1913 Massacre

By Woody Guthrie Take a trip with me in nineteen thirteen To Calumet, Michigan in the copper country I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall And the miners are having their big Christmas ball I'll take you in a door and up a high stairs Singing and dancing is heard ev'rywhere I'll let you shake hands with the people you see And watch the kids dance 'round the big Christmas tree There's talking and laughing and songs in the air And the spirit of Christmas is there ev'rywhere Before you know it you're friends with us all And you're dancing around and around in the hall You ask about work and you ask about pay They'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day Working their copper claims, risking their lives So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives A little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights To play the piano so you gotta keep quiet To hear all this fun; you would not realize That the copper boss thug men are milling outside The copper boss thugs stuck their heads in 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 a thing." A few people rushed and there's only a few "It's just the thugs and the scabs fooling you." A man grabbed his daughter and he carried her down But the thugs held the door and he could not get out And then others followed, about a hundred or more But most everybody remained on the floor The gun thugs, they laughed at their murderous joke And the children were smothered on the stairs by the door Such a terrible sight I never did see We carried our children back up to their tree The scabs outside still laughed at their spree And the children that died there was seventy-three The piano played a slow funeral tune And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon The parents, they cried and the men, they moaned "See what your greed for money has done?"