Dark As a Dungeon

It's as a dark as a dungeon way down in the mines

I never will forget one time when I was on a little visit
Down home in Ebenezer, Kentucky
I was talking to an old man
That had known me ever since the day I was born
And an old friend of the family
He says, "Son, you don't know how lucky you are
To have a nice job like you've got
And don't have to dig out a living
From under these old hills and hollers
Like me and your Pappy used to"

When I asked him why he never had left
And tried some other kind of work
He says, "No sir, you just won't do that
If ever you get this old coal dust in your blood
You're just gonna be a plain old coal miner as long as you live"
He went on to say it's a habit
Sort of like chewin' tobacco

Come and listen you fellers, so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mines
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul
'Til the stream of your blood is as black as the coal

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where danger is double and 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 a-many a-man I've seen in my day
Who live just to labor his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mines

I hope when I'm gone 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-diggin' my bones

Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is double 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