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Tell the miners' kids and wives, |
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There's a blast in the number five. |
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And the families |
|
I see standing at the gate. |
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The inspector years ago said number five's a deadly hole, |
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And the men most likely won't come out alive. |
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Waiting at the gate, we are waiting at the gate. |
|
Smoke and fire just roll and boil from that dark and deadly hole, |
|
While the miners' kids and wives wait at the gate. |
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The inspector told the boss, it was more than a year ago, |
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You're risking these men's lives in number five. |
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That hole's full of fumes and dust, full of high explosive gas, |
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But the boss said we'll just have to take the chance. |
|
Waiting at the gate, we are waiting at the gate. |
|
Smoke and fire just roll and boil from that dark and deadly hole, |
|
While the miners' kids and wives wait at the gate. |
|
Well the men in the number five kissed their wives and kids goodbye, |
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Then they walk with their lunch kits up the hill. |
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Everybody told the owner that this deadly day would come, |
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But he said we had to work to pay our bills. |
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Waiting at the gate, we are waiting at the gate. |
|
Smoke and fire just roll and boil from that dark and deadly hole, |
|
While the miners' kids and wives wait at the gate. |
|
Well I tried to get a look of the face |
|
I often know, |
|
As the men are carried out wrapped up in sheets. |
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I can hear the church bells ringing for the one hundred eleven dead, |
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I can hear the families weeping in the streets. |
|
Waiting at the gate, we are waiting at the gate. |
|
Smoke and fire just roll and boil from that dark and deadly hole, |
|
While the miners' kids and wives wait at the gate. |
|
This explosion struck on |
|
Wednesday, and |
|
I stood by the gate till |
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Saturday, |
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Till they laid my daddy out with the other men. |
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In the pocket of his shirt |
|
I found a little note he wrote, |
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Never go down in a dangerous mine again. |
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Waiting at the gate, we are waiting at the gate. |
|
Smoke and fire just roll and boil from that dark and deadly hole, |
|
While the miners' kids and wives wait at the gate. |
