I'm gonna start this thread off with a rhyme that I just posted on this Mudcat thread: thread.cfm?threadid=98413&messages=17 Origin & Lyr: White House Blues

The rhyme is from Talley's 1922 "Negro Folk Rhymes" {Kennikat Press edition, pps. 71-72}

FORTY FOUR
If de people'll jes gimme
Des a liddle bit o' peace,
I'll tell 'em what happen
To de Chief o' Perlice.
He met a robber
Right at de do!
An' de robber, he shot 'im
Wid a forty-fo!
He shot dat Perliceman.
He shot 'm sho!
What did he shoot 'im wid?
A forty-fo'.

Dey sent fer de Doctah
An' de Doctah he come.
He come in a hurry.
He come in a run.
He come wid his instriments
Right in his han',
To progue an' find
Dat forty-fo', Man!
De Doctah he progued;
He progued 'm sho!
But he jes couldn' find
Dat forty-fo'.

Dey sent fer de Preachah,
An' de preachah he come.
He come in a walk,
An' he come in to talk.
He come wid' 'is Bible,
Right in 'is han',
An' he read from dat chapter,
Forty-fo' Man!
Dat Preachah, he read.
He read, I know.
What Chapter dis he read frum?
'Twus Forty-fo!