This song was written by Peggy
Seeger I
believe. It reflects upon the
collapse of the coal mine at Springhill in 1958. I can't
recall
where I learned it. I still think it ranks up there as one of the most
compelling songs on the subject I have ever heard.
<---(me in 1980)
<---(me in 1980)
Lyrics
In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
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 town of Springhill, you don't sleep easy
Often the earth will tremble and roll
When the earth is restless, miners die
Bone and blood is the price of coal
In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
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
Down at the coal face, miners working
Rattle of the belt and the cutter's blade
Rumble of the rock and the walls closed round
The living and the dead men two miles down
Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft
Twelve men lay in the dark and sang
Long hot days in the miners tomb
It was three feet high and a hundred long
Three days past and the lamps gave out
Caleb Rushton he up and said
There's no more water and there's no more bread
So we'll live on song and hope instead
Listen for the shouts of the barefaced miners
Listen thru the rubble for a rescue team
Six hundred feet of coal and slag
Hope imprisoned in a three foot seam
Eight days passes and some were rescued
Leaving the dead to lie alone
Thru all their lives they dug their grave
Two miles of earth for a marking stone