There is a version of the lyrics in the Rise Up Singing songbook, which also attributes the song to Pink Anderson. Can anybody come up with a transcription of the tune?
-Joe Offer-

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TRAVELING MAN
(Pink Anderson)

Folks, I want to tell you 'bout a man named Bloom
He come from down in New Orleans
And made his living stealing chickens
And anything he could see
That popeyed man could run so fast
That his feet wouldn't stay in the road
And if a freight train passed, no matter how fast
He could always get on board

CHORUS
He was a travelling man
Certainly was a travelling man
He was the most travellin'est man
There ever was in the land
He travelled East, he travelled West
Was known for miles around
And he never got caught & he never got whupped
Til the police shot him down

Well the police shot him with a rifle
And the bullet went through his head
The folks was comin' from miles around
Just to see if that boy was dead
Telegrammed down south where his mama lived
She was all upset with tears
She walked up & opened the coffin lid
But that fool had disappeared

Now Bloom was on the Titantic Ship
When it was sinking low
He was standing outside the railing
And he had his head hung low
Well the people who saw him jump overboard
Said 'Get a load of that crazy fool!'
But just 45 minutes after that
He was shooting craps in Liverpool

Now the police caught that Bloom at last
They had him up to hang one day
The judge leaned over, said 'My good man
Do you have any last words to say?'
He asked the courtroom to bow their heads
To bow their heads in prayer
Then he crossed one leg & winked one eye
And vanished straight up in the air

Well Bloom went down to the spring one day
To fetch himself a pail of water
The distance this rascal had to traverse
Was approximately three miles & a quarter
Now he filled up the bucket & started back
Then he stumbled & fell down
He ran back to the house, grabbed another bucket
And caught the water b'fore it hit the ground

© Pink Anderson Estate. All rights reserved.
In SingOut! 22-3. On David Bromberg "Bandit In a Bathing Suit", Roy Bookbinder'Travlin' Man" & "Going Back to Tampa", Doc & Merle Watson "Bal fr Deep Gap' & Bob Bovee "Roundup". Bookbinder learned the song from Anderson. Watson says he learned it from the blues singer Luke Jordan.