Tune Req: A Widow's Plea for Her Son

Subject: Query: A Widow's Plea for Her Son
From: GUEST,Don Adams
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 08:41 AM

In Philip S. Foner's book, American Labor Songs of the Nineteenth Century, on pages 245-6 I find a song entitled "The Pullman Strike." According to Foner, the song should be sung to the tune "A Widow's Plea for Her Son." I'm not familiar with the latter. I've searched the data base here and can't find it. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

Subject: RE: Query: A Widow's Plea for Her Son
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 02:15 PM

Presumably the song by Lewis Hall. An 1893 broadside (text only) by Wehman of New York can be seen at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

The widow's plea for her son

Images of the front covers of a couple of sheet music editions can be found online, but I don't find the actual musical notation at the moment. However, there is an mp3 of Will F Denny's 'Parody On Widow's Plea For Her Son' (1904) at the Internet Archive:

http://www.archive.org/details/WillFDenny

Probably the tune is the same.