The patriotic soldiers came marching down the pike,
Prepared to shoot and slaughter in the Colorado strike;
With whiskey in their bellies and vengeance in their souls,
They prayed that God would help them shoot the miners full of holes.
In front of these brave soldiers loomed a sight you seldom see:
A white-haired rebel woman whose age was eighty-three.
"Charge!" cried the valiant captain, in awful thunder tones,
And the patriotic soldiers charged and captured Mother Jones.
'Tis great to be a soldier with a musket in your hand,
Ready' for any bloody work the lords of earth command.
'Tis great to shoot a miner and hear his dying groans
But never was such glory as that "charge" on Mother Jones!
Prepared to shoot and slaughter in the Colorado strike;
With whiskey in their bellies and vengeance in their souls,
They prayed that God would help them shoot the miners full of holes.
In front of these brave soldiers loomed a sight you seldom see:
A white-haired rebel woman whose age was eighty-three.
"Charge!" cried the valiant captain, in awful thunder tones,
And the patriotic soldiers charged and captured Mother Jones.
'Tis great to be a soldier with a musket in your hand,
Ready' for any bloody work the lords of earth command.
'Tis great to shoot a miner and hear his dying groans
But never was such glory as that "charge" on Mother Jones!
inviata da Dead End - 5/9/2012 - 11:47
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Canzone che nel saggio del ricercatore folklorico Archie Green intitolato “Only a Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal-Mining Songs” (University of Illinois Press, 1972) è attribuita a tal William M. Rogers, probabilmente testimone diretto dell’episodio.
Nell’album di Utah Phillips intitolato “Making Speech Free” del 2000
Testo trovato su Mudcat Café
Pochi mesi prima del Ludlow Massacre Mary Harris Jones, l’instancabile ed ormai anziana insegnante ed organizzatrice sindacale meglio nota con il nome di battaglia di “Mother Jones”, fu arrestata in Colorado mentre era impegnata ad aiutare i minatori in sciopero. Aveva già 76 anni e veniva da esperienze fondamentali e anche terribili per il movimento dei lavoratori, come il massacro di Virden, Illinois, del 1898, dove sette minatori furono uccisi dalle guardie della compagnia, come la “Children's Crusade” del 1901-03, la campagna contro il lavoro dei bambini in miniera e nella fabbriche, e come lo sciopero di Paint Creek in West Virginia del 1912, costato la vita a cinque minatori e l’incarcerazione della Jones per ben tre mesi…
Su Mother Jones si veda anche Mother Jones' Will di Nimrod Workman.