| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
Crimes |
341 |
||
|
140 SIDNEY ALLEN
The informant attached to the text the following explanation: "This is the sad story of a mountaineer who got mixed up with the law. He had the pleasure of shooting his feud enemy and so far forgot himself as to use the same tactics in the court where he was being tried for his life. This is a ballad of the last twenty-five years The 'hero' is still living and pining away behind the cold gray bars of an iron cage " For a similar text see Hudson, pp. 73-74. For another text, 'The Pardon of Sydna Allen," which appears to be a sequel, see Richardson, P- 735-
The present version was communicated by Miss Mabel Tuggle, Detroit, she obtained the song from the singing of Mrs. Ida Morris, twenty-eight years of age, who learned it from her mother, Mrs. Truman Hubble, Concord Depot, Virginia.
i Come on, all you rounders, if you want to hear A story of a cruel mountaineer. Sidney Allen was a rounder and as hard as his name; At Hillsville Court he called on fame.
2 The judge called the jury in at half-past nine; Sidney Allen was a prisoner and he was on time. He mounted the stand with a pistol in his hand, And he sent Judge Massey to the Promised Land.
3 Just a moment later, and the court was in a roar, The dead and the dying they were lying on the floor. With a thirty-eight special and a thirty-eight ball Then he backed the sheriff against the wall.
4 The sheriff saw that he was in a mighty bad place; The mountaineer was staring him right in the face; He turned to the window and then he said, "Just a moment later and we'll all be dead."
5 Then Sidney mounted his pony and away he did ride; His nephew and his friends they were riding by his side. They ill shook hands and swore they would hang Before they would surrender to the Hillsville gang. |
|||
|
6 Then poor Sidney wandered, and he wandered all around, At last he was captured in that western town. |
|||