Ballad of the Village Cobbler

1^st Verse

“Max, Max, give us some wax,

Off o’ your bench o’ pegs an’ tacks;

Give us some wax to chew today

Or we will drive your trade away.

Ol’ ‘Daddy Hall’ kin mend a shoe

Every bit ez good ez you;

Max, Max, give us some wax

Off o’ your bench o’ pegs an’ tacks.”

-       The Black Wax Song

The ol’ cobbler set at his bench all day

An’ pegged on his shoes in a hum-drum way;

He drove in his awl, an’ he drove in his pegs

Till he scarce could stan’ on his ol’ lean legs;

All day you could pass by his ol’ shoe shop

But you never could hear his ol’ maul stop.

It was “tap, tap, tap,” an’ twas “whack, whack, whack,”

When you went down town an’ you come long back.

The boys of the village they used to stop

On their way to school at the old shoe shop

To beg of the cobbler an’ chew of his wax

Which was black as your hat an’ tough as an axe;

Sometimes he would give it, and sometimes not,

For his words were cold and his moods were hot,

But he never would miss his old “tap, tap, tap,”

On the sole he held ‘neath his old foot strap.

Sometimes he would say in his sing-song way,

“Your teacher she stopped here the other day

An’ furbid me to give ye’, an’ meant it too,

A single bit more uv my wax to chew.

She says she found it stuck into her chair

An’ it sp’iled her dress an’ it made her rare.

Go long with ye, now, you can’t hev no wax,”

An’ his hammer came down with its great big whacks.

An’ then they would sing him the song o’ “wax”,

A keepin’ good time with his steady whacks;

An’ above the sound uv his steady blows

The threat of the ol’ wax song arose

Till he throwed down his hammer an’ dropped his awl,

An’ there in his nasal tones he’d bawl:

“Well here is yer wax, now close yer yap!”

An’ he chased ‘em out with his ol’ shoe strap.

Then Max would slam his ol’ shoe shop door

An’ set down to peg on his soles once more,

An’ he smiled ez he thought of boys afraid

‘Cuz he liked their hearts an’ he liked their trade,

An’ he kep’ on hand, ef the truth they knew,

A-pleanty uv wax fur the boys to chew,

An’ he’d a-b’en lonesome the hull day long,

Ef they hedn’t a-sung him the ol’ wax song.

O, the years they came and the years they went

An’ a peaceful life the ol’ cobbler spent.

The youngsters grew up to a man’s estate

An’ some uv ‘em went to another state,

But when they returned they would seek ol’ Max

An’ sing him a song fur a piece o’ wax,

An’ they liked to hear the ol’ “tap, tap, tap,”

On the sole that lay in Cobbler’s lap.

Last Verse

“Max, Max, give us some wax,

Off o’ your bench o’ pegs an’ tacks;

Shoe shop an’ cobbler are no more,

The song has died with days of yore,

But now and then you lend an ear

An’ ketch a sound o’ yester year:

Max, Max, give us some wax

Off o’ your bench o’ pegs an’ tacks.”

Nov. 19, ‘09