A real tear-jerker from 1896.
words and music by Gussie L. Davis
From the book America’s Song II: This morose, sentimental ballad was written by Gussie Davis, an African-American who died at 36 years old. This tragic story of a weeping child, distraught father, and deceased young mother was exactly the kind of melodramatic narrative fitting for a sentimental ballad in the 1890s.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment – player piano roll
Lyrics
- On a dark stormy night, as the train rattled on
All the passengers had gone to bed
Except one young man with a babe in his arms
Who sat there with a bowed down head
The innocent one began crying just then
As though its poor heart would break
One angry man said, “Make that child stop its noise
For its keeping all of us awake”
“Put it out” said another, “Don’t keep it in here
We’ve paid for our berths and want rest”
But never a word said the man with the child
As he fondled it close to his breast
“Where is its mother? go take it to her”
This a lady then softly said
“I wish that I could” was the man’s reply
“But she’s dead, in the coach ahead”
Chorus
While the train rolled onward
A husband sat in tears
Thinking of the happiness
Of just a few short years
For baby’s face brings pictures of
A cherished hope that’s dead
But baby’s cries can’t waken her
In the baggage coach ahead
- Every eye filled with tears, when his story he told
Of a wife who was faithful and true
He told how he’d saved all his earnings for years
Just to build up a home for two
How, when Heaven had sent them this sweet little babe
Their young happy lives were blessed
His heart seemed to break when he mentioned her name
And in tears tried to tell them the rest
Every woman arose to assist with the child
There were mothers and wives on that train
And soon was the little one sleeping in peace
With no thought of sorrow or pain
Next morn at a station, he bade all goodbye
“God bless you,” he softly said
Each one had a story to tell in their home
Of the baggage coach ahead
Sung here by Fred Feild: