I don't know if you are still looking for the words to Poor Little Joe, but here they are as my dad sang them:

POOR LITTLE JOE

Chorus:
Cold blew the blast and down came the snow-
He had no place to shelter him, and no place to go,
No mother to guide him, in the grave she lie low,
Cast on the cold street was poor little Joe.

As I walked down New York's gay throng
I met a poor boy who was singing a song.
And though he was singing he wanted for bread,
And though he was smiling, he wished himself dead.

A carriage passed by with a lady inside,
she looked on Poor Joe's face and saw that he cried,
and though he was crying, she not even smiled,
but fondly caressed her own little child.
(chorus)

The lights had gone out and the clock had struck one.
Along came a policeman whose day's work was done.
You could tell by the footsteps, and his dull heavy tread,
You'd think he was stomping a grave for the dead.
"What is this on the cold, cold ground?"
It was poor little Joe--on the ground he lie low,
With his eyes turned toward heaven, and covered with snow
--Dead on the cold ground was poor little Joe.
(chorus)

A sad song--but it taught me the importance of looking at a person and reading their eyes, paying attention to what they were really saying!