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 filled Joe's barroom on the corner of the
And as songs and witty came through the open door
A vagabond slowly in and posed upon the floor.
"Where did it from?" Someone said. "The wind has blown it in?"
"What does it want?" cried, "Some whiskey, rum or gin?"
"Here, Toby, seek him, if stomach's equal to the work!"
"I wouldn't touch him with a fork, why, he's as as a Turk."
This badinage the poor wretch took with stoical good
In fact, he smiled as though he he'd struck the proper place
"Come, boys, I know there's kindly among so good a crowd
Why, to be in such good company would a deacon proud."
"Give me a drink - what I want - I'm out of funds, you know
When I had to treat the gang, this hand was never slow
What? You laugh as tho' you thought this pocket held a sou
Why, I was as well, my boys, as anyone of you."
"There, thanks - that's braced me nicely - God you one and all
Next time I pass this good saloon, make another call
Give you a song? No, I can't do that - my singing are past
My is cracked and my throat's worn out and my lungs are going fast.
"Say, Give me another whiskey and I'll tell you what do
I'll tell you a funny story and a I promise, too
That I was ever a decent man, not a one of you think
But, I was some four of five years back - say, give us drink.
"Fill her up, Joe, I to put some life into my frame
little drinks, to a bum like me, are miserably tame
Five - there, that's the scheme - and corkin' whisky, too
Well, here's luck, boys; and landlord, my regards to you.
"You've treated me pretty kindly and I'd like to you how
I to be the dirty sot you see before you now
As I you once, I was a man with a muscle, frame and health
And, but for a blunder, to have made considerable wealth.
"I was a painter - not one that daubed on and wood
But an artist and for my age, was rated good
I worked hard at my canvas and I was bidding to rise
'Coz gradually I saw the star of before my eyes.
"I made a picture perhaps you've seen, called the 'CHASE OF FAME'
It brought me fifteen hundred pounds and added to my
And I met a woman - now comes the funny part
With eyes that petrified my and sunk into my heart.
"Why don't you laugh? it's that the vagabond you see
Could ever love a woman and 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 your soul you'd
With a form like the Milo Venus, too to live
With eyes like the purest of diamonds and a wealth of chestnut
If so, 'twas she, for there never was half so fair.
"I was working on a one afternoon in May
Of a boy, a friend of mine, who lived across the way
And admired it and much to my surprise
Said she'd like to the man that had such dreamy eyes.
"It didn't take to know him and before the month had flown
My had stole my darlin' and I was left alone
And ere a of misery had passed above my head
The that I had treasured so, had tarnished and was dead.
"That's why I took to drink, boys - why, I never saw you
I you'd be amused and laughing all the while
Why, what's the matter - friend? a teardrop in your eye
Come, laugh like me; why 'tis only and women that would cry.
"Say, boys, if you'd give me just another whiskey, I'll be glad
And draw right here a picture of the face that drove me mad
Give me that of chalk with which you mark the baseball score
And you see the lovely Madeline upon the barroom floor."
Another drink and chalk in hand the vagabond began
To sketch a that well might buy the soul of any man
And then as he placed another lock the shapely head
With a fearful shriek, he and fell across the picture - dead.