The Honest Working Man Explained?

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 10 Apr 07 - 12:19 PM

Not saying it doesn't - but if we had some other reference to that sort of racial mix being called "black and tan", it would lend that interpretation a little more credence.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: mg
Date: 10 Apr 07 - 12:20 PM

I was under the impression that Cheezetcook was a company and not a place...mg

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 10 Apr 07 - 12:26 PM

Well, now, there's another possibility ... !

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 10 Apr 07 - 10:49 PM

Was just talking to me brudder. He says that the chorus given in Stuart McCawley's book is a little different - well, significantly different:

Way down in East Cape Breton, where they knit the sock and mitten,
Chezzetcookers represented by the dusky black and tan,
May they never be selected, and home rule be protected,
And always be connected with the honest working man.


Me brudder thinks that the "Chezzetcookers" were Acadians from the mainland (not necessarily just from Chezzetcook) coming to Cape Breton to work, and were about as popular as the Newfoundlanders. A couple of points interesting in relation to previous posts. The word "dusky" instead of "husky" would seem to lend support to Beer's interpretation, because "dusky" was a description often used for dark complexion, at the time in question. Also, this version of the chorus is closer to that sung by Stan James, as reported by mg, so maybe he really does sing it the way he heard it, and I shouldn't have been so prickly about it!

My brother says he takes "home rule" to be the idea that it should be Cape Bretoners running things in Cape Breton, and not the Newfoundlanders and mainland Acadians who keep coming in to take jobs.

Re: The verse about taking the "three-ton schooner" up the Western Shore. Bro says this is referring to the Newfoundlanders going back home in the fall - they would go up the western coast of Cape Breton as it is sheltered, and by the time they pass Cape North, they're half-way home.

I've contacted Clary Croft; he's going to send along some info. in awhile, when he gets some time ...

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Bee
Date: 10 Apr 07 - 11:13 PM

Totally kewl bit of brudderly research, meself!

I'm still not convinced about the 'black and tan' reference - although just the fact they were Acadians would warrant them being described as dark or dusky by the Cape Bretoners of the day.

Very interested in what Clary Croft might have to add.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 10 Apr 07 - 11:18 PM

I hate going my big brother for this kind of thing, because I usually get a noogie, an Indian burn, a wedgie, and a hard punch in the shoulder before I get the info. ...

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From:
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 08:56 AM

I had not come across this song before. The Black and Tan IS a drink of Guinness with something else, BUT would probably not be common iin the timeframe involved. It's been an interesting read, James. Thanks for bringing this up. Will look at it a bit further later yhis week and will recommend to Clary....

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 03:49 PM

Hello,

While not flying the flag for Black and Tan, it has been around since the 18th century...Yuengling Brewery even have a bottled version! (Hmmm)

My money is on the knitting yarn!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: DT Correction:The Honest Working Man
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Apr 07 - 10:17 PM

Gee, there's not much in the Traditional Ballad Index:

Honest Working Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way down in East Cape Breton, where they knit the sock and mitten, Cezzetcook is represented by the husky black and tan. May they never be rejected, and home rule be protected, and always be connected with the honest working man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Fowke/MacMillan)
KEYWORDS: work fishing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan 31, "The Honest Working Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HONSTWR*
Roud #4535
Notes: Written as a piece of irony aimed at the importation of surplus labor in the summer months.... Referred to in several sources as "the national anthem of Cape Breton workers." - SL
File: FowM

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Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Roud lists only the version collected by Fowke and published in the Penguin Canadian book, and two versions collected by Creighton that are in the Nova Scotia Archives.
-Joe-

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Here is the Fowke text shown in the DT, with corrections:


HONEST WORKING MAN

chorus:
'Way down in East Cape Breton, where they knit the sock and mitten
Chezzetcook is represented by the husky black and tan.
May they never be rejected, and home rule be protected
And always be connected with the honest working man.

1. What raises high my dander, next door lives a Newfoundlander,
Whose wife you cannot stand her, since high living she began,
Along with the railroad rackers, also the codfish packers,
Who steal the cheese and crackers from the honest working man.

2. When leaves fall in the autumn and fish freeze to the bottom,
They take a three-ton schooner and go round the western shore;
They load her with provisions, hard tack and codfish mizzens,
The like I never heard of since the downfall of Bras d'Or.

3. The man who mixes mortar gets a dollar and a quarter,
The sugar-factory worker, he gets a dollar ten,
While there's my next-door neighbour, who subsists on outside labour,
In the winter scarcely earns enough to feed a sickly hen.

4. They cross the Bay of Fundy, they reach her on a Monday:
Do you see my brother Angus? Now tell me if you can.
He was once a soap-box greaseman, but now he is a policeman,
Because he could not earn a living as an honest working man.

From the Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Song/i>, Fowkes
@work @Canada
filename[ HONSTWRK
TUNE FILE: HONSTWRK
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Beer
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 09:04 AM

Good Morning,
I am Beer's (Adrien) sister Judy and my husband and I are traveling back from St. Thomas Ontario where we spent 4 weeks beside my Mother's bedside.

Adrien showed me this site this morning and I found the reading quite fascinating. Of course I tend to agree with my brother's interpretation as I personally can attest to the handsomeness of the husky darken tanned men of Chezzetcook.!!

As to the Bellefontaine song. Come to visit "L'Acadie de Chezzetcook" this summer and if you are fortunate enough to be there when our volunteer Shirley (Doucette ) Lowe is on duty, she will sing the Bellefontaine song for you. This is done frequently for visitors to our site and especially to thoes visiting the Acadian House Museum. Also, our Local historian Lena Ferguson also sings this song for visitors.

A short time ago, Lena Ferguson sang the song for the Eastlink program on TV. The program is called Eastlink Magazine and the clip was filmed at our new facility the Café Grand Desert. This Café is an Acadian Café located in the Acadian community next to West Chezzetcook, along Highway 207. Drop by you will love it.

Incidentally, I have the recording by Diane Oxner of the Honest Working Man. I will check when I get back home to see if there is any information on the album.

Cheers Judy b.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 09:35 AM

Thanks for hopping in, Judy.

Any chance of getting the lyrics for the Bellefontaine song posted on here?

We keep hearing about all these handsome men in Chezzetcook - but no mention of the women. Do they just pale in comparison with the dark and tan men, or is it that no one wants the word to get out about the beautiful dark and tan women?

My interest is purely academic, you understand.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Bee
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 09:44 AM

Oh, there're beautiful women down those winding roads, meself, but it's been me and other women commenting on the boys - priorities, y'know. ;-D

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 09:58 AM

"Oh, there're beautiful women down those winding roads[, my son,]" -

Now that sounds like the opening line of the chorus of a bittersweet song about lost youth, chances missed, the road not taken, wisdom hard-won, longing for what might have been, innocence and experience, resignation ... (sigh) ...

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Beer
Date: 13 Apr 07 - 11:37 AM

Hi Judy again.

Yes, to the visitor to the Acadian House Museum, not only does Shirley (Doucette) Lowe sing the Bellefontaine song, our group, the West Chezzetcook/Grand Desert Community Interest Group, provides the visitor with a phamplet with the words to the song and if I remember correctly, a few notes of the music as well.

Our Community Interest Group is a registered Charity made up of local volunteers and we have worked hard to restore the Acadian heritage of our two communities. Do drop by when in the area.

When I get back home I expect sometime next week, I will send the words to Adrien.

As to the beauty of the Chezzetcook women, well on our arrival in Chezzetcook from my home province of PEI back in 1954, I remember my Mother commenting that she was surprised at the number of truly good looking young men in the community. As to the women, I do not recall her saying. Of course with 3 young daughters at the time perhaps she didn't want us to know how much competition we were in for??

cheers Judy b.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 04:14 PM

I think it is about time we refreshed this thread!

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 10:18 AM

Me too. I am convinced by Beer's explanation of "husky black and tan". But what's a "soap-box greaseman"?

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Beer
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 08:55 PM

Never heard the term "soap-box greaseman" neither. Will make a few calls. Hopefully with results.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Beer
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 09:36 PM

Started a thread called "Soap-box Greasman". Maybe someone who hasn't visited this thread may have heard of it.
A Newfoundland friend said that it could have been the men loading boxes of booze during the rum running days. Interesting! Could be.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:18 PM

I just received the much anticipated note from Clary Croft concerning this song. For those who aren't familiar with him, Clary has long been the foremost authority on the Helen Creighton collection of songs from the Maritimes. You will find that Clary fills out some of the background to this song, but doesn't have definitive answers to all the song's puzzles. Here is what Clary says:



Helen Creighton recorded two variants of the song. The first, in 1943,
from
Dennis Williams, Musquodoboit Harbour a few kilometres away from
Chezzetcook; the second from [Mr.] Grace Clergy in 1951 who lived in
East Petpeswick, also not far from Chezzetcook. Incidentally, it was in nearby West Petpeswick that Helen first collected the Nova Scotia Song. This area was one of Helen's richest collecting fields.

Here's what I can offer to the discussion:

"Husky black and tan" - I asked Ronald Labelle about this one. Ronald is Titulaire Chaire de Recherche McCain en ethnologie acadienne, Département d'études françaises, Université de Moncton. He is also the author of Acadian Life in Chezzetcook [Lawrencetown Beach: Pottersfield Press, 1995] and acknowledged as the preeminent Acadian scholar in the world. He doesn't know! How's that? I have some theories but they are just that and unproven.

Re: reference to "the sugar factory believed to have been in Woodside". The Nova Scotia Sugar Refinery, which began operations in 1880, was relocated on the waterfront near Young Street in Halifax but was destroyed in the 1917 Halifax Explosion. The business then moved to Woodside. Although the company did have private capital it was also publically subsidized with a supply of free water and an exemption from taxes. This could make the "average honest working man" a bit peeved at tax dollars going to subsidize business. [In
today's terms, think Nova Scotia governments subsidizing call-centres, tire manufacturers and forest industries today]

Diane Oxner released Traditional Folksongs of Nova Scotia in 1956. The Rodeo recording is a re-issue.

My belief is that the song Edith Fowke calls "The national anthem of
Cape Breton workers" was a comment on cheap labour imported from, among several sources, a foreign country - Newfoundland. Protecting home rule would be similar to our discussions of Free Trade today. After all, Newfoundland didn't allow Canada to join up with her until 1949. Numbers of Acadian workers were also brought in to work in lobster factories and coastal fishing operations. Along Nova Scotia's Northumberland shore, Acadian female workers from
New Brunswick and the Eastern shore of Nova Scotia [my wife's Acadian grandmother, as example] worked at the delicate operation of extracting the meat from the lobsters. They were known as fils de l'Acadie.

Helen has been criticized for not collecting bawdy or labour songs, but she did both. [Sometimes unknowingly.] From my biography, Helen Creighton: Canada's First lady of Folklore, come this knowing, August 7, 1943, entry as quoted from Helen's diary: "Dennis Williams ... keeps a country store, so Saturday afternoon is the worst possible time to go there. However, he didn't hesitate to close the shop up while he and his wife, their daughter and
her children all came to the house. ... He wouldn't let his name go with his singing of the Honest Working Man in case some Cape Bretoner heard it on the radio from New York and came and beat him up."

As for access to Helen's collection - visit http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/creighton/ This site contains the
finding aid for her collection at the Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management. The Helen Creighton Folklore Society http://www.helencreighton.org/ has already released one archival field recording of material from her audio collection [Songs of the Sea - double CD featuring 47 songs or narratives] and Ronald Labelle and I are currently working on a joint production with the Creighton Society and Université de Moncton of a book/CD of Acadian material from Helen's collection.

Cheers,

Clary

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 04 May 07 - 11:31 PM

Here are a few comments that I made to Clary in response:


Hi Clary -

Thanks for the information and background on the song. It is interesting that while we have been talking about it as a "Cape Breton song", Helen collected both her versions in the Chezzetcook area - so maybe we've been looking at it from the wrong angle - especially when you take into consideration the suggestion on the part of Dennis Williams that Cape Bretoners might actually be offended by the song (of course, his remark can be interpreted in many ways as well).

Now I'm curious as to Edith Fowke's basis for calling it the "national anthem of Cape Breton workers" ...

I've posted your remarks on Mudcat, and now we'll see what further speculation, memories, apocrypha, quaint theories, and astonishing facts emerge ...

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 05 May 07 - 04:21 PM

Hmmmm

Lots of food for thought there! Thanks meself and Clary!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Beer
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:25 PM

Chezzetcook Song


My name is Belle Fontaine, Fontaine, Fontaine.
I am a Frenchman, from Chezzetcook I came.
It was in the month of June
When the gully it was in bloom
That they used to sing the tune
Do you want to buy the mitt.

                         CHORUS

Do you want to buy the mitt, the sock, the ganzy frock,
The juniper post, the mussel or the clam,
The blueberry, the foxberry, the huckleberry, the cranberry,
The smelt, the pelt, the forty-foot ladder.
The thousand of brick or the sand.

There was Billy Gabriel too comprised the crew.
The divil a man was he when he got on a spree.
He would spend all his money and he'd gamble it all away.
He would smell the little demi-john and
get drunk as Billy-be-darned.

End


From Helen Creighton Collection. This may have been sung by Mr. Robert Young, Halifax. It is similar to Diane Oxner's rendition on the Rodeo record. Diane Oxner Sings. It would have been collected in the 1930's.

I've just typed word for word from the pamphlet that my sister just sent me.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:42 PM

Merci, Adrien (biere)! I've been waiting a long time for those words ...

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Beer
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 04:40 PM

From one spud to another.
Your welcome

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Beer
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 05:14 PM

HISTORY OF THE SONG

"The Chezzetcook Song", developed as the result of a visit to Halifax in 1886 or 1887 by the late Gilmore Brown, C. E., a bridge building engineer. On his return to Fredericton, he entertained at a meeting of the literary club with an account of his visit to the "Farmers Market" in Halifax. He told of his conversation with a Mr. Bellefontaine from Chezzetcook Bay, having come to market that day with a load of brick and sand. He explained that on occasions he brought cord wood and home products of rough carpentry, clams, mussels, berries of all kinds and some of his wife's handiwork, such as mitts, socks and Guernseys (frocks).

This account inspired Bliss Carman and his cousin Fred St. John Bliss, a barrister from Fredericton, to write lyrics of "The Chezzetcook Song". Prof. F.C.D. Bristowe, organist at Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton, set the lyrics to music. So it was that a group of people in Fredericton were responsible for "The Chezzetcook Song". The literary club became known as "The Bellefontaine Club".

Information about the origin of "The Chezzetcook Song"" came from Mr. J.J.T. Winslow, a barrister in Fredericton. Singing this song was for many years an important part of the Christmas celebration in the Winslow home. It was well known and often sung around Dartmouth.
Our thanks to Dr.Helen Creighton for this information.

Typed by myself from the pamphlet that my sister sent me.
Beer (Adrien)

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: GUEST,Stevebury
Date: 01 Jul 17 - 06:56 PM

I ran across a two-verse fragment this week in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. It was recorded in 1943 by Elise Hubbard Linscott [who wrote "Folk Songs of Old New England" (1939)] from the singing of Maynard Reynolds, Pittsburg NH. She transcribed the words for her projected second book "Songs from a Yankee Peddler's Pack", but the book was never published. A draft, however, is in her papers in the Folklife Center archives. My internet research led me from "The Dudes of East Cape Breton" ['dudes"?] to "The Honest Working Man", and to this Mudcat thread. Here is Linscott's transcription of Reynolds' lyrics:

Oh the dudes of East Cape Breton
    Where they knit the sock and mitten.
Chizzincoop is represented
    By the dusky black and tan,
May they never be respected
    May they always be rejected
May they never be respected
    By the honest workingman.

O what raised up high me dander
    Was a great big Newfoundlander
And his wife he could not stand her
    Since high living they began.
For in all they have no 'baccer
    They are well-known codfish packers
And they steal the chesse and crackers
    From the honest workingman.

Next time I'm at the Folklife Center, I'll try to listen to the field recording, to see how the tune compares with the tune Fowke published.

My internet digging also led me to Richard MacKinnon's article "Protest Song and Verse in Cape Breton Island" (Ethnologies, 30:2, pp 33-71, http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/019945ar ) which contains a discussion of "The Honest Working Man" in the context of workers' and labor songs in Cape Breton.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: meself
Date: 01 Jul 17 - 11:30 PM

Thanks, Stevebury - that's interesting!

Here's the link to a href="the whole essay">https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ethno/2008-v30-n2-ethno2776/019945ar/
The discussion of Honest Working Man starts on p. 48. It still doesn't answer all the questions, but does throw a little more light on the subject.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Apr 20 - 10:11 PM

Are the DT lyrics accurate?

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Apr 20 - 06:07 AM

What a fascinating thread from a far-off country! As a Yorkshireman I can add nothing to the brilliant research here conducted except to offer that descriptions like the 'dusky/husky black and tan' can have more than one meaning even in this context. Personally I would dismiss the Irish military connection and the Guinness connection, but the knitting and intermarriage meanings both sound very plausible and may both be intended. One doesn't have to exclude the other.

Subject: RE: The Honest Working Man Explained?
From: meself
Date: 27 Apr 20 - 10:17 AM

Joe: The lyrics in the DT appear to have come unaltered from The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs, edited by Edith Fowke, I believe - anyway, I'm certain that that version and the notes in the book came from her. As you can see on this thread, there are at least a couple of other verses and versions kicking around ....