Cat. #0693 (MFH #15) - As sung by Tom Aley, Ozark, Missouri on February 27, 1969
VERSE 1
Good Christains all, both great an' small
I pray you lend an ear
An' listen with attention
An' th truth you soon shall hear
An' th suffocation -- --- --
--- -- --- -- ---- - -- -- ---
-- -- --- -- -- --- -- -- --- --
In th mines of Avondale
VERSE 2
On th fourteenth day of September
In eighteen sixty nine
Those miners all they gott'a call
T' go work in th mines
But little did they think that day
That death would gloom their vale
Before they would return agian
From th mines of Avondale
VERSE 3
Th women and th children too
Their hearts were filled with joy
To see their men go t' work again
An' likewise every boy
What a terrible sight in th broad daylight
That made them all turn pale
When they saw th breakers burning
In th mines of Avondale
VERSE 4
From here and there and everywhere
They gathered in a crowd
Some tearing off their clothes an' hair
An' crying out aloud,
Get out our Fathers and our Sons
For death is going to steal
Their lives away witout delay
From th mines of Avondale
VERSE 5
But all in vain, there was no hope
One single soul to save
There was no second entrance to
This ignominous cave
No pen can write, the awful fright
An' horror did prevail
Among those dying victims
In th mines of Avondale
VERSE 6
Now, to conclude an' make an' end
Th number to pin down
One hundred n' ten of brave stout men
Were smothered underground
Their in their graves till their last days
Their widows weep an' wail
And orphant cries, still rend th skies
All 'round thru Avondale