Now, here's a puzzlement - the sheet music Q linked to at American Memory Collection has the same first verse and chorus as the song in DT/Spaeth. The second and third verses come from the song sheet, which is also at American Memory. So, is Ruth Young the author and the Spaeth version a derivative, or what? Which is the chicken and which the egg?
-Joe-

THE DRUNKARD'S LONE CHILD
(words and music by Mrs. Ruth Young)

I'm alone, all alone, my friends all have fled
My father's a drunkard, my mother is dead;
I'm a poor little girl, I wander and weep
For the voice of my mother to sing me to sleep.
She sleeps on the hill, in a bed made of clay,
How cold it did seem to lay mother away.
She's gone with the angels, and none do I see
So dear as the face of my mother to me.

CHORUS:
I'm a little lone girl in this cold world so wild,
God look down and pity the drunkard's lone child.
Look down and pity, Oh! soon come to me,
Take me to dwell with mother and Thee.

'Tis springtime on earth, the birds seem so glad;
I listen, and wonder, my heart is so sad;
Sweet flow'rs bloom around, the crowd wanders by,
But the form of my mother no longer is nigh.
Last night in my dreams she seemed to draw near,
She pressed me as fondly as when she was here,-
She smiled on me sweetly, and fondled my brow,
And whispered, "Sleep on, I am watching thee now."
CHORUS


Publisher: W.W. Whitney, Toledo, Ohio, 1880

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Be sure to takke a look at the Sheet music - the cover art is wonderful.