From The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1927), page 190-1:

A. R. U.

The American Railway Union strike of 1893, led by Eugene V. Debs, paralyzed traffic on railways of the Northwest. As the concerted stoppage of work began, not a wheel moved on thousands of miles of right-of-way; it was a terrific tie-up, a red chapter in American transportation history. The railway managers blacklisted A. R. U. men; strikers drifted to other railroads, got jobs under new names, were detected, dropped from the pay rolls, and again put “on the hog,” riding hog and cattle cars. These drifters made a song out of their grief. C. W. Loutzenhiser of Chicago met a brother A. R. U. man in the Illinois Central switchyards at Macomb, Mississippi; they held a little songfest; one song has verses flinging a switchman’s gauntlet into the face of Fate. It is a gay-hearted tune asking Lady Luck, in plain railroad slang, not to be too hard. “Go screw your nut,” in rail talk means, “Be on your way.” Railway lines alluded to here can be located at any railway station information desk; also hotel porters are ready to assist. R. W. Gordon gave me the verses[*] in Darien, Georgia, and sent me to Loutzenhiser in Chicago for the melody. A good man, with a brick-dust face and invincible Irish eyes, is Loutzenhiser. In the course of our acquaintance he made the casual remark, “The fellows that sing the songs I know have all gone where the Woodbine twineth and bejeez maybe I ought to go too.” He seemed a serene, self-contained soul, once laughing after singing a sweet Irish ditty, “I sing these songs to keep from goin’ bugs.”

Arr. H. F. P. [Musical notation is given here]

Been on the hummer since ninety-four,
Last job I had was on the Lake Shore,
Lost my office in the A. R. U.
And I won’t get it back till nineteen-two
And I’m still on the hog train flagging my meals,
Ridin’ the brake beams close to the wheels.

[* Unfortunately, there are no more verses in this volume!--JD]