The songs of this group are of the “good-night” type, being the meditations or confessions of criminals, while in prison and, usually, under sentence of death.

MACAFEE’S confession (Betty Stout), ii, 4aabb, 17ca: Orphaned at five years of age and reared by his uncle, MacAfee becomes wayward; later he marries, but falls in love with Betty Stout, poisons his wife, and speaks this confession under sentence of death.

Beauchamp’s confession, 4aabb, 7: Under sentence of death by Judge Davidge, for the murder of Sharpe (see VIII, end), Beauchamp pictures the meeting of himself and his victim in hell.

Jack COMBS’S death song, ii, 4abcb and 4abcb, 3: Jack Combs, dying, tells of his murder by an unknown man, and gives directions for his burial rites. (Based upon The Dying Cowboy, page 15.)

Tom smith’s death song, ii, 3a(bis)4b3c and 3a(bis) 4b3c, 2: The condemned man, standing on the scaffold, asks his friends not to lament his death, since he is leaving them in peace on earth.

The rich and rambling boy, iii, 4aabb, 8ca: He marries a wife whose “maintenance” is so great that he is compelled to “rob on the broad highway.” He is sent to Frankfort [Ky.] prison, but in this song he pictures his pardon and return home.

[In Rowan county jail], 3abcb, 6: While here awaiting trial for robbery, the prisoner is visited by his sweetheart Lula, with “ten dollars in each hand,” to “go on his bail.”

Last night as I Lay sleeping, 3abcb, 6: A prisoner in the Knoxville [Tenn.] jail dreams of his home and sweetheart, but is rudely awakened by the turnkey to hear his death-sentence passed.

Edward Hawkins, 4abcb, 9ca: Under sentence of death for murder, he warns his comrades by his example, welcomes death bravely, and invites them to see his execution twenty-eight days hence.

Rowdy boys, metre as below, 5: A “rowdy” youth scorns his mother’s warning, serves a term in the Frankfort State Prison for homicide, and comes back home still a “rowdy.” The first stanza is:

I heard my mother talking; I took it all for fun.
She said I would ride the Frankfort train, before I was twenty-one.