Luyện nghe bài hát The Face On The Barroom Floor

Recorded by Hank
Author - Hugh Antoine

'Twas a balmy summer and a goodly crowd was there
well-nigh filled Joe's barroom on the corner of the square
And as songs and witty stories through the open door
A vagabond crept in and posed upon the floor.
"Where did it come from?" Someone said. "The has blown it in?"
"What it want?" another cried, "Some whiskey, rum or gin?"
"Here, Toby, him, if your stomach's equal to the work!"
"I touch him with a fork, why, he's as filthy as a Turk."
This badinage the wretch took with stoical good grace
In fact, he as though he thought he'd struck the proper place
"Come, boys, I know there's hearts among so good a crowd
Why, to be in such good company make a deacon proud."
"Give me a drink - that's I want - I'm out of funds, you know
When I had cash to treat the gang, this hand was slow
What? You laugh as tho' you thought this pocket held a sou
Why, I was as well, my boys, as anyone of you."
"There, - that's braced me nicely - God bless you one and all
Next time I pass good saloon, I'll make another call
Give you a song? No, I do that - my singing days are past
My is cracked and my throat's worn out and my lungs are going fast.
"Say, Give me another whiskey and I'll you what I'll do
tell you a funny story and a fact I promise, too
That I was ever a decent man, not a one of you would
But, I was some four of years back - say, give us another drink.
"Fill her up, Joe, I want to put some life into my
little drinks, to a bum like 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 treated me kindly and I'd like to tell you how
I to be the dirty sot you see before you now
As I you once, I was a man with a muscle, frame and health
And, but for a blunder, to have made considerable wealth.
"I was a painter - not one daubed on bricks and wood
But an artist and for my age, was pretty good
I worked at my canvas and I was bidding fair to rise
gradually I saw the star of fame before my eyes.
"I made a picture perhaps seen, 'tis called the 'CHASE OF FAME'
It brought me fifteen hundred pounds and to my name
And then I met a woman - now the funny part
With that petrified my brain and sunk into my heart.
"Why don't you it's funny that the vagabond you see
ever love a woman and expect her love for me
But 'twas so, and for a month or two, her smiles freely given
And her loving lips touched mine it carried me to heaven.
"Boys, did you ever see a girl for whom your you'd give
With a form like the Venus, too beautiful to live
With eyes like the of diamonds and a wealth of chestnut hair?
If so, 'twas she, for there never was half so fair.
"I was on a portrait one afternoon in May
Of a fair-haired boy, a of mine, who lived across the way
And Madeline it and much to my surprise
she'd like to know the man that had such dreamy eyes.
"It didn't long to know him and before the month had flown
My friend had stole my darlin' and I was alone
And ere a year of had passed above my head
The jewel 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 amused and all the while
Why, what's the matter - friend? There's a teardrop in 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 right here a picture of the face drove me mad
Give me that piece of chalk with which you mark the baseball
And you shall see the lovely upon the barroom floor."
Another drink and with chalk in hand the began
To sketch a face that well buy the soul of any man
And as he placed another lock upon the shapely head
a fearful shriek, he leaped and fell across the picture - dead.