It happened many years ago not many people know So I'll tell you the story of a hobo and the rose In our town a young man loved this lady fair He gave to her a white rose to wear in her hair But she in turn gave to him a rose that he would wear To prove that their love was true and that they'd always c But her father was a rich man the town respected him Since the young man was a poor man's son Their chance for love grew dim Her father forced upon her another man to wed And this put the young man on the tracks so the people said He became a hobo in dirty ragged clothes But upon the dirty clothes he wore he wore this one white rose He traveled far to many towns in his life upon the tracks But he never found another love so he decided to come back His sweetheart was still married her children numbered five Then one day she saw a crowd gathered by the railroad track By the sign of the one white rose she knew that he'd come back There she saw a beaten man in dirty ragged clothes She only recognized him by the one crushed white rose They buried him in a poor man's grave out on proper's hill With no one to mourn him but the lonely whippoorwill If you should pass his grave on a warm summer's night You'll see upon his grave a rose so clear and white (The next two lines are spoken) This is my story always I suppose The sad sad story of the hobo and the rose A hobo and the rose a hobo and the rose