Now pass the word around;
Pull off your shoes now and walk light;
Ashland is holy ground.

Bill Neal he came from Virginia,
A grand and noble State,
But his associates were bad
And he has shared their fate.

Bill Neal he saw Miss Emma Thomas,
So beautiful and fair
That all his hellish greed of lust
Seemed to be centered there.

Bill Neal he was a married man,
Had children and a wife;
And ofttimes bragged what he would do,
If it should cost his life.

Bill Neal done what he said he would,
And yet a greater sin;
Then with a great big huge crowbar
Broke Emma's skullbones in.

Yes, Bill Neal done just what he said,
And yet that greater sin,
For which the gates of Heaven closed
And will not let him in.

Now while his victim is in Heaven,
Where all things are done well,
There with the angels glorified,
Bill Neal will go to hell.

THE DEATH OF MARY PHAGAN

Leo M. Frank, manager of the pencil factory, was a Jew. Sentiment ran
high against him at the time of the murder. This ballad was composed by
young Bob Salyers of Cartersville, Georgia, who heard the story on all
sides. He could neither read nor write.

Come listen all ye maidens,
A story I'll relate
Of pretty Mary Phagan
And how she met her fate.

Her home was in Atlanta
And so the people say,
She worked in a pencil factory
To earn her meager pay.

She went down to the office
One April day, it's said;
The next time that they saw her,
Poor Mary, she was dead.

They found her outraged body--
Oh, hear the people cry--
"The fiend that murdered Mary
Most surely he must die."

James Conley told the story,
"'Twas Leo Frank," he said,
"He strangled little