Those Lost Happy Days - song lyrics 
American Old-time song lyrics from www.traditionalmusic.co.uk 
THOSE LOST HAPPY DAYS Copyright, 1894, by Jos. W. Stern & Co. Written and Composed by Leo. Feist 
A rich farmer's son, having reached twenty-one, Determined the world he would see; Said he, "I've the money, why not have the fun? A man about town I will he." But the city's temptations he could not resist, Vice soon held him tight in its hold, Till disgraced, far away, his mother one day Wrote to him in anguish untold. 
Chorus. "Show your affection, come home once more, Let as be happy as in days of yore; Try to stop gambling, wild ways and rambling, Then will return, dear, those lost happy days. 
Advice went unheeded, he failed to return To a mother heart-broken and lone; Soon lower he went and to prison was sent For follies and sins to atone. Each day in his cell there his thoughts they would turn To home and to mother so dear, How she'd urged him in vain to sin not again, With words loving, kind und sincere.-Chorus. 
Life now past redemption, it seemed like a dream, The past and the grief he had sown; With sorrow distracted he cried when he learned Her spirit to heaven had flown. She died with a blessing and praying for him, That he might be saved from all sin, And pleading that he, though late, still should see The warning which she'd sent to Me.-Chorus.