Driver Boy, The [Laws G12]

DESCRIPTION: A teenage boy is too sick to drive his mule in the mines. His drunken father, thinking him lazy, beats him repeatedly. The boy dies of pneumonia; the father repents too late
AUTHOR: John A. Murphy (1900) (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: father mining disease death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G12, "The Driver Boy"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p.124, "The Driver Boy" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT 787, DRIVRBOY
Roud #3253
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Shoeblack" (tune, according to Korson)
NOTES [42 words]: The author of this song claims to have been an eyewitness and to have stepped in to keep the father from beating his son. It was, however, too late to save the boy from his pneumonia.
John A. Murphy is also credited with "The Twin-Shaft Disaster." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LG12

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