Digital Tradition Mirror

Maggie Was a Lady (Frankie & Johnny Variant)

Maggie Was a Lady (Frankie & Johnny Variant)

Maggie was a lady,
A money-making girl;
She made all the money she could rake and scrape,
And she gave it to her darling Pearl.
O he's my man, but he done me wrong.

Miss Maggie went down to the bar-room,
She called for a glass of beer;
"Say, Mr. Greeda, will you tell me no lie?
Has my darling Walter been here?"
O he's my man, but he did me wrong.

"Miss Maggie, I'll tell you no story,
Miss Maggie, I'll tell you no lie:
Your Walter left here about an hour ago
With a girl called Lily Fry."
O he's my man, but he did me wrong.

Miss Maggie went down to the Hock joint,
She did n't go there for fun;
Under her apron she kept concealed
Walter's long, black, forty-four gun,
Saying, "I want my man, but he did me wrong."

Miss Maggie went down to the depot,
Along came Number One;
Up stepped Walter with his Lily Fry,
And she shot him with his forty-four gun
Saying, "You're my man, but you did me wrong."

O Walter began to holler
O Walter began to cry
"Say, Miss Maggie, don't you murder me,
For I'm not prepared to die,
I was your man, and I did you wrong."

They took up Maggie for to hang her,
Not many tears were shed;
Pull the black cap over her head,
And the words that Maggie said,
"He was my man, and he did me wrong."

DT #316
Laws I3
"Maggie was a Lady." Communicated by Mr. J. Carl Cox, Cox's Mills,
Gilmer County, September 1918; obtained from Frank Reaser, who
learned it from lumbermen in the mountains near Richwood,
Nicholas County.
from Cox, Folk-Songs of the South
SOF

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!

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