An audio recording of "Take This Letter to My Mother." This was a popular ballad composed by William Shakespeare Hays (1837-1907) and first published in 1873. Joseph Voisin [00021] recorded two versus from this ballad in his journal, perhaps when he was about 16 or 17 years old.

Source: University of California Santa Barbara Library, "Preservation and Digitization Project," recording, Donald C. Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Special Collections (http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php: downloaded 3 April 2007), "Take This Letter to My Mother," Edison Amberol #1078, by Will Oakland and chorus, 1912.

The complete words to the ballad are:

Take This Letter to My Mother

Take this letter to my mother,
For across the deep blue sea,
It will fill her heart with pleasure,
She'll be glad to hear from me.
How she wept when last we parted,
How her heart was filled with pain,
When she said, "goodbye, God bless you,---
We may never meet again."

CHORUS
Take this letter to my mother,
Far across the deep blue sea,
It will fill her heart with pleasure,
She'll be glad to hear from me.

Take this letter to my mother,
It will fill her heart with joy,
Tell her that her prayers are answered,
God protects her absent boy/
Tell her to be glad and cheerful,
Pray for me where'er I roam,
And ere long I'll turn my footsteps
Back towards my dear old home.

(CHORUS)

Take this letter to my mother,
It is filled with words of love,
If on earth I'll never meet her,
Tell her that we'll meet above.
Where there is no hour of parting,
All is peace, and love, and joy,
God will bless my dear old mother,
And protect her only boy.

(CHORUS)