Lyr/Chords Add: Drunkard's Child (Parkhurst)

Subject: RE: ADD: Drunkard's Child (Parkhurst)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Nov 06 - 03:39 PM

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on "The Drunkard's Child" - seems to me that the song Chico posted is the one they're referring to:

Drunkard's Child (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, father, do not ask me why the tears roll down my cheek... It breaks my heart to think that I must be a drunkard's child." The child recalls how much better things were when mother was alive and father was sober. (S)he asks father to turn to God

AUTHOR: unknown

EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Henry Whitter)

KEYWORDS: drink orphan

FOUND IN: US(So)

REFERENCES (1 citation):

Randolph 331, "The Drunkard's Child" (1 text)

Roud #7803

RECORDINGS:

Smith's Sacred Singers, "The Drunkard's Child" (Columbia 15137-D, 1927)

Henry Whitter, "The Drunkard's Child" (OKeh 40169, 1924)

CROSS-REFERENCES:

cf. "Drunkard's Lone Child" (plot)

File: R331

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drunkard's Child
From: Goose Gander
Date: 22 Nov 06 - 02:18 PM

Note Q's comment that the text in the Digital Tradition is mis-titled and contains errors.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drunkard's Child
From: Goose Gander
Date: 22 Nov 06 - 02:17 PM

Here's a Drunkard's Child from the Digital Tradition, here's a thread about another drunkard's child with lots of weepiness to go around, some stuff in this thread too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drunkard's Child
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Nov 06 - 02:04 PM

A full program could be devoted to these songs about the Drunkard's Child- the tears would cause flooding in the streets.
(Ch. W. Harris, NY, was the publisher for the Parkhurst song)

Will S. Hays, 1874, Out in the Snow; or, The Drunkard's Child
(Father, please, don't drive me out in the street, There among strangers no pity to meet;...)

C. A. White and Geo. Lowell Austin, 1871, The Poor Drunkard's Child
(One year tonight my poor mother died, While father lay drunk on the floor, ...)

J. L. Feeney, Mary A. Kronsbein, 1882, The Drunkard's Child
(I wish my father'd come, mother, I do not fear him now; ...)

and- The Drunkard's Lone Child, The Drunkard's Outcast Child (1876), Poor Child of the Drunkard (1871), etc. etc.

Subject: Lyr Add: Drunkard's Child (2)
From: chico
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 11:19 PM

  (d b b b a g g, e g f# e d, c b a g)
  
       F             Bb
  You ask me why so oft, father,
        F        G7/D      C7
  The tear rolls down my cheek,
  And think it strange that I should own
  A grief I dare not speak;
  
      C              G
  But O, my soul is very sad,
       7              C  (7)
  My brain is almost wild;
  It breaks my heart, to think that I
  Am call'd a drunkard's child.
  

Drunkard's Child
Words and Music composed by Mrs. Parkhurst.

You ask me why so oft, father,
The tear rolls down my cheek,
And think it strange that I should own
A grief I dare not speak;

But O, my soul is very sad,
My brain is almost wild;
It breaks my heart, to think that I
Am call'd a drunkard's child.

CHORUS
But O, my soul is very sad,
My brain is almost wild;
It breaks my heart, To think that I
Am call'd a drunkard's child.

My playmates shun me now, father,
Or pass me by with scorn,
Because my dress is ragged, and
My shoes are old and torn;
And if I heed them not, there goes
The drunkard's girl, they cry;
Oh then, how much I wish that God
Would only let me die.

You used to love me once, father,
And we had bread to eat;
Mamma and I were warmly clad,
And life seem'd very sweet
You never spoke unkindly then,
Or dealt the angry blow;
Oh father dear, 'tis sad to think
That rum hath chang'd you so.

Do not be angry now, father,
Because I tell you this,
But let me feel upon my brow,
Once more thy loving kiss;
And promise me, those lips no more,
With drink shall be defil'd.
That, from a life of want and woe,
Thou'lt save thy weeping child.

[Parkhurst, Mrs. E. A. [1870], The Drunkard's Child (Publisher unknown).]
http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/songs/drunkardschild1.html