Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)

29 Sep 13 - 02:55 PM (#3562553)
Subject: Lyr Add: MICK UPON THE RAILROAD (1888)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Possible precursor to "Drill, Ye Tarriers. Drill.

Lyr. Add: MICK UPON THE RAILROAD
Anon. 19th C. song sheet.

When first from Limerick I come here,
My latther days to spend and cheer,
It was to dhrink good ale and beer,
Wid the boys upon the railroad.

Chorus
The railroad, the railroad,
The divil take the railroad.

Now Mick do this, and Mick do that,
Widout a stockin' or cravat,
The divil the thing but an ould straw hat,
To work upon the railroad.

They gave me a drill to drill the hole,
And then confound my Irish sowl,
And blast the ship that brought me over,
To work upon the railroad.

Our smith he is from Molehill town,
He sharpens the picks that grubs the ground,
But be will take his jigger when it goes round,
Wid the boys upon the railroad.

When I lay me down to sleep,
The ugly bugs around me creep,
Bad luck to the wink that I can sleep,
While workin' on the railroad.

When I rises on Monday morn,
I hear the sound of the damned ould horn,
I curse the hour that I was born,
To work upon the railroad.

J. Wrigley, New York.
ImPac, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections, American song sheets and poetical broadsides collection, has put the date range as 1850-1870.

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29 Sep 13 - 04:20 PM (#3562581)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: Lighter

Equally related to "Paddy Works on the Railway"

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29 Sep 13 - 08:08 PM (#3562624)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Gerry

According to an online dictionary, a far-down (2nd stanza, 2nd line) is "a native of the north of Ireland".

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29 Sep 13 - 08:18 PM (#3562628)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Drilling by tarriers (paddies) took place on the Union Pacific transcontinental route, but only a fragment of a song exists. The song "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill," may have originated with this railroad or with the Central Pacific, long before the 1888 sheet music was published.

Then drill, my paddies, drill,
Drill my heroes, drill,
Drill all day, no sugar in your tay,
Workin' on the U. P. Railway.

John P. Davis, 1894, The Union Pacific Railway, S. C. Griggs, Chicago. (Quoted from Norn Cohen, The Long Steel Rail.

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29 Sep 13 - 10:04 PM (#3562646)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: Sandra in Sydney

thanks for finding & posting these interesting songs, Q.

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30 Sep 13 - 01:27 PM (#3562898)
Subject: Lyr Add: DRILL MAN BLUES (George C. Sizemore)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Rock drilling in song mostly is based on "John Henry" and Black workmen in the southeast U. S.

The Tarriers were mostly Irish, and worked in the expanding railway system.

Others worked in mines, road building and tunneling for subways, water pipelines, and other rock drilling jobs. In all of them, workmen were liable to develop silicosis.

Lyr. Add: DRILL MAN BLUES
George C. "Curley" Sizemore

1
I used to be a drill man,
Down at Old Parlee;
Drilling through slate and sand rock,
'Till it got the best of me.
2
Rock dust has almost killed me,
It's turned me out in the rain;
For dust has settled on my lungs,
And causes me constant pain.
3
I can hear my hammer rollin',
As I lay down for my sleep;
For drilling is the job I love,
And this I will repeat.
4
It's killed two fellow workers,
Here at Old Parlee;
And now I've eaten so much dust, Lord,
That it's killin' me.
5
I'm thinkin' of poor drill men,
Away down in the mine,
Who from eating dust will end up
With a fate just like mine.

Sizemore lived in Langelly, West Virginia. He was one of the victims of silicosis in the mines.
Recorded by George Korson from the singing of George Sizemore, 1940. Library of Congress record LP60 ( think a new number has been added).

From Duncan Emrich, 1974, American Folk Poetry, an Anthology, Pp. 596-597; Little, Brown & Company.

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30 Sep 13 - 01:32 PM (#3562900)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Gerry is correct in his definition of "fardown."

Some of the folk singers of the 1950s sang of a "cast iron" drill, which was impossible because iron in that form would fracture.
The drills were hardened steel, and could be sharpened a time or two before disposal.

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03 Oct 13 - 05:29 PM (#3564053)
Subject: Lyr Add: DRILL, YE TARRIERS, DRILL (from C Parker)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Lyr. Add: DRILL, YE TARRIERS, DRILL 2
Sung by Chubby Parker, 1931

Workin' all day without sugar in my tay,
Hammerin' rocks on the old railway,
The months roll by and I don't get no pay.

Drill, ye tarriers, drill.
Drill, ye tarriers, drill.

Workin' in the tunnel, shovelin' out the dirt,
I worked so hard that I wore out me shirt,
The tunnel caved in and we all got badly hurt.
Chorus

Standin' in the mud about six feet deep,
Workin' all night without a bite to eat,
Couldn't get to camp for the mud on me feet.
Chorus

I went to the river to wash out my clothes,
I laid 'em on a log where the river swiftly flows,
The log rolled in, down the river went my clothes.
Chorus

Layin' in the bunkhouse, the chills o'er me creep,
The night was cold and dark, was rainin' hail and sleet,
Everybody snorin' and I couldn't get to sleep.
Chorus

The boss's wife, she bakes pies swell,
She bakes them done and she bakes them well,
She bakes them hot as the hubs of hallelujah.
Chorus

The boss's wife, she bakes pies swell,
She bakes them done and she bakes them well,
She bakes them hot as the hubs of hallelujah.
Chorus.

This from pp. 553-554, Norm Cohen, 1981, "Long Steel Rail," Univ. Illinois Press.

I can't find other versions that differ to any extent from those posted here.

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13 Mar 17 - 12:09 AM (#3844567)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: Joe Offer

Here's the version from the Digital Tradition. Seems to me there ought to be more verses.

DRILL YE TARRIERS DRILL

Every morning about seven o'clock
There were twenty tarriers drilling at the rock
The boss comes along and he says, "Keep still
And bear down heavy on the cast iron drill"

And drill, ye tarriers, drill
Drill, ye tarriers, drill
For it's work all day for the sugar in you tay
Down beyond the railway
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
And blast, and fire

The boss was a fine man down to the ground
And he married a lady six feet 'round
She baked good bread and she baked it well
But she baked it harder than the hobs of Hell

The foreman's name was John McCann
By God, he was a blamed mean man
Last week a premature blast went off
And a mile in the air went big Jim Goff

And when next payday came around
Jim Goff a dollar short was found
When he asked, "What for?" came this reply
"You were docked for the time you were up in the sky"

@work
recorded here by Richard Dyer-Bennet, but remembered from "Sing
Along with Mitch"
filename[ DRILLTAR
TUNE FILE: DRILLTAR
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF

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Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill

DESCRIPTION: Describing, in extravagant terms, the hard life of the (Irish) railroad workers -- subjected to long hours, blast, short pay (and that docked for any or no reason). And always the order comes again, "Drill, ye tarriers, drill!"
AUTHOR: words: Thomas Casey/music: Charles Connolly
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (play, "A Brass Monkey"; sheet music published by Frank Harding of New York, seemingly without attribution)
KEYWORDS: work railroading hardtimes talltale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Morris, #101, "Drill, Ye Terriers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 553-559, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 14-18, "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 217, "Drill, Ye Tarriers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, pp. 112-113, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 442, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 43-44, "The Tarriers' Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 329, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text)
Fireside, p. 138, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 130, "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text)
DT, DRILLTAR*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 30, #3 (1984), pp, 50-51, "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text, 1 tune, a Canadian version reportedly collected by Tim Rogers though no informant is listed)
Roud #4401 and 4436
RECORDINGS:
George J. Gaskin, "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill" (Berliner 064-1/Berliner [Canada] 4, 1899)
Chubby Parker, "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill" (Conqueror 7893, 1931)
Dan W. Quinn, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (Victor 3155, c. 1901)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!" (tune)
NOTES: This is believed to have originated with an Irish comedy team, (Thomas F.) Casey and (Charles) Connelly, in the 1880s. It has gone almost verbatim into oral tradition; variations in the text are very few.
Very nearly the only exception to this uniformity is the Chubby Parker recording, which is longer than the popular version, and a genuine song about railroad life rather than a humorous item. Cohen, based on this and a few hints in nineteenth century writings, wonders if there may not have been some ancestral text in existence before 1888. If so, that version has been almost completely displaced by the Casey version.
I seem to recall, in my youth, a bunch of us understanding "tarriers" as "terriers," with resulting very odd notions of what the song was about. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LoF217

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13 Mar 17 - 02:29 AM (#3844578)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: Mrrzy

I have a slightly different version by the Weavers

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13 Mar 17 - 01:24 PM (#3844680)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: leeneia

Re: cast-iron drill. Haven't you ever worked for an employer who demanded excellent results but provided cheap supplies? The cast-iron drill is part of the satire here.

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23 Feb 18 - 05:16 PM (#3907467)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Bleeding edge recording tech, just a few years after the Hoyt-Casey effort. Big premier for Gaskin.

George J. Gaskin - Drill Ye Terriers Drill 1891

George J. Gaskin - Wikipedia

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23 Feb 18 - 05:29 PM (#3907469)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Hoyt used the "tarriers" plot device at least once before A Brass Monkey (1888).

In A Hole in the Ground (1887) the roles of "first," "second" and "third tarrier" are cast as women. From the reviews I gather singing, dancing, Irish charwomen in a railroad depot.

And that might have been handed down from A Rag Baby (1883.)

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25 Mar 18 - 11:00 PM (#3913147)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Seems the tarrier of song may have arrived at about the same time as the terrier breed. The spellings were interchangeable for man and dog.

Wiki: “The first breed club was set up in Dublin in 1879. Irish Terriers were the first members of the terrier group to be recognized by the English Kennel Club as a native Irish Breed – this happened just before the end of the 19th century. The first Irish Terriers were taken to the US in the late nineteenth century and quickly became somewhat popular.”

Just before the song and the play came out “Honest John” Kelly appeared as a "Tammany Tarrier" in the Puck political cartoon Our national dog-show (Artist: Bernhard Gillam)(N.Y.: Keppler & Schwarzmann, 9 May 1883.)

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25 Mar 18 - 11:06 PM (#3913148)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

See Q (29 Sep 13 - 08:18 PM) above:

Drilling by tarriers (paddies) took place on the Union Pacific transcontinental route, but only a fragment of a song exists. The song "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill," may have originated with this railroad or with the Central Pacific, long before the 1888 sheet music was published.

John P. Davis, 1894, The Union Pacific Railway, S. C. Griggs, Chicago. (Quoted from Norn Cohen, The Long Steel Rail.

The entire footnote in Davis reads:

Students of folk-lore will doubtless discover some substantial historical material in the refrain of song that the author has often heard sung by an old Irish friend – evidently having seen service in more than one campaign:

“Then drill, my paddies, drill,
Drill, my heroes, drill,
Drill all day,
No sugar in your tay,
Workin' on the U.P. Railway.”

[Davis, J.P., The Union Pacific Railway, (Chicago: S.C. Griggs, 1894, p.141, footnote I)]

The earliest “authentic work song” mention I've found so far is Davis' “old Irish friend.” In the following decades he'll get quoted in history books; children's novels and eventually the American cinema.

No mention of the Euro-American job title “tarrier” in professional industry sources so far. Mostly a French thing.

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25 Mar 18 - 11:12 PM (#3913149)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

The chorus of a popular song among the men working upon the railroad ran as follows:

"Then drill, my paddies, drill,
Drill, my heroes, drill,
Drill all day, no sugar in the tay,
Workin' on the U.P. railway."

[The Expansion of the American People, The Chautauquan, 1900, vol. XXXI, April-Sept., p.149, footnote 3)]



General Jack S. Casement and his brother, D. C. Casement, directed the Union Pacific forces, which were handled like an army. In fact, the force on the Union Pacific was largely composed of former army men. Operations partook somewhat of the nature of military maneuvers. The men marched to work to beat of drums, with outposts as a precaution against surprises by Indians. As expressed in one of the popular songs of the day, it was:

"Then drill, my Paddies, drill;
Drill, my heroes, drill;
Drill all day,
No sugar in your tay,
Workin' on the U. P. Railway."

[Carter, C.F., When Railroads Were New, (New York: Holt, 1909, p.252)]


Typical of the "serious" history stuff.

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25 Mar 18 - 11:17 PM (#3913151)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

After that came the "romantics."

As the day has waned the effort to complete the seventeen miles of track has become more and more uncertain. Jack has driven his men furiously and they have responded loyally. The only men who have shown no signs of flagging are the eight stalwart Irishmen, Mike Shay, the foreman, Pat Joyce, Thomas Daly, Mike Kennedy, Fred McNamara, Ed Killeen, Mike Sullivan and George Wyatt. They not only work with ever renewed energy and zeal but encourage the others and sing:

Then drill, my Paddies, drill;
Drill, my heroes, drill;
Drill all day
No sugar in your tay,
Workin’ on the U. P. Railway.

These eight men have laid all the rails; others, placing ties, driving spikes, bolting fishplates, unable to stand the terrific strain, fall out exhausted and their places are filled by fresh recruits marshalled by Jack.

[Woodrow, W., Sessions, A.L., Building the Union, (New York: Brandt & Kirkpatrick, 1917, p.58)]




A thousand songs arose, crude and coarse and loud, but full of joy. Pay-day and vacation were at hand!

"Then drill, my Paddies, drill!
Drill, my heroes, drill!
Drill all day,
No sugar in your tay,
Workin' on the U. P. Railway."

[Grey, Z., The U.P. Trail, (New York: Harper, 1918, p.246-7)]




Halfway between Carter and Piedmont General Dodge took charge of the contracts, for the company. Relief for General Casement likewise was close at hand. On the long trail out from the Laramie Plains numerous of the sub-contractors had fallen under the pressure of their grading jobs. Time and again the Casement reserves had been hustled forward to fill the gaps. But now, replacing the plains and desert ditty:

Drill, my paddies, drill !
Drill, you tarriers, drill !
Oh, it's work all day,
No sugar in your tay—
Workin' on th' U. Pay Ra-ailway!

a new chantey was reverberating amidst the granite walls before:

At the head of great Echo the railway's begun,
The Mormons are cutting and grading like fun ;
They say they'll stick to it until it's complete—
When friends and relations they're hoping to meet.

Hurrah, hurrah, the railroad's begun,
Three cheers for the contractor; his name's Brigham Young.
Hurrah, hurrah, we're honest and true,
And if we stick to it, it's bound to go through.

Now there's Mr. Reed, he's a gentleman too–
He know very well what the Mormons can do.
He knows they will earn every cent of their pay,
And are just the right boys to construct a railway.


[Sabin, E.L., Building the Pacific Railway, (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1919, pp.179-180)




"Drill, my paddies, drill!
Drill, you tarriers, drill!
Oh, it's work all day,
No sugar in your tay—
        Wor-rkin' on th' U. Pay. Ra-a-ailway!”
                Song of the "U. Pay." Men

(On title page and throughout the text. Character Paddy Miles as: Boss of the track “Tarriers.” Chapter fourteen titled The “Tarriers” Make a Record.)

[Sabin, E.L., Opening the Iron Trail or Terry as a “U. Pay.” Man, (New York: Crowell, 1919)]

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25 Mar 18 - 11:22 PM (#3913152)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Drill!, Ye Tarriers…. was also one of the first songs to get the full diegetic treatment... in a silent film no less. Not a “cast iron” drill in sight though. In fact, no drilling at all. They're tamping ballast, sort of, but not really.

In truth, there was relatively little rock drilling or gravel ballast on the UP (aka Irish) side. More om this later.

Note the lyric change when our hero moves west to work for the CP, which was very drill and blast oriented:


40 (intertitle#)
From Omaha the
following year come
the Union Pacific crews
-- chiefly ex-soldiers of
North and South working
peacefully side by side.
They had laid the
first rail three months
after the assassination
of President Lincoln.

41
"Drill, ye terriers, drill --
Drill, ye terriers, drill --

42
"Sure, it's work all day,
Without sugar in yer tay -
When ye work for the U.P.
    Ra-a-ail-way ---

43
"Drill, ye terriers, drill --

44
"Drill, ye terriers, drill,
An' work and shw-e-a-t -"

45
In dead of winter, close
behind the advancing rails,
headquarters has jumped to
      North Platte….



177
Personal bitterness is
      put aside.

Davy is made gang
boss ---- and the
road advances along
the shorter route.

178
"Drill, ye terriers, drill -
Drill, ye terriers, drill -

179
"Sure, it's work all day,
Without sugar in yer tay -
When ye work for the U.P.
    Ra-a-ail-way.

180
"Drill, ye paddies, drill,
An' work an' shw-e-at -"

181
"With those foreign
laborers making trouble,
we Americans must
stick together…."


211
In distant California the
Central Pacific track-layers
make the mountains
resound with their song:

"Drill, ye Chinymen, drill,
Drill, ye haythens, drill -"

212
"Shure it's work all day,
Without sugar in yer tay,
When ye work for the
Cay Pay Ra-a-ail-way.

213
"Drill, ye haythens, drill,
An' work an' shw-e-at."

214
After another year --
over conquered prairie
and through riven
mountain -- the great
roads draw together.

[The Iron Horse, John Ford, Fox Film Corp., 1924, American release scored by Erno Rapee]

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26 Mar 18 - 05:13 AM (#3913175)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

See Lighter's post at the top of the page:

According to Amercan historian Stephen E. Ambrose, drilling and blasting weren't all that common on the Irish side of construction. The songs he mentions were sung forebiter style as opposed to chantey:

“When bosses couldn't level the grade, the scrapers*, drawn by oxen or up to four horses, were called in to do the job. When solid rock was encountered in a ridge line, which was seldom in the Great Plains, the men used hand drills and stuffed the hole with black powder. When the rocks blew apart, the remainder of the cut was dug out and leveled. A cut was done entirely by hand. The men would form an endless chain of wheelbarrows*. For fills, the dirt was dumped in. The land yielded nothing but some limestone for masonry work. There was no gravel for ballast so mainly sand was used.

At night. After supper, the men would play cards or sing songs, such as ”Poor Paddy he works on the railroad” or “The Great Pacific railway for California hail, bring on the locomotive, lay down the iron rail.” Others were "Pat Molloy,” “Whoop Along Liza Jane,” or “I'm a rambling rake of poverty, the son of a gamboleer.” The low notes of the Jew's harps and harmonicas floated across the cool night air. The songs were sung almost regardless of harmony and in contempt of tune.”

“…The evening meal was more leisurely. Then to the bunkhouses, for card games, a smoke, lots of talk (“railroad talk” was said to consist entirely of “whiskey and women and higher wages and shorter hours”), perhaps a song, such as "Poor Paddy he works on the railroad” or “The Great Pacific railway for California hail.” Then to bed, the whole to be repeated the next day and the next and the next.”

[Ambrose, S.E., Nothing Like it in the World, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000, pp.138, 179)]



*The Fresno Scraper (by way of Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland) combined the scraper & wheelbarrow. Perfected and patented in 1883 by Scots-American inventor James Porteous. The basic design, on steroids, is still in use all over the world today.

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29 Jun 23 - 09:22 AM (#4175789)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: GUEST,Naresh

Amazing to read all this history and the origins of this great song
I used to sing this as a campfire song at Woodcraft Folk camps back back in the 70s always loved it but found the bosses wife verse nonsensical and out of place (a me problem lol as it appears in most versions ) so when i sing it now i skip it and add a verse at the end ,
” A tarriers life is hard and short,
theyll work you till your face down in the dirt,
but when the blasting day is done,
we’ll drink and dance till the rising sun !

I also remember there being another verse i cant find where Jim Goff still hadnt come down or his wife was waiting for him still up in the sky , has anyone ever come across that?

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29 Jun 23 - 03:28 PM (#4175817)
Subject: RE: Origins: Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1888)
From: meself

[The boss sent us to tell his wife]
Just how Big Jim had lost his life;
She said, Bring him in to town,
We said, We would but he ain't yet come down!

The very next day, we heard a cry,
There was Big Jim, falling from the sky;
He landed on a big rock dump,
And said, By God, that's a helluva bump!

Or something like that - from a recording by Tim Rogers & Barry Luft - 'Songs of the Iron Rail', maybe? - all Canadian songs (or variants). In their song, it's "the CP [i.e., Canadian Pacific] railway", and the cook is "a Bluenose [Nova Scotian] man". And there's a doctor who gives you pills that "send you over the Eagle Hills" - which sounds either extremely delightful or unpleasant, depending on your turn of mind, I suppose.

Interestingly, it also has a re-working of this verse from Mick on the Railroad, given above:

They gave me a drill to drill the hole,
And then confound my Irish sowl,
And blast the ship that brought me over,
To work upon the railroad.

[He'd ... and curse and scold,
He'd damn and blast our Irish souls;
He'd damn the ship that brought us through,
To work on the CP Railway crew.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECCAeqEBhzY&t=1118s

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