Coon Can (Poor Boy)
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-09-20

Day 186 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series

"I sat me down to play coon can, could scarcely read my hand..." I have admit, I've avoided this song my entire life, mainly because of the title. I always felt it included a racial slur. When I finally dug into the song, I found how wrong I was. Coon Can is an American mispronunciation of the Mexican card game "Conquien".

Conquien is a card game originally described as originating in the South West of the USA or from Mexico. It was first described in detail in R. F. Foster's Hoyle in 1897. According to David Parlett, it is ancestral to all modern rummy games.

Sandburg writes: "Of Fort Smith, Arkansas, we have heard. “There is no fort there and they have forgotten which Smith it was named after”

"It is a town where they sing Coon Can and Poor Boy; either name is correct, according to Kate Webber of Fort Smith and Chicago, who communicated the tune and one verse, other verses coming by fast freight with no demurrage from Jack Hagerty of Los Angeles.

"Its moral is plain: retribution overtakes the wrongdoer; years in the penitentiary are long. Folk song are often like this; they leave the hearer to piece out the story. . . .The boy is found guilty of killing a woman. Why he killed her, his excuses, and explanations, are not told. There must have been extenuating circumstances, or the jury was impressed by the youthful aspect of the prisoner at the bar, in addition to the mother's testimony that he was always a good boy. "

This song is another version of the song "Po' Boy" recorded on Day 15 of the American Songbag Stay-at-home Series.