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