Lyrics:

Come all you young fellows so young and so fine And seek not your fortune way down in the mine It will form like a habit and seep in your soul Till the stream of your blood flows as black as the coal (Chorus:) It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew The danger is doubled and the pleasures are few Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine There's many a man I have seen in my day Who lived just to labor his whole life away Like the fiend with his dope and the drunkard his wine A man can have lust for the lure of the mine (Chorus) Oh when I am dead and the ages shall roll My body will blacken and turn into coal Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home And pity the miner a-digging my bones (Chorus)