New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-25

An old ballad which Miss McGill has
recovered with unusual completeness
is obviously No. 20 in the Child col
lection. where it is called "The Cruel
Mother" II is very common through
out Teutonic countries. The story IS
brief, but peculiarly grewsome.
maiden gives birth to two babies. To
hide her disgrace she takes them into
the country and staDs them TO death
with a penknife. Some time thereafter
while walking she comes across two
handsome little boys whom she ad-
dresses, telling them Of the kind treat
ment they should have if they were
her children. They make answer that
when they were hers theirs was
very different lot, accuse her Of her
wickedness and tell her of the punish
ment of he'll which is in store for
her. Of the versions which Professor
Child publishes two fragments were
printed in the last quarter of the eigh-
teenth century, two were written down
after 1900 and four we're printed for
the first time All the English YER
sions, says Child, are in two line
stanzas. All have a refrain Of two
lines. which varies considerably in the
different versions. The structural form
and the commonest of the refrains are
preserved in the Kentucky version.
In SCOTS "Minstrelsy' 0S03) the re-
trains are Fine flowers in the valley"
and "And the green leaves they grow
rarelv"; in Motherwell's "Minstrelsy"
they are Three, three and three and
three by three; in Kinlock's Ancient
Scottish Ballads" the lady lives in Lon
don and the refrains are "All alone
alone-ee" and Down by the Greenwood
sac bonny"; In MotherwelPs Ms. and
Note Book the lady lives In Lurk and
the refrains are "Sing hey alone and
alonie, O" and "Down by yon green
wood sidey, o.; in Buchan's Ballads
Of the North of Scotland there is
triple burden: Edinburgh, Edinburgh"
Stirling for aye" and $50 proper
Saint Johnston stands fair upon Tay."
In a variant printed in Notes and
Queries" from Warwickshre very
incomplete fragment the refrains are
"All alone, alone, o" and "Sown the
greenwood side, o.; in Motherwell's
Ms. collected in 1925 the burdens are
"All in a lone and alonie, o" and
Down by the greenwood sideie, o. IN
Motherwell's MS. Hey and a 10 and
q lily O" and Down by the greenwood
sidey. o.; In "The Scottish Minstrel
by Smith. Fine flowers in the Valley
and And the green leaves they grow
rarely; in fragment, but one stanza,
from County Meath, Ireland, collected
about 1860, "All lee and aloney, o.
and "Down by the greenwood sidey, o."
In Buchan's Ballads of the North OF
Scotland" and Christie's Traditional
Ballad Airs" there is a version which
begins thus:
The minister's daughter OF Sew York.
Hey wi the rose and the Indie. O.
ia. fssn IN love vi her fathers clerk.
Alone By TIE green burn side. q.
The change of location as the scene
Of the tragedy is significant, as is also
the fact that the only version which
has gotten into the Journal Of the Eng
4 hsh Folk-Song Society reached it from
American sources. In No. 7 OF the
Journal, published in 1905, there is a
single verse
siy dear little children you vere mine
All alone and Lonie o.
ia dress you Up IN slh 20 fine
Down ty lie green woody s.isy. o.
which the editor notes as sung by
Mrs. A. r. Martin, Of Anchorage, KY,
L. S. A.; tune notes BY Miss Esther
White, New Jersey, L. 5. A." The
editor adds a note: Miss Esther
White. who communicates this song.
writes that Mrs. A. r. Martin learned 1t
as a child from the singing Of her
grand-aunt, and that lately she heard it
"a, -, rncr ,rbttei