Luyện nghe bài hát The Face On The Barroom Floor

Recorded by Snow
- Hugh Antoine D'Arcy

'Twas a balmy evening and a goodly crowd was there
well-nigh filled Joe's barroom on the corner of the square
And as songs and stories came through the open door
A vagabond crept slowly in and upon the floor.
"Where did it come from?" Someone said. "The wind has it in?"
"What does it want?" cried, "Some whiskey, rum or gin?"
"Here, Toby, seek him, if your stomach's to the work!"
"I wouldn't him with a fork, why, he's as filthy as a Turk."
This badinage the wretch took with stoical good grace
In fact, he smiled as he thought he'd struck the proper place
"Come, boys, I know there's kindly hearts among so good a
Why, to be in such good company would make a proud."
"Give me a drink - what I want - I'm out of funds, you know
I had cash to treat the gang, this hand was never slow
What? You laugh as tho' you this pocket never held a sou
Why, I was fixed as well, my boys, as of you."
"There, thanks - that's braced me nicely - God you one and all
Next time I pass this good saloon, I'll another call
Give you a song? No, I can't do that - my singing days are
My voice is cracked and my throat's out and my lungs are going fast.
"Say, Give me whiskey and I'll tell you what I'll do
I'll tell you a funny and a fact I promise, too
That I was a decent man, not a one of you would think
But, I was some four of five back - say, give us another drink.
"Fill her up, Joe, I want to put life into my frame
Such little drinks, to a bum me, are miserably tame
Five fingers - there, the scheme - and corkin' whisky, too
Well, here's luck, and landlord, my best regards to you.
"You've me pretty kindly and I'd like to tell you how
I came to be the dirty sot you see you now
As I you once, I was a man with a muscle, frame and health
And, but for a blunder, ought to made considerable wealth.
"I was a painter - not one that daubed on bricks and
But an artist and for my age, was pretty good
I worked at my canvas and I was bidding fair to rise
'Coz I saw the star of fame before my eyes.
"I made a picture perhaps you've seen, 'tis called the OF FAME'
It brought me fifteen hundred pounds and to my name
And I met a woman - now comes the funny part
With eyes petrified my brain and sunk into my heart.
"Why don't you it's funny that the vagabond you see
Could ever love a woman and her love for me
But 'twas so, and for a month or two, her smiles freely given
And when her loving touched mine it carried me to heaven.
"Boys, did you ever see a for whom your soul you'd give
With a like the Milo Venus, too beautiful to live
With eyes like the purest of diamonds and a wealth of chestnut
If so, 'twas she, for there was another half so fair.
"I was on a portrait one afternoon in May
Of a fair-haired boy, a friend of mine, who lived the way
And admired it and much to my surprise
Said she'd like to know the man that had such eyes.
"It didn't take long to know him and before the had flown
My friend had stole my and I was left alone
And ere a year of misery had passed my head
The that I had treasured so, had tarnished and was dead.
"That's why I took to drink, boys - why, I saw you smile
I thought you'd be and laughing all the while
Why, what's the matter - friend? a teardrop in your eye
Come, laugh like me; why 'tis only babes and women that cry.
"Say, boys, if you'd give me just another whiskey, I'll really be
And I'll draw here a picture of the face that drove me mad
Give me that piece of chalk with which you mark the baseball
And you shall see the lovely Madeline upon the floor."
drink and with chalk in hand the vagabond began
To sketch a face that might buy the soul of any man
And then as he placed another lock upon the shapely
With a shriek, he leaped and fell across the picture - dead.