Alex Sturbaum 2017
Alex Sturbaum: https://alexsturbaum.bandcamp.com/track/union-pacific
https://alexsturbaum.bandcamp.com/track/union-pacific
When first unto this country I was twenty years of age Seeking for adventure and for glory I crossed the broad Atlantic, and upon the landing stage I vowed that there would be a life here for me Now I knew no life but farming and the shovel and the plow I did intend to leave so far behind me For my blood had poured on down into that hard and stony ground And I vowed no more that in the fields you’d find me In New York town the work was scarce and every door was barred And more poured through the harbor every morning My back was strong, my shoulders broad, my hands were rough and hard But tighter grew my belt with each new dawning So with my last Yankee dollar I took passage on a train And lit out west in search of better times I landed in Wyoming, where it’s first I heard the name Of Durant and the Union Pacific railroad line Chorus: And it’s bad luck to the barons and the bosses on the line ÿFor they’ll break a workman’s body and they’ll rob him of his time ÿThey’ll say the pay is decent, but I tell you boys, it’s true ÿYou can only break so many stones before the stones break you ÿYou can only break so many stones before the stones break youÿ Now the Union Pacific was to be a grand affair And stretch from California to Missouri There were hands aplenty needed, and they said the pay was fair And of it they spun such a lovely story Mr. Durant had a plan, they said, to build a great railway That would stretch from sea to sea across this land I hired on that morning and they sent me out that day With crowbar, pick, and shovel in my hands We drove the spikes and laid the rails and leveled out the ground With pick and hammer, dynamite, and all We slept in tents where cold winds blew with high and mournful sound And woke at dawn to hear the foreman’s call And then, one fateful morning when our payday came again Not a man received his thirty or his five There’s none of us will work for free among the railroad men And the word that spread all up and down the rails was “organize”ÿ We held a meeting in the camp and spoke of our demands Better wages, better hours, and the like We swore Durant would listen if together we could stand And if he didn’t, we would call a strike Next day we called the foreman and we told him then and there We would not work until we saw our pay The foreman he turned scarlet and began to curse and swear Then turned upon his heels and marched away That night we woke to thunder all around our canvas walls And all around were screams and rifle fire We saw the men in masks take aim and saw our workmates fall And screamed and ran as bodies piled higher We had built a railroad bridge a week or so before That stretched full fifty feet into the air Back to the bridge the leaders of our little strike they bore And without a trial hung the union organizers there We woke up in the morning to a sun of bloody red And counted six good men who’d rise no longer We cursed the name of Durant as we tended to our dead And buried them before the light grew stronger The foreman came back to us as the gloaming turned to day Said “boys, you’d best get back to work this time” We’d nowhere else to go and we would starve without our pay And with heavy hearts we went back on the lineÿ Now the years have passed with blood and sweat and I am nearly free For the golden spike tomorrow will be driven I’ll leave this cruel country and its farce of liberty And for my labor may I be forgiven For liberty and freedom they are notions grand and fine But many men who went out west to find them Lie buried underneath the Union Pacific line For no crime but speaking out against the tyrants who would bind themÿ