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318 Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series
74 JOHNNIE O'ROGERS
Contributed by Miss Louise Husband, of New Harmony, Indiana. Posey County. Obtained from Mrs. Morris Stallings, of the same city. Miss Husband writes: "The following song has been handed down through four generations, and was sung by James Hamilton Cox, a Posey County pioneer. He was born in 1837 and died in 1911. ... It was sung to his daughter, Mrs. Henry Hancock, who sang it to her daughter, Mrs. Louella Hancock Stallings, who in turn sang it to her son, Harold Trueman Stallings. . . . The tune is pretty, but as there isn't anyone around very adept at writing music who is free to spend the time on it, I can't get it for you." September 15, 1935.
1. 'T was Johnnie O'Rogers, the tin-maker man, Who lived in a garret in New Amsterdam,
And showered down blessings like rain in the spring; All maids and maidens of him they will sing.
Chorus
There never was yet a boy or man
Who better could mend a kettle or pan
Than Johnnie O'Rogers, the tin-maker man:
Che whang! che whang! te rattle, te rattle te bang!
2. 'T was Johnnie O'Rogers had two pairs of eyes; His glasses, called specks, were uncommon in size. His nose, like a strawberry, racy and red,
What a snuffer by daylight, that trumpeted in bed!
3. His pipe was a meerschaum of powder and clay ; He smoked it and colored it many a day.
Though short, black, and stumpy, his teeth held it tight, And he puffed up its business and carried it by its light. |
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