Dark as a Dungeon

Whooee! Well, friends, there's bad news 'bout them there pore fellers who was trapped in that there coal mine down in West Virginny. When I toddled off t' my sleepy-bye last night 'round 12:30, the CTV Newsnet was sayin' they'd found 12 o' the 13 miners alive. My mornin' paper sed they was dead but I told Ma that weren't so. I flipped over t' the CNN last night, too, an' they was sayin' the same as CTV that there was 12 fellers alive. Now, it turns out there's only one alive an' he's doin' poorly. It's a damn shame, no two ways, when a workin' feller hasta risk life an' limb t' make a livin'.

Back a long time ago, sumbuddy (I ain't sure who) wrote a song 'bout diggin' coal an' it come t' mind jest now. Here's the words:

Dark as a Dungeon

Come all you young fellows so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune way down in the mine
It will form like a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood flows as black as the coal

(Chorus:)
It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
The danger is doubled and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine

There's many a man I have seen in my day
Who lived just to labor his whole life away
Like the fiend with his dope and the drunkard his wine
A man can have lust for the lure of the mine

(Chorus)

Oh when I am dead and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-digging my bones

(Chorus)


I'm gonna try singin' it an' I'll post up a MP3 if I can.

UPDATE: Well, I made a mp3 audio recordin' o' me singin' that there tune an' I'm dedicatin' it t' them pore fellers an' their pore families.

I don't reckon anybuddy from West Virginny reads my little boog but I'm sendin' out my sympathy anyways. It's a heartbreakin' story. 'Specially, when they thought the fellers was alive an' now they're all dead 'cept fer the one.

Yores trooly,
JimBobby