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It's as dark as a dungeon way down in the mine... |
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I never will forget one time when I was on a little visit down home in Ebenezer, Kentucky. |
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I was a-talkin' to an old man that had known me ever since the day I was born, and an old friend |
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of the family. He says, "Son, you don't know how lucky you are to have a nice job like you've got |
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and don't have to dig out a livin' from under these old hills and hollers like me and your pappy |
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used to." When I asked him why he never had left and tried some other kind of work, he says, |
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"Nawsir, you just won't do that. If ever you get this old coal dust in your blood, you're just |
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gonna be a plain old coal miner as long as you live." He went on to say, "It's a habit (CHUCKLE) |
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sorta like chewin' tobaccer." |
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Come and listen you fellows, so young and so fine, |
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And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mines. |
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It will form as a habit and seep in your soul, |
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'Till the stream of your blood is as black as the coal. |
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It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew, |
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Where danger is double and pleasures are few, |
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Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines |
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It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine. |
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It's a-many a man I have seen in my day, |
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Who lived just to labor his whole life away. |
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Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine, |
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A man will have lust for the lure of the mines. |
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I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll, |
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My body will blacken and turn into coal. |
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Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home, |
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And pity the miner a-diggin' my bones. |
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where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew, |
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Where danger is double and pleasures are few, |
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Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines |
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It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mind. |