I introduced Lies in the Sky and part 1 of 3 of The Hangman by Ogden; I concluded with Before You Accuse Me.
Here are the lyrics to part 1
THE HANGMAN By Maurice Ogden
1..................... 5
Into our town the Hangman came,
2........................
6
Smelling of gold and blood
and flame.
6.....................................2
And he paced our
bricks with a diffident air,
5................................ 1
And built his
frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by
the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A
frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the
courthouse door.
And we wondered,
whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted
hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we
were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you
raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in
the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall
earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and
laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we
breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was
our relief
And the gallows-frame on
the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for
his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun
looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And
stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the
courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at
his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With
his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing
and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman,
have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then
we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the
gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he
looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To
hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the
rope is new."
That's a thing I do, to stretch a rope when the rope is new
That's a thing I do, to stretch a rope when the rope is new
That's a thing I do, to stretch a rope when the rope is new
When the rope is new
