Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone)

DESCRIPTION: "Two little children, a boy and a girl, Sat by the old church door." The ragged, dirty children tell of their poverty: "Papa was lost out on sea long ago... Mama's in heaven, angels took her away." They are too young to work. They die before morning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: orphan death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 150, "Two Little Children" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 150, "Two Little Children" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 32, "Two Little Children" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 17-18, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #80, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 178, "Two Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 287-290, "Two Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 126-127, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 35, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ORPHNLAM
Roud #458
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Two Little Orphans (or Left Jim and I Alone)" (on BGarland01)
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Two Little Orphans -- Our Mama's In Heaven" (Edison 51935, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5338, 1927); "Two Little Orphans" (OKeh, unissued, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Blue Ridge Cornshuckers, "The Two Little Orphans" (Victor 21648)
Arthur Tanner, "Two Little Children" (Columbia 15180-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Row Us Over the Tide" (subject)
cf. "I Saw the Pale Moon Shining on Mother's White Tombstone" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Two Little Strikers (by Ella May Wiggins) ((no author listed), _Let's Stand Together: The Story of Ella Mae Wiggins_, Metrolina Chapter, National Organization for Women (Charlotte, NC), 1979, p. 22) (Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 195)
NOTES [285 words]: Paul/Paul, pp. 37-41, have a story about the origin of this song: In 1886, the three-masted schooner Chrissie Wright, with a cargo of phosphates and a crew of seven, was on a voyage from Rio in Brazil to New York City. Off the North Carolina Outer Banks, on the night of January 11, 1886, a great storm blew up off Cape Lookout, Captain Zeb Collins, knowing the danger of the area, tried to take in the sails and anchor. But the ship dragged its anchors and went aground.
People on shore saw the wreck, but in the rain and ice, they could do nothing to help. Six of the seven men on the Chrissie Wright were killed; only the cook (who had huddled with four others and been sheltered by their bodies) survived. Even he was affected in his mind, and died a year later.
The wreck of the Chrissie Wright inspired North Carolina to establish lifesaving stations.
On p. 42, Paul/Paul prints a text they call "The Coast Guardsman's Children" -- recognizably this, though it has a few words I don't recall seeing elsewhere. Note that the song calls the father a "life-saving captain," so the situation fits.
The only part of this I can directly verify is that a schooner called the Chrissie Wright was wrecked at Lookout Shoals on January 11, 1886, with the loss of six lives (Stick, p. 250). Powell, p. 673, says that the U. S. Lifesaving Service was established in North Carolina as early as 1874. However, it had only seven stations at the time, with 22 others established later. So perhaps the wreck of the Chrissie Wright encouraged the founding of one near Cape Lookout. Whether that had any connection to this song is doubtful, although it is not impossible that the song is indeed about the USLSS. - RBW
Bibliography

Paul/Paul: Mary & Grayden Paul, Carteret County, North Carolina: History and Folklore, The History Press, 2008
Powell: William S. Powell, editor, Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, 2006
Stick: David Stick, Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast, University of North Carolina Press, 1952

Last updated in version 7.2
File: BrII150

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