The Rag-Man

Full version:

“Rag-man, rag-man,
Taggy, taggy, rag-man,
Tell us what you’ve got there in your sack.”

“Oh—it’s full of rimes and riddles,
Jingles, jokes, and hi-de-diddles—
This bundle that I carry on my back.”

“O tell us, funny rag-man,
Grinny, skinny rag-man,
Where did you pick up your funny rimes?”

“Some were dancing with corn-flowers,
Some were hiding in church-towers,
And sprinkled helter-skelter by the chimes.”

“Rag-man, rag-man,
Nice old taggy rag-man,
Sing us just one jingle, tingle song.”

“Why, my dears, I’ve got a plenty,
Sing you one? I’ll sing you twenty—
I’ve been hoping you would ask me all along.”

First published in The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes (1918).

There really was a time when the rag-man came down the street, calling in singsong for old clothes, bones, or anything he could trade. He was part recycler, part traveler, part mystery. For their parents, he was just the rag-man. For the children, he was the kind of person who might trade a rhyme for a marble — or vanish in a puff of dust if you blinked too slowly.

You can’t help but feel a kind of fond amusement — a world like that could never exist today. These days, a man calling to children from the road would make everyone uneasy. But in the early 1900s, he was part of the rhythm of daily life — a reminder that the world was still wide and full of odd, wonderful people who didn’t quite fit anywhere but belonged everywhere.