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American Ballads and Folk Songs |
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The ferriage it was guarded and I had nary horse.
I cast my eyes around a little raft I spied}
I thought by good judgment I could get to the other side.
I jumped upon my little raft, so gently sailed across.
Not thanking them for ferriage nor eitherwise a horse I struck out up old Lickin, I set my head for home, To see my wife and children all that was my intent, To see my wife and children that I had left at home.
When I come to find them I found them all asleep.
I told my wife I had been a prisoner and now on my retreat}
She gave to me my supper, a blanket in my hand,
Told me to leave this country and go to Dixie's land. |
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GOOD OLD REBEL
In memory of Carey Page
Colliers Weekly, April 4, 1914, devoted a column to this famous song of Reconstruction days. It was written by Major Innes Randolph, a member of the staff of General J. E. B. Stuart, and a native of Virginia. Richard N. Brooke of Washington, D. C, suggests that the song is "a bit of fun not supposed to reflect Major Randolph^ own sentiments but to illustrate the irreconcilable spirit of the illiterate element in some sections."
Herbert Quick, who wrote the story for Collier's, added that millions sang the song who had never heard of Major Randolph. When the Duchess of Manchester sang it before the Prince of Wales on one occasion, he repeatedly encored "that fine American song with the cuss words in it." Laura Lee Davidson of Baltimore says that the song was sung "in many a Southern parlor in the bitter days of Reconstruction} and to have heard the author himself sing it is a joy to be
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