Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 284 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "This may be one of the many Po’ Boy songs, [see Po' Boy, day 15 in this series] carrying its own peculiar load of grief. Verse 2 sometimes goes—
"I went down to the railroad
Where the big six-wheelers ran;
I saw my woman sitting there
In the arms of another man.
"And occasionally, for the sake of plot, these two verses are interspersed—
"I stood on the street corner;
It was shortly after dark;
Along came a man with the woman I love,
And I stabbed him through the heart.
"“Well, it’s please, Mr. Judge, now please, Mr. Judge,
It’s what are you goin’ to do with me?”
He says, “ If I find you guilty, dear boy,
I’m goin’ to send you to the penitentiary.”"
From Alan Lomax's notes: "There are stanzas in this one from so many different hobo songs, sung in so many different ways, that one might call this the master hobo song. Actually I had some hand in mixing the verses together in American Ballads and Folk Songs (Macmillan, 1934), from which Pete Seeger's version comes."
Day 284 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "This may be one of the many Po’ Boy songs, [see Po' Boy, day 15 in this series] carrying its own peculiar load of grief. Verse 2 sometimes goes—
"I went down to the railroad
Where the big six-wheelers ran;
I saw my woman sitting there
In the arms of another man.
"And occasionally, for the sake of plot, these two verses are interspersed—
"I stood on the street corner;
It was shortly after dark;
Along came a man with the woman I love,
And I stabbed him through the heart.
"“Well, it’s please, Mr. Judge, now please, Mr. Judge,
It’s what are you goin’ to do with me?”
He says, “ If I find you guilty, dear boy,
I’m goin’ to send you to the penitentiary.”"
From Alan Lomax's notes: "There are stanzas in this one from so many different hobo songs, sung in so many different ways, that one might call this the master hobo song. Actually I had some hand in mixing the verses together in American Ballads and Folk Songs (Macmillan, 1934), from which Pete Seeger's version comes."
