thanks for this one John and all the historical info. The only reason I knew of this one was because the banjo player Charlie Poole used to play it with his ramblin bunch of musos apparently...right around the time you describe.
And last year Loudon Wainwright included a take on it on his 'High Wide and Hansome' 2CD tribute to Poole. I'll go dig it out and try putting up that version, just to give you an idea of what he did with it. In any case it's just funny stuff, great lyricism and more than a bit sad...