"The Tramp on the Street" was written by Grady and Hazel Cole. In 1877 White, Smith & Co. of Boston published a song entitled "Only A Tramp!" that was composed by Dr. Addison D. Crabtre. The first verse of the song tells about a night watchman finding, dead on the street, a tramp who, according to a coroner, had died of starvation. The second verse asks the listener:     "If Jesus was here and asked at your door     A place to rest in, and food from your store     As once he thus wander'd with poverty's stamp     Would you turn Him away as only a tramp?" Dorothy Horstman, in Sing Your Heart Out Country Boy, states that Cole's composition, "The Tramp On The Street", was "patterned after" Crabtre's song. The title and chorus of the country gospel classic, which was made famous by Cole during the late 1930s and 1940s, bear a strong resemblance to the earlier song. Instead of the anonymous tramp in Crabtre's first verse, Cole, in his first verse speaks of the Biblical Lazarus who was left to "die like a tramp on the street". The song went through several alterations, mainly in the tune. Most modern renditions use a tune different from the Cole's tune which seems to date back to the recordings of Molly O'Day and Hank Williams. It was first recorded by Grady and Hazel Cole in 1939. It was also recorded by Molly O'Day, Hank Williams, The Skillet Lickers, George Jones, The Statler Brothers, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary and others. I learned it from the Joan Baez recording. The version given here is a composite of those of Hank Williams and Joan Baez.