Luyện nghe bài hát The Face On The Barroom Floor

Recorded by Snow
- Hugh Antoine D'Arcy

'Twas a summer evening and a goodly crowd was there
Which well-nigh Joe's barroom on the corner of the square
And as songs and witty came through the open door
A vagabond slowly 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, seek him, if stomach's equal to the work!"
"I wouldn't him with a fork, why, he's as filthy as a Turk."
This badinage the poor took with stoical good grace
In fact, he smiled as though he he'd struck the proper place
"Come, boys, I there's kindly hearts among so good a crowd
Why, to be in such company would make a deacon proud."
"Give me a drink - what I want - I'm out of funds, you know
When I had cash to treat the gang, this hand was never
What? You laugh as tho' you thought pocket never held a sou
Why, I was fixed as well, my boys, as 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 song? No, I can't do that - my days are past
My voice is cracked and my throat's out and my lungs are going fast.
"Say, Give me another whiskey and I'll you what I'll do
I'll you a funny story and a fact I promise, too
I was ever a decent man, not a one of you would think
But, I was some four of five years - say, give us another drink.
"Fill her up, Joe, I to put some life into my frame
Such drinks, to a bum like me, are miserably tame
Five fingers - there, the scheme - and corkin' whisky, too
Well, here's luck, boys; and landlord, my regards to you.
"You've treated me pretty and I'd like to tell you how
I to be the dirty 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 that on bricks and wood
But an and for my age, was rated pretty good
I hard at my canvas and I was bidding fair to rise
gradually I saw the star of fame before my eyes.
"I made a picture you've seen, 'tis called the 'CHASE OF FAME'
It brought me hundred pounds and added to my name
And then I met a woman - now comes the funny
eyes that petrified my brain and sunk into my heart.
"Why don't you laugh? it's funny the vagabond you see
Could ever a woman and expect her love for me
But 'twas so, and for a month or two, her smiles freely given
And when her loving lips mine 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 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 Madeline admired it and to my surprise
Said she'd like to know the man that had dreamy eyes.
"It didn't take long to know him and before the month had
My friend had stole my and I was left 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 to drink, boys - why, I never saw you smile
I thought be amused and laughing all the while
Why, what's the matter - There's a teardrop in your eye
Come, laugh like me; why 'tis only babes and women would cry.
"Say, boys, if you'd me just another whiskey, I'll really be glad
And I'll draw here a picture of the face that drove me mad
Give me that piece of chalk with which you the baseball score
And you shall see the lovely Madeline upon the floor."
Another and with chalk in hand the vagabond began
To a face that well might buy the soul of any man
And then as he placed another lock the shapely head
With a fearful shriek, he leaped and across the picture - dead.