Come all you young fellers, so young and so fine,
And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mine.
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul,
'Til the blood of your veins runs black as the coal.
(CHORUS:)
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where the dangers are many 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 mines.
It's many a man I have seen in my day,
Who lived just to labor his whole life away.
Like a fiend with his dope or a drunkard his wine,
A man must have lust for the lure of the mine.
(CHORUS)
I hope when I'm gone and the ages do roll,
My body will blacken and form into coal.
Then I'll look down from the door of my Heavenly home,
And pity the miner a diggin' my bones.
(CHORUS)
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where the dangers are many 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 mines.
The midnight, the morning, the breaking of the day,
Are the same to the miner who labors away.
Where the demons of death often come by surprise,
One slip of the slate and you're buried alive.
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where the dangers are many 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 mines.