Black Hills (OT2003-3013-017)

Black Hills (OT2003-3013-017)

Song excerpted from audio recording OT2003-3013, part of VFC2003-0007 Margaret MacArthur Collection.

Margaret MacArthur Collection -- VFC2003-0007. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

1964-07-16

en

VFC2003-0007 OT2003-3013-017

Vermont Folklife Center

Black Hills

Come gentlemen listen to a pitiful tale
I'm an object of pity and looking quite pale
For I left far my bills at selling Wright's Patent Pills
To go a-gold digging out to the black hills

    Don't go I say, stay if you can
    Far from that city they call it Cheyenne
    [?] will come and build
    And take your [?] off of the dreary black hills
    
When first in the black hills no gold could I find
I thought of North Adams I left far behind
Through the cold forests and snowboards I wept to the gills
They call me the orphan boy of the black hills

And the Round House at Ceyenne is filled every night
With people of every description and sight
With no clothes to their backs, and their pockets no bills
But still they keep going out to the black hills

Now gentlement listen to this story I told
Don't go to the black hills a-looking for gold
For the railroad speculator will pocket your bills
When you go to go digging out to the black hills

    Don't go I say, stay if you can
    Far from that city they call it Cheyenne
    [?] will come and build
    And take your [?] off of the dreary black hills

References:

• Irwin Silber, Earl Robinson. Songs of the Great American West. Courier Dover Publications, 1967. 151-2.
• John Lyons. "Musical Heritage of the American Pioneer". Marty College, South Dakota. 1985. 11-2.

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