Two Hangmen

by Mason Proffit



As I rode into Tombstone, my horse his name was Mac,

I saw what I'll relate to you, goin' on behind my back

It seems that folks were up in arms, a man now had to die,

For saying things that didn't fit the laws they'd set aside.



The man's name was "I'm a Freak", the best that I could see,

He was the executioner, a hangman just like me,

I guess that he'd seen loopholes, from workin' with his rope,

He'd hung the wrong man many times, so now he turned to hope.



He talked to all the people from his scaffold in the square,

He told them of the things he'd found, but they didn't seem to care

He said the laws were obsolete, a change they should demand,

But the people only walked away, he couldn't understand.



The marshall's name was Uncle Sam, he said he'd right this wrong,

He'd make the hangman shut his mouth if it took him all year long,

He finally arrested Freak, and then he sent for me,

To hang a fellow hangman, from a fellow hangman's tree.



It didn't take them long to try him, in their court of law,

He was guilty then of thinking, a crime much worse than all,

They sentenced him to die, so his seed of thought can't spread,

And infect the little children, that's what the law had said.



Well, the hangin' day came round and he walked up to the noose,

I pulled the lever but before he fell I cut him loose,

They called it all conspiracy, and then I had to die,

So to close our mouths and kill our minds, they hung us side by side...



And now we're two hangman, hangin' from a tree,

That don't bother me, at all.

Two hangman, hangin' from a tree,

That don't bother me, at all.



Transcribed by Rich Kulawiec, rsk@ecn.purdue.edu