Maggie was a Lady (Frankie & Johnny variant)



Maggie was a lady,

A money-making girl;

She made all the money she could rake and scrape,

And she gave it to her darling Pearl.

O he's my man, but he done me wrong.



Miss Maggie went down to the bar-room,

She called for a glass of beer;

"Say, Mr. Greeda, will you tell me no lie?

Has my darling Walter been here?"

O he's my man, but he did me wrong.



"Miss Maggie, I'll tell you no story,

Miss Maggie, I'll tell you no lie:

Your Walter left here about an hour ago

With a girl called Lily Fry."

O he's my man, but he did me wrong.

Miss Maggie went down to the Hock joint,

She did n't go there for fun;

Under her apron she kept concealed

Walter's long, black, forty-four gun,

Saying, "I want my man, but he did me wrong."



Miss Maggie went down to the depot,

Along came Number One;

Up stepped Walter with his Lily Fry,

And she shot him with his forty-four gun

Saying, "You're my man, but you did me wrong."



O Walter began to holler

O Walter began to cry

"Say, Miss Maggie, don't you murder me,

For I'm not prepared to die,

I was your man, and I did you wrong."



They took up Maggie for to hang her,

Not many tears were shed;

Pull the black cap over her head,

And the words that Maggie said,

"He was my man, and he did me wrong."



@murder @love

"Maggie was a Lady." Communicated by Mr. J. Carl Cox, Cox's Mills,

Gilmer County, September 1918; obtained from Frank Reaser, who

learned it from lumbermen in the mountains near Richwood,

Nicholas County.

from Cox, Folk-Songs of the South

filename[ FRANJON2

SF

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