Paddy on the Canal

DESCRIPTION: "When I landed in sweet Philadelphia, The weather was warm and was clear... And I ne'er reefed a sail in my rigging Till I anchored upon the canal." They cut through the mountains. "If happiness be in this wide world, I am sure it is on the canal."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Love-Among-the-Roses-Songster)
KEYWORDS: emigration work canal mother father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Love-Among-the-Roses-Songster, p. 11, "Paddy on the Canal" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1820, p. 123, "Paddy on the Canal" (4 references)
DT, PADDYCNL*
Roud #45706
BROADSIDES:
Library of Congress, "Paddy on the Canal," De Marsan (Chatham, NY), n.d.
NOTES [109 words]: At least one modern recording claims this is associated with the Erie Canal. I doubt it, partly because of its date (the song doesn't seem to be attested until after the Erie Canal was in business) but mostly because the singer landed in Philadelphia and then went into the mountains. This sounds more like the building of the Pennsylvania canal system of the 1830s; for some slight background on that, see the notes to "The Johnstown Flood (I)" [Laws G14]. The Pennsylvania canal was approved out of jealousy of the Erie Canal, and it required the designers to find a way through mountains much higher than anything the Erie Canal had had to deal with. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: LARS011

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