She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured

DESCRIPTION: A pack of boys jeer at "a girl who had fallen to shame." An old woman declares "She is more to be pitied than censured," and points out that "a man was the cause of it all." A clergyman, too, hopes she will find God's pity
AUTHOR: William B. Gray (died 1932)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (sheet music published by W. B. Gray & Co.)
KEYWORDS: infidelity help
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 190-191, "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 267, "She Is More To Be Pitied Than Censured" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 117, "(She is more to be pitied than censured)" (1 fragment, from user Crypto-Willobie, posted September 27, 2021)
DT, PITYCENS*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 247-250, "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1898 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 92-95, "SHe Is More To Be Pitied, Than Censured" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SRW190 (Partial)
Roud #15477
RECORDINGS:
Richard Brooks & Reuben Puckett, "She's More To Be Pitied Than Censured" (Brunswick 281, 1928; Supertone S-2075, 1930)
Four Aces, "She's More to be Pitied" (Bluebird B-7765/Montgomery Ward M-7724, 1938)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "She's More to be Pitied than Censured" (Melotone 12241 [may have been issued as by Bob Lester & Bud Green], 1931; Conqueror 8004 [as Mac and Bob], 1932; rec. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Old Nellie Stay" (theme)
NOTES [147 words]: According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 79, author William B. Gray's first career was as a professional boxer. An interesting career change. Other songs in the Index by Gray include "Jack and Joe" and "The Volunteer Organist."
David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 28, says that "[Gray] published it with this note on the cover: 'The theme of this song is indeed a delicate one to handle, and is offered in sympathy, and not defense, for the unfortunate erring creatures, the life of one of whom suggested its construction.' It became the epitome of the tear-jerker. Today it has come down as a parody of itself. The Gay Nineties! Think again." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SRW190

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