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A Celebrated Workingman

Found in a.abc from the John Chambers abc collection

This tune may be copyright, so no music is displayed here.

The background information for the tune is:

X:126
T:A Celebrated Workingman
C:Ed Foley
S:Digital Tradition, celebwrk
N:Collected from Michael F. Barry, PA 1940
B:From Pennsylvania Songs and Legends, Korson
Z:dt:celebwrk
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:3/8=100
W:I'm a celebrated workingman, my duties I don't shirk
W:I can cut more coal than any man from Pittsburgh to New York
W:It's a holy terrogation, boys, how I get through my work
W:While I'm seated at my glory in the barroom.
W:
W:I can stand a set of timber, post, and bar or single prop.
W:I can throw a chain on the bottom or I can throw it up on top.
W:Oh, give me a pair of engines and be jeepers I'II not stop,
W:Till I land me triple wagons through the barroom.
W:
W:I'II go down and work upon the platform or go out and run the dump.
W:I can put in pulleys on the slope or go down and clean the sump,
W:I can run a 20,000 horse-power steam engine pump-
W:That's providing that I have it in the barroom.
W:
W:I'll go down and work the flat vein; I'II go up and work the pitch
W:I can work at the Potts or Newside-I don't care the devil which
W:I can show the old track layer how to decorate the ditch
W:Now haven't I often proved it in the barroom?
W:
W:Now at driving I'm a daisy; just give me a balky team,
W:When I'II beat the spots off an evening run, be it water, wind or steam,
W:With your balance plates, and endless chains; they're nowhere to be seen,
W:When I pull me trip of wagons through the barroom.
W:
W:Now at bossing I'm a daisy, and I know I'm no disgrace,
W:For I could raise your wages, boys, just twelve ccnts up the l'ast
W:Now didn't the Reading Company miss me when they didn't make their haste,0
W:And capture me, before I struck the barroom.
W:
W:I can show the boss or super how the air should circulate,
W:I can show the boss fireman how the steam should generate;
W:Now the trouble at the Pottsville shaft, sure I could elucidate
W:Now haven't I often proved it in the barroom?
W:
W:And now my song is o'er and I haven't any other,
W:For heaven's sake don't fire no more or else we'll surely smother
W:The landlord would rather throw us out than go to the bother
W:Of putting up a ventilator in the barroom.
W:
W:And now my song is ended and I hope you'll all agree,
W:That if you want any pointers you'd better send for me,
W:But I'm not worth a good gol darn till I empty two or three
W:Of the very biggest schooners in the barroom.
K:Eb

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