Gatton Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "The night was dark and the moon in clouds; the stars they studded the sky, And gazing down on this fatal earth to see three innocents die" near Gatton. A mother waits for her children. At last word comes that they are dead; she faints
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: death mother children homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 31, 1898 - Norah, Ellen, and Mchael Murphy are murdered near Gatton, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 10, "The Gatton Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22592
NOTES [75 words]: As poetry, this strikes me as incredibly bad, and as a narrative, it is very unclear. Who died? Why? Who did it? If it was a mystery (which Scott's notes say it was), why doesn't the song say so? Collector Alan Scott says that many of the pieces he collected were fragmentary, and he filled them out. Usually he used other versions, but this piece seems to be unique. Possibly the defects are because there is just a little too much Scott in it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ScCol010

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