Don't You Know (Way Over in Williamson)

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you know Billy Bryan will never get there? Don't you know? (x2) Billy McKinley will fill the chair.... Way over in Williamson, away over in the county where we grow...." "Don't you know Henry Jones will be our next clerk...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Bryan/McKinley election); field collection 1934 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad money gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - Republican William McKinley wins the presidential election over William Jennings Bryan
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 19-20, "Way Over in Williamson)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 408-410, "Don't You Know" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15137
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
NOTES [62 words]: The song is correct. William Jennings Bryan ran for President three times but was never elected. For some background on Bryan, and the Cross of Gold, and his three presidential runs, see "Free Silver." The silver issue is alluded to in this song, in the statement, "Sixteen to one makes the gold bug shiver." For that, too, see "Free Silver"; also, "Bye, Old Grover." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RDBW408

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