Woody Guthrie - 1913 Massacre

Take a trip with me in 1913,
To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country.
I will take you to a place called Italian Hall,
Where the miners are having their big
Christmas ball.
I will take you in a door and up a high stairs,
Singing and dancing is heard everywhere,
I will let you shake hands with the people
you see,
And watch the kids dance around the big
Christmas tree.
You ask about work and you ask about pay,
They'll tell you they make less than a dollar
a day,
Working the copper claims, risking their
lives,
So it's fun to spend Christmas with children
and wives.
There's talking and laughing and songs in the
air,
And the spirit of Christmas is there
everywhere,
Before you know it you're friends with us
all,
And you're dancing around and around in the
hall.
Well 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
thing."
A few people rushed and it was only a few,
"It's just the thugs and the scabs fooling
you,"
A man grabbed his daughter and carried her
down,
But the thugs held the door and he could not
get out.
And then others followed, a hundred or
more,
But most everybody remained on the floor,
The gun thugs they laughed at their
murderous joke,
While 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 were
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 miners they
moaned,
"See what your greed for money has done."