Jimmie Brown the Newsboy

DESCRIPTION: Singer, Jimmie Brown, the newsboy of the town, wears no hat or shoes, and is cold and hungry. [He wanders from place to place.] He tells of his drunkard father, who has abandoned the family. His mother says he will "sell the gospel news" in heaven
AUTHOR: Almost certainly Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (published by J. L. Peters)
KEYWORDS: poverty travel abandonment work drink father worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, JIMBROWN
Roud #4996
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy" (Victor 23554, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-5027, 1936; rec. 1929)
Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys, "Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy" (Columbia 20830, 1951)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Jim the Newsboy" (plot)
cf. "Poor Little Joe" (The Dying Newsboy)
NOTES [125 words]: Almost no one lists a composer for this song, but the Harry Fox Agency has two separate listings. One is for A. P. Carter, the other is for Jimmy Rodgers and George Vaughan. I'm inclined to believe the former, since I've found no evidence Rodgers ever recorded the song, but on the other hand he seems to have collaborated with Vaughan on at least one other song. - PJS
Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne point out, however, that there is sheet music from 1875 copyrighted by Will S. Hays. And it sounds like a Hays composition. I'm all but certain that that attribution is the correct one. The others were just putting their names on a public domain song.
For background on newsboys in New York, see the notes to "Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJBtNew

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