VD ABNER JAY terrible things tom dooley was a good man but he had a terrible girlfriend tom dooley was a confederate soldier he had sent this girl, laura foster, an engagement ring she was supposed to be truthfully waiting on him but she was waiting in a funny kinda way well, the same thing is going on today while boys in vietnam tom dooley had this gal's picture in his pocket on the battlefield and every chance he get he take this picture out and kiss all over it while he was kissing all over her picture on the battlefield some other cat back home was kissing all over the gal tom dooley returned home on may 1st, 1868 in wilkes county, north carolina laura foster saw him coming down on the trail on his jackass you weren't riding in a mustang or thunderbolt like you ride in today so she had his engagement ring hid in a snuff can tube rose snuff matter of fact, this is what made tube rose snuff famous she saw him coming out in the trail on the jackass she got his ring and put it on her finger and polished it off on the skirt to make it look as if she been wearing it all the time tom dooley sitting on his jackass he says: hello, laura since we now engaged, honey let's go up on the mountains, in the cabin on a pre-honeymoon well you see, nowadays you all go on pre-honeymoons and don't be engaged but in 1868 you had to be engaged to a gal to take on a pre-honeymoon they went up on the mountain on a pre-honeymoon and he contracted a venereal disease from this girl and in that day in time there was no cure for a venereal disease so he was in a hell of a shape so was the gal so tom dooley thought he was doing doing society a good deed in order to keep the gal from spreading the disease among others he took up on the mountain and killed the hell out of her