"I've served my time in Hell"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Well, Fred, it's time to turn in the old brain.  I have unearthed my photocopy of Camp's _Mexican Border Ballads_, and not only do I have your word to lean on, I see a note in my personal handwriting saying "Does _not_ contain 'Our Hitch in Hell.'"

I apologize for the bum steer.

The reference to the Third Wyoming should be in the text printed anonymously in Lomax & Lomax, _American Ballads & Folksongs_ (1934), which I haven't been able to dig out yet.  Obviously, this could be a false memory as well, so I'll say no more about it, especially since a 1934 text is unlikely to be of any use to you.

Altogether, this has been a chastening experience.

At least we have the 1917 version, yes?

Jon

Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Fred Shapiro
Subject: Re: "I've served my time in Hell"
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On Sat, 7 May 2005, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> "Our Hitch in Hell." The author was Frank B. [Bernard] Camp (1882 -
> ?1967), and the poem appeared in his collection, _Mexican Border
> Ballads_ (Douglas, Ariz.: F. B. Camp, 1916). It was revised and
> reprinted in Camp's _American Soldier Ballads_ (L.A.: G. Rice & Sons,
> 1917). A Google search reveals that it was more than once adapted and
> passed on anonymously.

I have just obtained a photocopy of F. B. Camp, Mexican Border Ballads
(1916). In quickly looking through this I do not see "Our Hitch in Hell"
or anything resembling it in that book, assuming that all the pages were
photocopied properly. Is it possible that the above is mistaken?

Fred


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Fred R. Shapiro Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
Access and Lecturer in Legal Research Yale University Press,
Yale Law School forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu http://quotationdictionary.com
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