My Name Is John Johanna

My name is John Johanna;

I came from Buffalo town

For nine long years I've traveled

this wide, wide world around

Through ups and downs and miseries,

and some good days I saw

But I never knew what misery was '

til I went to Arkansas

I went up to the station,

the operator to find

Told him my situation

and where I wanted to ride

Said, "Hand me down five dollars, lad;

A ticket you shall draw

That'll land you safe by railway

in the state of Arkansas"

I rode up to the station

and chanced to meet a friend

Alan Catcher was his name

although they called him Cain

His hair hung down in rat tails

below his under-jaw

He said he run the best hotel

in the state of Arkansas

I followed my companion

to his respective place

Saw pity and starvation

was pictured on his face

His bread was old corn dodgers;

His beef I could not chaw

He charged me fifty cents a day

in the state of Arkansas

I got up that next morning

to catch that early train

He says, "Don't be in a hurry, lad;

I have some land to drain

You'll get your fifty cents a day

and all that you can chaw

You'll find yourself a different lad

when you leave old Arkansas"

I worked six weeks for the son of a gun;

Alan Catcher was his name

He stood seven feet two inches,

as tall as any crane

I got so thin on sassafras tea,

I could hide behind a straw

You bet I was a different lad

when I left old Arkansas

Farewell, you old swamp rabbits,

also you dodger pills

Likewise you walking skeletons,

you old sassafras eels

If you ever see my face again,

I'd hand you down my paw

I'd be looking through a telescope

from home to Arkansas