Jimmie Rodgers - I've Ranged, I've Roamed, I've Traveled lyrics

I've ranged, I've roamed and I've travelled I've been a no good they say Many years of my life I have wasted But I'll stop leading that life today I had a dear old mother A dad and a sister too But I was the youngest and spoiled they say By mother as mothers will do I left when a kid for the city I craved the great white way But it is a place without pity I went wrong the very first day I met there a painted lady She seemed so jolly and gay She took me to her apartment Where a dozen or more men stay It was her gang she was their boss They talked oh the fun thy had We all played poker and soon I lost Every nickel that I had They said come on kid and cheer up We'll let you join our gang They took me out on a job that night And then my troubles begin Oh some of the mob shot the watchmen And they layed the blame on me I finished 20 years in prison I'm a man of 43 It was then I thought of my mother At home so feeble and grey I could see her throwing kisses at me As she did when I went away I sat down and wrote her a letter And this is how it ran It said mother I've been gone For twenty long years Out west on that Rio Grande No mail ever reaches me there There's nothing but sagebrush and sand Mother I love you and want to come home And start life all over again