocks?
And then you'll have tobacco in your old tobacco-box.

[In a story set in the army in the southwest.]


IV

The Missoulian (Missoula, Mont.) (March 23, 1902), p.4:

There was an old sailor and he had a wooden leg;
He had no tobacco, no tobacco could he beg;
He asked the old sojer to give him a chew,
And the old sojer said, I'll be damned if I do.
If you'll let grog alone and take care of your rocks,
You will always have tobacco in your old tobacco box.

[In the U.S. Navy. Credited in passing to a "forecastle poet."]

V

Buffalo [N.Y.] News (Dec. 8, 1904), p.15:

There was an old soldier, and he had a wooden leg,
He had no tobacco; tobacco he could beg.
Another old soldier as cunning as a fox,
And he always had tobacco in his old tobacco box.

Said the first old soldier: "Will you give me a chew?"
Said the second old soldier, "I'm darned if I do;
If you'd drink less rum, and save up your rocks,
You'd always have tobacco in your old tobacco box."

[Described as "A Song Asked For." M. E. Munsell's "Flying Sparks, as Told By a Pullman Conductor" (1914) has the same text except for 3.3:
"If you stop drinking booze"]

[The Yellow Dog (Topeka, Kans.) (May 29, 1915), p.1, has essentially the same thing, though about two sailors with the advice "Save up your pennies." It's called "Old Salt Rhyme."]

VI

Karl Edwin Harriman, Sadie (N.Y., 1907), p.268:

“Oh, there was an old hen,
And she had a wooden foot,
She built herself a nest
In a mulberry root.
Oh, she put on a feather
To keep herself warm,
And another little drink
Wouldn t do us any harm.”

“M' father used to sing that,” he murmured, “just for a kid ["jest"]."

VII

Tampa Times (Apr. 4, 1912), p. 2:

Oh, there was an old hen an' she had a wooden foot,
An' she made her nest in a mulberry root.
She plucked out a feather to keep herself warm,
And another little drink won't do us any harm.


VIII

Herbert Rae, Maple Leaves in Flanders Fields (London, 1916), p.73:

There was a little hen
And she had a wooden leg,
And she laid more eggs
Than any chicken on the farm,
And another little drink;
Wouldn't do us any harm.

IX

Thomas Tiplady, The Soul of the Soldier (Toronto, 1918), p.61:

Another favorite is,

"Oh, there was a little hen and she had a wooden leg,
The best little hen that ever laid an egg,
And she laid more eggs than any hen on the farm.
And another little drink wouldn't do us any harm."