Ewing Brooks

My name is Ewin' Brooks,
My name I did deny,
An' left my aged parents
In sorrow for to die.
But little did they think
While in my youth an' bloom,
That on the fifth of August
I'll meet my fatal doom.

I come to old America,
Old Engiand I forsook,
I took the name of Maxwell,
Denied of Ewin' Brooks.
I bein' a very reckless man,
A spendthrift too was I,
I murdered Arthur Fralow
My wants to satisfy.

I went down to the old depot
An' boarded a Frisco train,
I knew that after such a crime
I could not there remain.
The speedin' of the train was fast
An' I thought that I was free,
I did not know a telegram
Was on ahead of me.

I stepped aboard the old steamship
Sayin', "Now I'm free, I know."
The officers arrested me
Down on old Yeland Shore.
They took me back to old Saint Louis
An' placed me in a cell
For the crime that I committed
In the Southern Old Hotel.

I bid my friends farewell,
My mother an ' sister so young,
Who pled with Governor Marhouse
That I might not be hung.
He would not even grant them time
To send my father word,
To cross the brinery water
To say,"Farewell, my son."

I place my treasures all in heaven,
My earthly hopes are fled,
I know my friends will grieve for me
Long after I am dead.
An' when I'm dead an' laid away
Within my grave to rest,
I know we'll meet in heaven there
To be forever blest.

note: an adaptation of Charles Guiteau
From Ozark Folksongs, Randolph
Collected from Myrtle Devore, AK, 1930
DT #690
Laws E12
RG
oct96