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Al Duvall - The Wreck Of The General Slocum Lyrics

Pray remember the General Slocum
That death trap of lead paint and oakum
As she burned to a cinder
The fraulein and kinder
Leapt into the lifeboats and broke 'em

In those days, New York City was thriving
And industrious folk kept arriving
It was beer halls and Germans
And Lutheran sermons
That prevented the market from diving

An excursion was held every summer
For the kin of the cobbler and plumber
Everybody was dressed
In their picnicking best
But the glamor was soon to be glummer

For in 1904, in those dark days of yore
On the throne sat the big corporation
From greedy directors to corrupted inspectors
An octopus strangled the nation
And the cost-cutting plan of the sweat-shopper man
Was the model for business and profit
Thus, our ill-fated ship was unfit for the trip
And nobody could even get off it
So a flame, set by someone, I'm thinking
As the cowardly crew set to drinking
Went to spread without check
From the hold to the deck
And the choice came to burning or sinking

For true conoisseurs of disaster
No ferryboat ever surpassed her
Though consumed by the fire
And though land beckoned by 'er
The captain kept pushing her faster

One thousand did die in the wink of an eye
At the hands of a corporate miser
Grieving fathers returned, for their families had burned
And they plotted revenge with the Kaiser

All those barons of humbug and hokum
I hope that the anarchists choke 'em
When they're lost in the slum
That Kleindeutschland's become
Since the wreck of the General Slocum