The Baggage Coach Ahead

Cat. #0226 (MFH #34) - As sung by Mr. T. R. Hammond, Osceola, Missouri on September 17, 1958

VERSE 1
It was a dark stormy night
As th train rattled on
All passenger had gone to bed
Except I, with a babe in my arms
Who set with a bowed down head

VERSE 2
My sweet inocent child
Begin for to cry
As if its poor heart would break
Make th child stop its crying
One angry man said
It's keeping all of us awake

VERSE 3
Take it out, cried another
Don't keep it in here
We paid for our berths and want rest
But never a word, said I, with th child
As I fondled him close to my breast

VERSE 4
O, where is its mother, go take it to her
Go take it to her
A lady then softly said
I wisht that I could, was my sad reply
But she's dead in th coach ahead

VERSE 5
Every woman arose
To assist with the child
There were Mothers and Wives on the train
And soon my sweet babe, was sleeping in peace
Without a thought of sorrow or pain

VERSE 6
Next morning at the station
I bade them goodbye
God bless you all, I said
And they each had a story, to tell in their home
Of th baggage coach ahead

VERSE 7
As th train rolled onward
There I set in tear
Thinking of th happiness
Of just one short year
Babies face brings pictures
Of a cherished hope now fled
But babies cries can't awaken her
In th baggage coach ahead

This is one of the most unusual contacts I have found. Mr. Hammond says that he composed the above song. His story, after finishing one year of college he went to Oklahoma to work. There he met a pretty girl and married her. They went to California to make their home and Mrs. Hammond died ten months and three days after their wedding and left Mr. Hammond with a baby boy. He was bringing his wife back to Oklahoma, for burial at her parents when the story happend on the train.

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