Timothy James Scarlett wrote:

> Hello everyone!
>
> While banging away on my dissertation, I have another need for an
> obscure piece of old-world folklore.  Since HISTARCH is the single
> greatest resource I know for obscure fragments of odd information,
> here it goes--
>
> I have found a mention of a song, and was curious if anyone knew the
> song or a reference where I might find the lyrics.  The reference is
> as follows:
>
> "[Potter Hansen of Hyrum, Utah,] liked to sing, and was sometimes
> heard singing about the yard as he worked. One song he sang was
> 'There's many a slip, twixt the cup and the lip'" (Nielsen 1963:
> 88-89).

Tim,
I did a search at   http://www.mudcat.org   for you and only came up with a
single song entitled "A-smokin his cigar".  This song was a political song
for U.S. Grant and so is probably later than the time period that you are
looking for.  The mudcat cafe is an excellent folk song site and has a nice
searchable lyric section (plus a midi player so you can hear the tune), a
great service to us who like traditional music as well as history and
culture.
Lon
"Why live in the 21st century when the 17th, 18th and 19th are still
available?"