happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')

Subject: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: Abby Sale
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 09:37 AM

         1.Good people read these verses which I have written here,
            And if you can peruse them you can't help but shed a tear,
            'Twas eighteen hundred and forty-two on April the eleventh day,
            Two little girls from Preston Road into the woods did stray.
  
          5.They might have been discovered for that simple way,
            You Preston negroes wash your hands and wipe out your disgrace,
            You cruel Brown that heard them cry and would not take them in,
            May the Lord reward and punish you according to your sin.
  
                  "Meagher's Children," H Creighton, Maritime FS

Notice: This series of the Happy File noncontinues beginning April 16.
Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
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Subject: RE: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: GUEST,me
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 09:56 AM

Just curious - why would you choose, of the seven or eight or more verses that follow the first verse of that song, to publicize the one verse that expresses racial antagonism?

Subject: RE: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: Abby Sale
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 12:35 PM

I don't have it in front of me - I'm in Raleigh at the moment...

But as I recall, that's what the song was about.

Subject: RE: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: GUEST,me
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 02:15 PM

I don't have the text in front of me either, but as I recall the song is about two children who get lost in the woods and perish, and how sad and upsetting the event is for all concerned. In the verse you quote, and in that verse only, the "negroes" of Preston are accused of neglecting the cries of the children, a charge that, as I recall, Helen Creighton casts doubt on in her note to the song. Anyway, it seems the type of charge that would be born out of pre-existing ill-feeling ("They MUST have heard the kids crying ... ").

More to the point, unless my memory is completely out of whack, the verse in question is something of an aside to the main thrust of the song.

Anyone out there have the text, and any elucidating observations?

Subject: RE: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: Abby Sale
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 04:11 PM

While you are correct, you are also wrong. Folksong & lore needn't deal with facts as presented (often enough erroneously) by historians. They deal with Truth vilainsas perceived by the folk community. You know that of heroes, villains, wars won & lost, political icons, whatever.

I did an extensive web search and found the song at some obscure place called "Digital Tradition"

Besides, it's more fun.

Subject: RE: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: GUEST,me
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 05:47 PM

Um, I don't think I'm wrong - I assume you're referring to "a charge that, as I recall, Helen Creighton casts doubt on ... " - that was a bit of a digression, which was what I intended to indicate by following it with the expression "More to the point ... "

One of these days I'll have to try out that DT.

What I have always found interesting in that song is the writer's comment at the end to the effect that he hopes he never again has to write about such a sorrowful event - the implied obligation on his part to provide a song on such a significant occasion to the community ... The expression of racial antagonism I have always found a little sad.

Subject: RE: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: GUEST,me
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 12:35 AM

Now that I've looked at the lyrics on the DT, I'm not sure if that's the last verse I had in mind or if I have it confused with the last verse of another song ...

Subject: RE: happy? - Apr 11 ('Meagher's Children')
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 12:49 AM

>>>I did an extensive web search and found the song at some obscure place called "Digital Tradition"<<<

Is that supposed to be a facetious comment?