Here is a song closely related to "Stern Old Bachelor" and mentioned in the notes on the Carter Family song sources.

PDF file: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100006718/100006718.pdf


O I'm a Jolly Bachelor
   Written by Chas. H. Super. Composed by Fred B. Holmes.

1. O I'm a jolly bachelor,
My life is gay and free;
I have no wife, or children dear,
Nor cares to worry me;
My life is spent in gayety,
With boon companions three
And none of us are bound for life
To any horrid she.

        Chorus
O I'm a jolly bachelor,
With heart and fancy free;
And evermore my song shall be,
A single life for me.

2. When we get home from work at night,   No squalling babe lies there,
To rack our brains, and make us find   Some genteel way to swear;
No wife comes in with "My dear John!   I want a bonnet new.
My last silk dress is out of date,   I want one trimmed with blue."

3. And then, if late at night we stay,   At suppers, or on sprees,
No candle lecture waits at home   To rob us of our ease;
But right to bed we put ourselves   Determined to sleep sound,
And never wink an eyelid more   Till break of day comes round.

4. And if at home I wish to have   A quiet game and smoke,
My chums are not afraid to come,   And shades of wine invoke;
For wife's not there to nixe our sport, Or inuendoes dart,
'Bout noisy fellows, drunken louts,   Who never will depart.

5. Now all ye gay young bachelors,   Example take by me:
Keep shy of all the female sex,   Or you will married be;
And then forever you're undone,   No more can you breathe free--
Your wife the chains of love will wind   Around your liberty.

Transcribed from sheet music published ca. 1860.
Publisher: Firth, Son & Co., 3631 Broadway, New York.
Verse numbers indicated by "I. VER:", "II. VER:" etc.

X:1
T:O I'm a Jolly Bachelor
C:Written by Chas. H. Super. Composed by Fred B. Holmes.
S:Transcribed from sheet music published by Firth, Son & Co. (New York) in 1860.
Z:Artful Codger
M:2/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=92
K:Bb
%   Intro.
"^Intro" F | Fdd>d | cBAG | F=EG>F | D2 z F |
Fddf | feA>G | GFd>c | B2 z ||
%
%   Verses.
"^Verses" F | F d d> d | c B A G | F =E G> F | D2 z F |
w: O, I'm a jol-ly bach-e-lor, My life is gay and free; I
F d d> d | c B A G | =E F d> c | B2 z F |
w: have no wife, or chil-dren dear, Nor cares to wor-ry me; My
G e e> f | e d d> e | d c c c | c2 z F |
w: life is spent in gay-e-ty, With boon com-pan-ions three And
F d d f | f e A> G | G F d> c | B2 z ||
w: none of us are bound for life To any hor-rid she.
%
%   Chorus.
"^Chorus" F | d>c B _A | G B e g | g f c d | e2 z B |
w: O I'm a jol-ly bach-e-lor, With heart and fancy free; And
e> d e g | f> d HB Hz/ F/ | G e d> c | B2 z |]
w: ev-er-more my song shall be, A sin-gle life for me.


---

Click to play