SPRINGHILL MINE DISASTER
(learned from Chris Selsor and Allen Kaplan in 1961)
In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia,
In the town of Springhill you don't sleep easy,
In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia,
Down at the coal face, miners working,
Twelve men lay two miles down from the pit shaft,
Three days passed and the lamps gave out,
Listen for the shouts of the barefaced miners,
Eight long days and some were rescued,
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)
Down in the dark of the Cumberland mine,
There's blood on the coal and the miners lie
In the roads that never saw sun nor sky,
In the roads that never saw sun nor sky.
Often the earth will rattle and roll.
When the earth is restless, miners die,
'Cause blood and bone is the price of coal,
Blood and bone is the price of coal.
Late in the year of 'fifty-eight,
Day still comes and the sun still shines,
But it's dark as the grave in the Cumberland mine,
Dark as the grave in the Cumberland mine.
Rattle of the belt and the cutter's blade,
Rumble of rock and the walls close round,
The living and the dead men two miles down,
Living and the dead men two miles down.
Twelve men lay in the dark and sang.
Long hot days in a miners' tomb
That was three feet high and a hundred long,
Three feet high and a hundred long.
And Caleb Rushton, he up and says,
There's no more water, or light, or bread,
So we'll live on songs and hope instead,
Live on songs and hope instead.
Listen for the sounds of a rescue team,
Six hundred feet through coal and slag
To hope imprisoned in a three-foot seam,
Hope imprisoned in a three-foot seam.
Leaving the dead to lie alone,
Through their lives they dug their grave,
Two miles of earth for a marking stone,
Two miles of earth for a marking stone.