BSeed, I don't know 'Little Blossom' but I found a similar song in my database called 'Don't Go Out Tonight, Dear Father', which is on the Free Reed CD 'The Tale of Ale' that first came out as an LP in 1976. The notes (by Vic Gammon) say: "A temperance song from the mid-nineteenth century. Peter Davison has commented that 'temperance songs offer a perverse delight very different from the sober instruction their authors intended'. Such songs were often taken up by the music halls and sung with mock seriousness. [...] We include these temperance items to show we are not biased and to give the other side of the case."

DON'T GO OUT TONIGHT DEAR FATHER

Don't go out tonight dear father
Don't refuse this once I pray
Tell your comrades mother's dying
Soon her soul will pass away
Tell them too, of darling Willie
Him we also much do love
How his little form is drooping
Soon to bloom again above

Don't go out tonight dear father
Think oh think how sad 'twill be
When the angels come to take her
Papa won't be there to see
Tell me that you love dear mama
Lying in that cold cold room
You don't love your comrades better
Cursing there in that saloon

Oh dear father do not leave us
Think oh think how sad 'twill be
When the angels come to take her
Papa won't be there to see
Oh dear father do not leave us
Think oh think how sad 'twill be
When the angels come to take her
Papa won't be there to see

Morning found the little pleader
Cold and helpless on the floor
Lying where he madly struck her
On that chilly night before
Lying there with hands uplifted
Feebly uttering words of prayer
Heavenly father please forgive him
Reunite us all up there

Don't go out tonight dear father
Think oh think how sad 'twill be
When the angels come to take her
Father won't be there to see

The tune is a worthy match to the words. Sorry, but I have no means of reproducing it. Try to get the CD if you're really interested. Or maybe someone else has it? - Susanne