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(Version d.)

(Communicated by Mr. John B. Adkins, Branchland, Lincoln County, who obtained it from David Dick, an old banjo-player.)

1. John Hardy he was a desperate man,

He roved from town to town,

Saying, "The man that wins my money this time,

I'm going to blow his life away,

And lay him in his lonesome grave."

2. John Hardy was standing in the dice-room door,
He was not concerned in the game;

Rozella threw down one silver dollar,

Saying, "Deal John Hardy in the game, poor boy!"
Saying, "Deal John Hardy in the game."

3. John Hardy threw down one half-dollar,
Saying, "One half of this I'll play,

And the man that wins my money this time,
I'm going to blow his life away,

And lay him in his lonesome grave."

4. John Hardy was making for the station that night,

It was so dark he could hardly see;

A policeman took him by the arm,

Saying, "John, won't you come and go with me, poor boy?
John, won't you come and go with me?"

5. Every station they passed through,

They heard the people say,

"Yonder goes John Hardy making his escape,
John Hardy is getting away, poor boy!

John Hardy is getting away."

6. They brought John Hardy out before the judge,
And bond they offered him:

No bond was allowed a murderen man,

So they put John Hardy back in jail, poor boy!
They put John Hardy back in jail.

7. John Hardy's wife went mourning along,
Went mourning along in blue,

Saying, "O John, what have you done!
I've always been true to you, poor boy!
I've always been true to you."

1 Murderen, one who commits murder.

(Version e.)

(Communicated by Mr. E. C. Smith, Weston, Lewis County. It was written out from memory by Walter Mick, Ireland, W. Va., who learned it from hearing it sung by people of his community.)

1. John Hardy was a little farmer boy,

Sitting on his father's knee;

Says he, "I fear the C. & O. Road

Will be the ruination of me, poor boy!
Will be the ruination of me."

2. John Hardy got to be a desperate man,
Carried a pistol and a razor every day;

Shot a nigger through the heel in a Chinese camp,

And you ought of seen that nigger get away, poor boy!
And you ought of seen that nigger get away.

3. John Hardy's mother ran up to him,

Saying, "Son, what have you done?"
"I murdered a man in a Chinese camp,
And now I'm sentenced to be hung, poor boy!
And now I'm sentenced to be hung."

4. John Hardy's father went to the judge,
Saying, "What do you think will be done?"
The judge he answer with a quick reply,

"I'm afraid John Hardy will be hung, poor boy!
I'm afraid John Hardy will be hung."

5. John Hardy was standing in a dice-room door,
He didn't have a nickel to his name;

Along came a yaller gal, threw a dollar on the board,
Saying, "Deal John Hardy in the game, poor boy!"
Saying, "Deal John Hardy in the game."

6. John Hardy was standing in a railroad-station,
As drunk as he could be:

A policeman came up and took him by the arm,
"John Hardy, come along with me, poor boy!
John Hardy, come along with me."

7. "Oh, who will shoe your pretty little feet,
And who will glove your hands,
And who will kiss your sweet rosy lips,
When I'm in a foreign land, poor boy!
When I'm in a foreign land?"

8. "My father will shoe my pretty little feet,
My mother will glove my hands;

John Hardy will kiss my sweet rosy lips,

When he comes from a foreign land, poor boy!

When he comes from a foreign land."

9. John Hardy married a loving wife,

And children he had three:

He called to him his oldest son,

Saying, "Son, make a man like me, poor boy!"
Saying, "Son, make a man like me."

10. John Hardy married a loving wife,
And children he had three:

NOTE.

He cared no more for his wife and child

Than the rocks in the bottom of the sea, poor boy!

Than the rocks in the bottom of the sea."

The following statement was made to me in person in the summer of 1918 by Mr. James Knox Smith, a Negro lawyer of Keystone, McDowell County, who was present at the trial and also at the execution of John Hardy:

"Hardy worked for the Shawnee Coal Company, and one pay-day night he killed a man in a crap game over a dispute of twenty-five cents. Before the game began, he laid his pistol on the table, saying to it, 'Now I want you to lay here; and the first nigger that steals money from me, I mean to kill him.' About midnight he began to lose, and claimed that one of the Negroes had taken twenty-five cents of his money. The man denied the charge, but gave him the amount; whereupon he said, 'Don't you know that I won't lie to my gun?' Thereupon he seized his pistol and shot the man dead.

"After the crime he hid around the Negro shanties and in the mountains a few days, until John Effler (the sheriff) and John Campbell (a deputy) caught him. Some of the Negroes told them where Hardy was, and, slipping into the shanty where he was asleep, they first took his shotgun and pistol, then they waked him up and put the cuffs on him. Effler handcuffed Hardy to himself, and took the train at Eckman for Welch. Just as the train was passing through a tunnel, and Effler was taking his prisoner from one car to another, Hardy jumped, and took Effler with him. He tried to get hold of Effler's pistol; and the sheriff struck him over the head with it, and almost killed him. Then he unhandcuffed himself from Hardy, tied him securely with ropes, took him to Welch, and put him in jail.

"While in jail after his conviction, he could look out and see the men building his scaffold; and he walked up and down his cell, telling the rest of the prisoners that he would never be hung on that scaffold. Judge H. H. Christian, who had defended Hardy, heard of this, visited him in jail, advised him not to kill himself or compel the officers to kill him, but to prepare to die. Hardy began to sing and pray, and finally sent for the Reverend Lex Evans, a white Baptist preacher, told him he had made his peace with God, and asked to be baptized. Evans said he would as soon baptize him as he would a white man. Then they let him put on a new suit of clothes, the guards led him down to the Tug River, and Evans baptized him. On the scaffold he begged the sheriff's pardon for the way he had treated him, said that he had intended to fight to the death and not be hung, but that after he got religion he did not feel like fighting. He confessed that he had done wrong, killed a man under the influence of whiskey,

and advised all young men to avoid gambling and drink. A great throng witnessed the hanging.

"Hardy was black as a crow, over six feet tall, weighed about two hundred pounds, raw-boned, and had unusually long arms. He came originally from down eastern Virginia, and had no family. He had formerly been a steel-driver, and was about forty years old, or more."

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

NOTE ON THE GROUND-HOG MYTH AND ITS ORIGIN. To the folk-lorist there are few pleasures which excel that of the discovery of a familiar superstition parading in ancient garb. Such was the writer's fortune, upon reading a discussion which took place before the Société Préhistorique Francaise in January of 1917.1 There M. Catelan records,

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"On running through the numerous calendars that were given me for the Capo d'Anno, we noted that our Studio calendar bore for the 1st of February the fête of the Holy Bear (Saint Ours).

"Now, there is an alpine Provençal proverb which says,' Si, pour le Chandeleur, l'Ours sorte de sa tannière et voit son ombre, il rentre et de quarante jours ne sorte plus.'

"We have thought to interest our colleagues by calling attention to this date of the 1st of February and that of the 2d of February (le Chandeleur), both of which treat of the bear, and at the same time are brought into relation with the sun. In any case, we have brought a stone, perhaps useful, to the temple which is being rebuilt."

When and how this Provençal bear migrated to the New World may never be known; but there would seem to be no possible doubt of its identity with the American ground-hog, which, on the 2d of February, annually casts its shadow across the pages of our daily press.

In the discussion, M. Marcel Baudouin adds to the above,

"Le Chandeleur is an ancient festival, en rapport with the Pleiades-Sun (and not the winter solstice). It corresponded, some thirty-five hundred years ago, to the vernal equinox. The retrogression of a month and a half is due solely to the precession of the equinoxes (one month for two thousand years). The bear is here the polar constellation, that at one time, associated with the Pleiades, governed the seasons."

While not accepting all of M. Baudouin's conclusions, the present writer deems it worth while to call the attention of American students to certain associations of ideas and coincidences of date. The rite of blessing the candles for the year upon the second day of February, which is responsible for the naming of Candlemas, did not come into general usage until the eleventh century; but there is little doubt that here, as in other sun-light ceremonies, the Church but gave a tardy recognition to folk-thought, which proved too deeply rooted for eradication. The day has long been consecrated to the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, and the history of this holy day leads through the dusty mazes of early church tradition to yet more ancient folk-rites. The date of the festival depended 1 MM. L. Catelan et Marcel Baudouin, Discussion sur les Cupules, Saint-Ours, et le Soleil (Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Francaise, 14: p. 55).

* If the sun shines the 2d of February (Candlemas), there will be freezing weather for six weeks (or forty days; in Thuringia and Westphalia, four weeks); the badger (in Bohema, the bear) must stay that long under ground or in his lair (Silesia, Schwerin, Thuringia, Westphalia, Oldenburg, Tyrols). —A. WUTTKE, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart (3d ed., 1900), p. 82.

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