Luyện nghe bài hát The Face On The Barroom Floor

Recorded by Hank
Author - Hugh Antoine

'Twas a summer evening and a goodly crowd was there
Which well-nigh filled Joe's barroom on the of the square
And as songs and witty came through the open door
A vagabond crept slowly in and posed the floor.
"Where did it from?" Someone said. "The wind 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 wouldn't touch him with a fork, why, he's as as a Turk."
This badinage the poor took with stoical good grace
In fact, he smiled as though he thought he'd the proper place
"Come, boys, I know there's kindly hearts among so good a
Why, to be in such company would make a deacon proud."
"Give me a drink - that's what I - I'm out of funds, you know
When I had cash to treat the gang, this hand was slow
What? You laugh as you thought 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 make another
Give you a song? No, I can't do that - my days are past
My voice is cracked and my 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 four of five years back - say, give us another drink.
"Fill her up, Joe, I want to put life into my frame
Such drinks, to a bum like me, are miserably tame
Five - there, that's the scheme - and corkin' whisky, too
Well, here's luck, boys; and landlord, my best to you.
"You've treated me pretty kindly and I'd like to you how
I came to be the sot you see before you now
As I told you once, I was a man with a muscle, 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 rated pretty
I worked hard at my 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 'CHASE OF
It brought me fifteen hundred pounds and to my name
And then I met a woman - now comes the funny
With eyes that my brain and sunk into my heart.
"Why don't you laugh? it's funny the vagabond you see
Could ever love a woman and expect her for me
But so, and for a month or two, her smiles were freely given
And when her lips touched mine it carried me to heaven.
"Boys, did you ever see a girl for your soul you'd give
With a form the Milo Venus, too beautiful to live
With like the purest of diamonds and a wealth of chestnut hair?
If so, she, for there never was another half so fair.
"I was working on a one afternoon in May
Of a fair-haired boy, a friend of mine, who across the way
And admired it and much to my surprise
Said she'd like to know the man had such dreamy eyes.
"It didn't take long to know him and before the had flown
My friend had stole my darlin' and I was 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 never saw you
I thought you'd be amused and all the while
Why, what's the matter - There's a teardrop in your eye
Come, laugh like me; why 'tis babes and women that would cry.
"Say, boys, if you'd me just another whiskey, I'll really be glad
And draw right here a picture of the face that drove me mad
Give me that piece of with which you mark the baseball score
And you shall see the lovely Madeline the barroom floor."
Another drink and with chalk in the vagabond began
To sketch a face that might buy the soul of any man
And then as he placed lock upon the shapely head
a fearful shriek, he leaped and fell across the picture - dead.