Luyện nghe bài hát The Face On The Barroom Floor

Recorded by Snow
Author - Antoine D'Arcy

'Twas a balmy summer evening and a goodly 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 in and posed upon 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, seek him, if stomach's equal to the work!"
"I wouldn't touch him with a fork, why, as filthy as a Turk."
This badinage the poor wretch 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 so good a crowd
Why, to be in such good company would make a proud."
"Give me a drink - that's what I want - I'm out of funds, you
When I had cash to treat the gang, this was never 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, thanks - braced me nicely - God bless you one and all
Next time I pass this good saloon, I'll another call
Give you a No, I can't do that - my singing days are past
My voice is cracked and my worn out and my lungs are going fast.
"Say, me another whiskey and I'll tell you what I'll do
I'll you a funny story and a fact I promise, too
That I was ever a man, not a one of you would think
But, I was some four of five years back - say, give us drink.
"Fill her up, Joe, I want to put some life my frame
Such little drinks, to a bum like me, are miserably
Five fingers - there, that's the - and corkin' whisky, too
Well, here's luck, and landlord, my best regards to you.
"You've treated me pretty kindly and I'd to tell you how
I to be the dirty sot you see before you now
As I told you once, I was a man a muscle, frame and health
And, but for a blunder, to have made considerable wealth.
"I was a painter - not one that on bricks and wood
But an artist and for my age, was pretty good
I worked hard at my canvas and I was bidding to rise
'Coz gradually I saw the star of before my eyes.
"I made a picture perhaps you've seen, 'tis called the 'CHASE OF
It brought me hundred pounds and added to my name
And then I met a woman - now comes the funny
With eyes petrified my brain and sunk into my heart.
"Why don't you laugh? funny that the vagabond you see
Could ever a woman and expect her love for me
But 'twas so, and for a or two, her smiles were freely given
And when her loving lips touched it carried me to heaven.
"Boys, did you ever see a girl for whom soul you'd give
With a form like the Milo Venus, too beautiful to
With eyes like the purest of and a wealth of chestnut hair?
If so, 'twas she, for there never was another 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 that had dreamy eyes.
"It didn't take long to him and before the month had flown
My friend had stole my darlin' and I was left
And ere a year of misery had passed above my
The jewel that I had so, had tarnished and was dead.
"That's why I took to drink, - why, I never saw you smile
I thought be amused and laughing all the while
Why, what's the matter - friend? There's a in your eye
Come, laugh like me; why 'tis only and women that would cry.
"Say, boys, if you'd me just another whiskey, I'll really be glad
And I'll draw right here a of the face that drove me mad
me that piece of chalk with which you mark the baseball score
And you shall see the Madeline upon the barroom floor."
Another drink and with chalk in hand the began
To sketch a face well might buy the soul of any man
And then as he placed another upon the shapely head
With a shriek, he leaped and fell across the picture - dead.