There are a couple of versions in the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore. This one is #332A. It has that element of cheating you find in "Rigs of the Time."

HARD TIMES

Come listen a while, I will sing you a song
Concerning hard times, and it shall not be long,
Since everybody is trying to buy
And cheat each other and think it's right;
And it's hard times.

From brother to brother, from sister to cousin,
They all have learned to cheat each other;
Since cheating has come so much in fashion
I fear it will spread quite over this nation
And it's hard times.

The blacksmith labors by the sweat of his brow,
And so does the farmer by following his plow
They're both a man on their own conceit
And will cheat each other in measure and weight;
And it's hard times.

Here is the shoemaker; he's worse than them all
He bristles his end to follow his awl,
He'll sew a stitch an inch at a clip
And swear to the buyer the shoe will never rip.
And it's hard times.

Here is the old doctor; and, so they tell me,
He says he will cure you for a very small fee,
He says he will cure you for half you possess,
And when he don't kill you he takes the rest.
And it's hard times.

Here is the old preacher; he rides in his stage,
He'll take out his Bible and read you a page,
He'll preach a sermon for you to go by,
And if you set him to trading he'll tell you a lie.
And it's hard times.

Young ladies will rise at the dawn of the day,
They'll ruffle and shuffle, they'll try to look gay,
They'll comb np their hair so nice and so neat
To make the young men think they look sweet;
And it's hard times.

Young men will rise, to the chnrch they will go,
They'll ruffle, they'll shuffle, they'll make a fine show;
They'll stop at the tavern and there drink wine
And all such boys the gallows will find.
And it's hard times.

Here is the old merchant, I must have him in.
He's bound to extortion and thinks it's no sin,
He'll tip up his stillyards and make them weigh down,
And swear it's good weight if it likes ten pound.
And it's hard times.

Here is the old miller I'd like to have forgot.
He's always sitting a-pecking his rock,
He's always pleading his toll dish small
Sometimes he takes half and sometimes he takes all.
And it's hard times.

Here is the young men; they're worse than all.
They tell you they love you to try their own soul,
They tell you they love you when they're sitting by
And when they get away they'll swear it's a lie.
And it's hard times.

And now I will make you an end of my song,
It was very well worded and not very long,
And if everybody don't come at this call,
If the Lord don't take them the devil gets all.
And it's hard times.


'Hard Times.' From the manuscript songbook of Miss Lura Wagoner of Vox, Alleghany county, lent to Dr. Brown in 1936.
Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (Volume 2, Folk Songs)