Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">THE DRUNKARD'S HELL <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page395" name="page395"></SPAN>(p. 395)</span></p> <p>It was on a cold and stormy night<br/> I saw and heard an awful sight;<br/> The lightning flashed and thunder rolled<br/> Around my poor benighted soul.</p> <p>I thought I heard a mournful sound<br/> Among the groans still lower down,<br/> That awful sight no tongue can tell<br/> Is this,&mdash;the place called Drunkard's Hell.</p> <p>I thought I saw the gulf below<br/> Where all the dying drunkards go.<br/> I raised my hand and sad to tell<br/> It was the place called Drunkard's Hell.</p> <p>I traveled on and got there at last<br/> And started to take a social glass;<br/> But every time I started,&mdash;well,<br/> I thought about the Drunkard's Hell.</p> <p>I dashed it down to leave that place<br/> And started to seek redeeming grace.<br/> I felt like Paul, at once I'd pray<br/> Till all my sins were washed away.</p> <p>I <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page396" name="page396"></SPAN>(p. 396)</span> then went home to change my life<br/> And see my long neglected wife.<br/> I found her weeping o'er the bed<br/> Because her infant babe was dead.</p> <p>I told her not to mourn and weep<br/> Because her babe had gone to sleep;<br/> Its happy soul had fled away<br/> To dwell with Christ till endless day.</p> <p>I taken her by her pale white hand,<br/> She was so weak she could not stand;<br/> I laid her down and breathed a prayer<br/> That God might bless and save her there.</p> <p>I then went to the Temperance hall<br/> And taken a pledge among them all.<br/> They taken me in with a willing hand<br/> And taken me in as a temperance man.</p> <p>So seven long years have passed away<br/> Since first I bowed my knees to pray;<br/> So now I live a sober life<br/> With a happy home and a loving wife.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />