Verse
Take a trip with me in
1913
To
Calumet, Michigan, in the
copper
country.
I’ll take you to a place called
EYE talian
Hall
Where the
miners
are having their
big Christmas
ball.
Verse
I’ll take you indoor, a
nd
up a high stair.
Th
ere’s singin’ and dancin’,
it’s he
ard everywhere,
I’ll let you shake hands with the
people you
see
And watch…
the kids dance
round the big Christmas
tree.
Verse
There’s singin’ and
dancin’
and songs in the air,
An’ the spirit of Christmas
is there
everywhere,
Before you know, you’re friends
with us
all
And you’re
dancin’
around and around
in the
hall.
Verse
You ask about work and you ask
about
pay;
They’ll tell you they make less than a
dollar a
day,
Just workin’ the copper claims,
riskin’ their
lives,
So it’s
fun
to spend Christmas with ch
ildren and wiv
es.
Verse
A little girl sits by the Christmas
tree
lights
To
play piano, she gotta keep
quiet.
To hear all this fun you would
not
realize
That the
copper
-boss thug-men are
millin’
outside.
Verse
The copper-thugs stuck their heads through
the
door
One of them yelled and he screamed,
”There’s a
fire!”
A lady, she hollered, “There’s
no such a
thing!
Keep
on
with your party,
there’s no such
thing.”
Verse
A few people rushed, and it’s only
a
few.
”It’s just the scabs and the
thugs foolin’
you.”
A man grabbed his daughter and he
carried her
down,
But the
thugs
held the door and he
could not get
out.
Verse
And then others followed, a hundred
or
more,
Bu
t most everybody remained on
the
floor.
The scabs and the thugs they still
laughed at their
joke,
And the
children
were smothered on the
stairs by the
door.
Verse
Such a terrible sight I never
did
see,
We carried our children back up to
their
tree.
The scabs and the thugs they still
laughed at their
spree,
And the
children
that died there were
seventy-
three.
Verse
The piano played a slow
funeral
tune,
But the town was lit up by a
cold Christmas
moon,
The parents they weep and the
miners they
moan,
“See
what your greed
for money has
done.”
Outro