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Take a trip with me in 1913 |
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To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country |
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I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall |
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And the miners are having their big Christmas Ball |
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I'll take you in a door and up a high stairs |
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Singing and dancing is heard everywhere |
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I'll let you shake hands with the people you see |
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And watch the kids dance round that big Christmas tree |
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There's talking and laughing and songs in the air |
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And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere |
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Before you know it, you're friends with us all |
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And you're dancing around and around in the hall |
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You ask about work and you ask about pay |
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They'll tell you that they make less than a dollar a day |
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Working the copper claims, risking their lives |
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So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives |
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Hey, little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights |
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To play the piano, so you gotta keep quiet |
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To hear all this fun you would not realize |
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That the copper boss thug men are milling outside |
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The copper boss thugs stuck their heads in the door |
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One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire" |
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A lady, she hollered, "There's no such a thing |
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Keep on with your party, there's no such a thing" |
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A few people rushed and it's only a few |
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"It's just the thugs and the scabs fooling you" |
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A man grabbed his daughter and he carried her down |
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But the thugs held the door and he could not get out |
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And then others followed, a hundred or more |
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But most everybody remained on the floor |
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The gun thugs they laughed at their murderous joke |
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And the children were smothered on the stairs by the door |
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Such a terrible sight I never did see |
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We carried our children back up to their tree |
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The scabs outside still laughed at their spree |
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And the children that died there were seventy three |
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The piano played a slow funeral tune |
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And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon |
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The parents they cried and the miners they moaned |
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"See what your greed for money has done" |
