Here's the version from Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag (1927), pp 171-173. It's almost the same as the version from Q's post above [Song link: Low bridge Houghton Mifflin Company], which may or may not be the original text. Perhaps the Houghton Mifflin text actually came from Sandburg. I have put the one line which is different, in italics. The Houghton Mifflin version has it We'd better look around for a job, ol' gal. So, we still aren't sure we have the original version.
The Erie Canal
(no attribution shown)
I've got a mule, her name is Sal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
She's a good old worker and a good old pal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
We've hauled some barges in our day,
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay,
And we know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo.
(chorus)
Low bridge, everybody down!
Low bridge, for we're going through a town,
And you'll always know your neighbor,
You'll always know your pal,
If you ever navigated on the Erie Canal.We'd better get along on our way, old gal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal,
'Cause you bet your life I'd never part with Sal,
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.
Git up there, mule, here comes a lock,
We'll make Rome 'bout six o'clock,
One more trip and back we'll go
Right back home to Buffalo.
(chorus)
This is also the first version from John A. and Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934), pages 457-458 ("from Rev. Charles A. Richmond, Washington, DC").
Sigmund Spaeth's Read 'Em and Weep (1927), page 116, has the same first verse and chorus as the Sandburg version, but it has this for the second verse:Get up there, Sal, we passed that lock.
We'll make Rome 'fore six o'clock,
One more trip and back we'll go
From Albany to Buffalo.
Look at this, Barry!!
And on page 466 of the Lomax & Lomax book there's this (note that Sal has become a cook):From Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds (Little, Brown & Co.):
Schenectady, Schenectady
Is halfway up to Uticy.
* * *
Drop a tear for big-foot Sal,
The best damn cook on the Erie Canal,
She aimed for Heaven but she went to Hell,
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal.
The missioner said she died in sin,
Hennery said it was too much gin,
There weren't no bar where she hadn't been
From Albany to Buffalo.
Low bridge! Everybody down!
Low bridge! We're coming to a town!
You'll always know your neighbor, you'll always know your pal,
If you ever navigated the Erie Canal.
So, we found an approximation of the verse Barry was looking for....but we still didn't find that blankety-blank original sheet music.
-Joe-