Subject: RE: Origins: Micks Sticks - Boyne Water/Boiling Water
From:
Lighter
Date: 19 Apr 25 - 12:40 PM
New York American (Nov. 25, 1909):
"Them was grate lines,...and they showed the same true poetick geenius as his other grate epick poem, beeginning:
Ten thousand Micks laid down their sticks
At the battel of Boyne Water."
*
Denver Labor Bulletin (Nov. 4, 1916):
"Ten thousand micks, lay down their picks, and take up ten thousand bricks, on the rocky road to Dublin."
*
Morning Examiner (Bartlesville, Okla.), July 13, 1917:
"Ten thousand Micks threw down their picks and beat it from Boyne Water."
*
Ernest Howard Chase, "Flood Tide" (1918):
As I was walking down the street
I found a dollar and a quarter;
Ten thousand Micks layed [sic] down their bricks
At the Battle of the Boyne Water.
Kansas City Star (Oct. 18, 1919):
"An unidentified person ... rose in an Irish meeting and made the statement that ten thousand Micks laid down their sticks at the battle of Boyne water, and took to their heels to distant fields away from all the slaughter."
Oregon Daily Journal (Portland), Jan. 23, 1922:
"He was a typical 'shanty' Irishman, and the street Arabs used to sing 'Ten thousand Micks were killed with bricks,' just to see him chase them."
Boston Herald (Feb. 6, 1925):
"Can any of our readers...tell us the author of these...lines?
"Ten thousand micks laid down their picks
At the rising of the moon'?"
Fort Worth Record-Telegram (Sept. 15, 1928):
"It is too reminiscent of the old Irish song containing the line, 'Ten thousand Micks got hit with bricks at the battle of Briny Water.'"
Chicago Tribune (July 18, 1931):
"A jingle runs through my head that runs something like this:
'There was an awful slaughter.
Ten thousand Micks laid down ther sticks
At the battle of Boyne Water.'"
Boston Globe (Apr. 20, 1934):
"After getting four for four the other day, Blondy Ryan [N.Y. Giants infielder] was singing under the shower. 'Ten thousand Micks got hit with bricks at the battle of Ballylongford' was Blondy's melody; and as Blondy put it, when asked why he ang that number, 'It brings me base hits when I sing it while taking a shower.'"
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.), Dec. 9, 1934:
"For it is well known that:
When a thousand Swedes came through the weeds
At the Battle of Copenhagen,
Ten thousand Micks laid down their bricks,
And said they'd fight no more."
"America: A Catholic Review of the Week" (Mar. 30, 1935):
Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Miss.), Mar. 14, 1937:
"Who doesn't remember...'Ten thousand Micks lost their walkin' sticks at the battle of the Fallin' Water.'"
Pittsburgh Press (Nov. 1, 1953):
"Pete sang him the burlesque 'Boyne Water' fragment (there is a serious song on the same tune and theme which calls for a fight anywhere you sing it around a son of Erin):
"'They fought with clubs, they fought with stones,
King William on his charger;
He says, 'Now boys, don't be dimayed at losing a commander.'
Fierce and long the battle raged, till crushed by fearful slaughter,
Ten thousand Micks were killed with bricks at the battle of the Boyne Water."
"That's all he's ever been able to find of the song, and he has an idea it may be all there was, because nobody ever had time to sing any more before he got his head cracked."
Indianapolis Star (Nov. 13, 1956):
"You remember the poem: "Ten thousand Swedes crept through the weeds, at the Battle of Copenhagen. Ten thousand Micks were throwng brcks, at the Battle of Copenhagen.'"
Buffalo News (Mar. 12, 1977):
"And the best part came when they put down their glasses and started up with, 'Ten thousand Micks picked up their picks at the Battle of the Boyne.'"
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