Digital Tradition Mirror

The Charge on Mother Jones

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

The Charge on Mother Jones
(William M. Rogers)

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!

Note: Mr. Rogers, recited this to the W. Virginia Federation of
Labor sometime between 1917 and 1920. It doesn't have a formal
tune, but it should. Try John Brown's Body. RG

From Only a Miner, Green
RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!