"Listen to My Prayerful Pleading" (1874)
Air: "Do Not Turn Me From Your Door" [by Hays, 1872]
Song and Mixed Chorus
by William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907
from "Living Waters, A Collection of Popular
Temperance Songs, Choruses, Quartets, Etc."

[Source: 1874-10901@LoC;
New York: J. L. Peters, Plate No. 7487-3]

1.
Listen to my prayerful pleading,
For my mother's very poor;
I have come to ask a penny,
Do not turn me from your door!
Mother's sick, and weak and feeble,
And she sent me on the street;
For my father is a drunkard,
And we've nothing home to eat!

CHORUS
Please, ma'am won't you give me something?
I'll not come here any more;
Father drinks, Oh! please, take pity
Do not turn me from your door!

2.
Kindly wait, and let me tell you,
That my brother's drown'd at sea,
And my poor, heart broken mother,
Has no children, ma'am but me.
Do not spurn me, do not shun me,
I'm a child and nothing more;
Give me something, if but pity, --
Do not turn me from your door!

(CHORUS)

3.
Stranger, just one moment, listen;
You are rich, and we are poor;
I'll go home and say to mother
That you turned me from your door;
Goodbye, we can starve and suffer,
Yet we'll look to God and pray,
That when you go to Him begging,
He'll not turn your soul away.

(CHORUS)