Mother Jones
A Song by Jim Sharkey©Jim Sharkey 2018
Mary Harris Jones stood up, she said that's enough
An immigrant from Ireland, she'd seen assaults on the rights of man
The peasant, the miner, the cloth and textile worker,
the children in the factories,
demand their dignity
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own
and went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds
Politicians and newspapers, the Pinkertons and the mine owners said she was
a radical, the most dangerous woman in America So they locked her up, they
threatened her and wrote ill of her character still she went from place
to place and took the gild off The Gilded Age.
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own and
went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds
You have to go back sixty years or more, long, long before this time
Somewhere you might find the reason she got into the fight
Born to Richard and Ellen Harris the second child of five
she was baptized in Cork City, when they lived on the north side
In 1847 the worst year of the famine her father and older brother
sailed west to Canada to try and make some money on The Great
Canadian Railroad they worked hard laying track and sent their money home
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own and
went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds
In the cauldron of Chicago, of mills, machines, and men
Mary turned to dressmaking, and got back on her feet again
But the poverty of the westside and the wealth on Lake Shore Drive
were two extremes of win and lose that weighed heavy on her mind
When the Great Chicago fire / took out the downtown
It wiped out Mary Harris Jones it burned her shop down to the ground
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own and
went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds
The union leader Mother Jones rose up out of the dying coals
A pair of shoes and an overcoat became her only home
In the hills of West Virginia in the brutal feudal system
She braved the bullets and brutality of the thugs, the thieves and her government
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own and
went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own and
went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds
The union leader Mother Jones rose up out of the dying coals
A pair of shoes and an overcoat became her only home
In the hills of West Virginia in the brutal feudal system
She braved the bullets and brutality of the thugs, the thieves and her government.
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own and
went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds
She gave them hell, and railed against the bloody, sweat-stained opulence
and died a far-famed leader for a fair society
when you see a firebrand / a brave and radical woman or man
Remember Mary Harris Jones by another name more widely known because
Chorus:
The miners called her Mother Jones, she felt their burdens were her own and
went into the company towns, to lift the spirits of the striking crowds