hard and wretched life
Doing time down inIn 1926, ex-convict William L. Harrington wrote a series of articles for the Evening News (of San Jose, Calif.) about his thirty-plus years in prison that began in the early 1890s.

Harrington mentions that "The Flying Cloud" "is one of those old English prison pieces which was very popular around San Quentin and Folsom [prisons]." He writes that he could "speak it off," which suggests a recitation only.

Harrington gives a fairly usual text (with "William Hollander"), but the final stanza (after "...shun bad company") is defective and a little different:

For good-bye to your brooks and shady nooks
And the girl that I loved best.
Nevermore will I kiss her rosy lips
Or squeeze her lily-white hand.
But I'll lead a Van Dieman's land.