A descriptive pathetic song and chorus from 1891.
Words and music by Charles Graham.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Far away beyond the glamor
Of the city and its strife
There’s a quiet little homestead by the sea
Where a tender, loving lassie
Used to live a happy life
Contented in her home as she could be
Not a shadow ever seemed to cloud
The sunshine of her youth
And they tho’t no sorrow could her life befall
But she left them all one evening
And their sad hearts knew the truth
When her father turned her picture to the wall
Refrain
There’s a name that’s never spoken
And a mother’s heart half broken
There is just another missing
From the old home, that is all
There is still a mem’ry living
There’s a father unforgiving
And a picture that is turned toward the wall
- They have laid away each token
Of the one who ne’er returns
Ev’ry trinket, ev’ry ribbon that she wore
Tho’ it seems so long ago now
Yet the lamp of hope still burns
And her mother prays
To see her child once more
Tho’ no tidings ever reach them
What her life or lot may be
Tho’ they sometimes think
She’s gone beyond recall
There’s a tender recollection
Of a face they never see
In the picture that is turned toward the wall
Sung here by Fred Feild: