Key: G
Introduction:
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Take a trip with me in 1913
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To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country.
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I'll take you to a place called EYE talian Hall
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Where the miners&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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are having their big Christmas ball.
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I'll take you indoor, and up a high stair.
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There's singin' and dancin', it's heard everywhere,
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I'll let you shake hands with the people you see
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And watch&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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the kids dance round the big Christmas tree.
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There's singin' and dancin' and songs in the air,
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An' the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere,
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Before you know, you're friends with us all
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And you're dancin'&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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around and around in the hall.
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You ask about work and you ask about pay
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They'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day,
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Just workin' the copper claims, riskin' their lives,
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So it's fun&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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to spend Christmas with children and wives.
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A little girl sits by the Christmas tree lights
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To play piano, she gotta keep quiet.
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To hear all this fun you would not realize
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That the copper&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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-boss thug-men are millin' outside.
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The copper-thugs stuck their heads through the door
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One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire!"
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A lady, she hollered, "There's no such a thing!
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Keep on &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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with your party, there's no such thing."
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A few people rushed, and it's only a few.
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"It's just the scabs and the thugs foolin' you."
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A man grabbed his daughter and he carried her down,
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But the thugs&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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held the door and he could not get out.
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And then others followed, a hundred or more,
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But most everybody remained on the floor.
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The scabs and the thugs they still laughed at their joke,
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And the children&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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were smothered on the stairs by the door.
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Such a terrible sight I never did see,
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We carried our children back up to their tree.
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The scabs and the thugs they still laughed at their spree,
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And the children&hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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that died there were seventy-three.
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The piano played a slow funeral tune,
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But the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon,
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The parents they weep and the miners they moan,
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"See &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip &hellip .
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what your greed for money has done."