The forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie are annihilated by the English under
the Duke of Cumberland. The 1745 Jacobite rebellion is crushed and the
Stuarts have lost their last chance to regain the English crown.
"The Fate o' Charlie"
On the 16th of April I'll ever remember
The night it was dark, dark as December
The moon showed her beams, something awful forboding
And lulled were the streams as they rolled by Culloden.
[thanx Bob Waltz]
Also "The Muir of Cullloden," Greig-Duncan #127.
Greig says: "Culloden is in many ways the saddest thing in
Scottish history."
Also "Lassie Lie Near Me," Gaughan
& "Culloden" in _Celebrated Scottish Songs_
Probably some others.
It's Alfred E Packer Day!
Yay!
The gala festivities celebrate the return of the only US convicted
anthropophagist (also see 10/23)
On 2/9/1874 Packer as guide for a mining party & the 5 miners left camp in
the (now-called) Cannibal Plateau in the San Juan Mts of Colorado. On
4/17, Packer reached town alone but fit & healthy. In August their bodies
were found. It was evident that they had been murdered and that flesh had
been cut from their bones. Packer served 18 years of a life sentence. He
admitted eating the men but always claimed he didn't actually kill them.
They killed each other & the last one attacked Packer. Packer barely
saved himself by shooting the actual murderer. He died 4/23/1907.
In 1995, a medical forensics team, as an exercise, exhumed & examined the
victims. They showed the knife cuts on the bones but radioactive, etc
exam showed no trace of lead. Ergo Packer did not shoot. All died by
having their heads smashed in. They concluded he was the murderer & was
correctly convicted. They found, and I quote: "like Packer's victims,
justice had been served."
Six miners went into the mountains
To hunt for precious gold;
It was the middle of winter,
The weather was dreadful cold.
Six miners went into the mountains,
They had nor food nor shack--
Six miners went into the mountains,
But only one came back.
"The Lost Miners," Olive Woolley Burt, Amer. Murder Ballads, 1958
ALSO:
When the judge pronounced the sentence
He was in a righteous rage;
And what he said can still be read
Upon the yellowed page;
He wished that they could hang old Al
Until completely dead,
So when he banged the gavel,
It was in anger that he said:
"Oh, Alfred Packer,
You should be skinned alive!
There was only seven Democrats -
And you bastard, you et five."
"Ballad of Alfred Packer," by Jack Guinn,
In _10,000 Goddam Cattle_, Katie Lee. [Thanx Alan Thiesen]
I believe that in the '60's or '70's, the students of the University of
Colorado at Boulder, feeling that it was appropriate, voted to rename
the cafeteria in their student union building "Alfred Packer Cafeteria".
Whether it sill retains that name I do not know.
--
Joe Felsenstein j...@genetics.washington.edu (IP No. 128.95.12.41)
Dept. of Genetics, Univ. of Washington, Box 357360, Seattle, WA 98195-7360 USA
(It's Treasurer in 1967 was an American of ill repute)
The days of seventy-six, my boys,
We ever must revere,
Our fathers took their muskets then
To fight for freedom dear.
Upon the plains of Lexington
They made the foe look queer.
"In the Days of '76," Lomax; _FSNA_
("I'm a redcoat, and I'm OK")
=========================================================================
I am Abby Sale - abby...@sundial.net PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS
and I quote:
Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
=========================================================================
It was early springtime that the strike was on
They moved us miners out of doors
Out from the houses that the company owned
We moved into tents at old Ludlow.
You struck a match and the blaze it started
You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns
I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me
Thirteen children died from your guns.
LUDLOW MASSACRE (Woody Guthrie) DT filename[ LUDLWMAS
O Santy Anna gained the day
Hoo-ray, Santy Anna!
He lost it once but gained it twice
All on the plains of Mexico!
"Santy Anno"
ie, they lost here.
2. It was the first of April from New York we set sail,
Kind Neptune did protect us with a sweet and pleasant gale
Until about the twentieth a storm then did arise,
The raging billows loud did roar and dismal were the skies.
9. Our passengers were twenty-seven, when from New York we came.
Full twenty-five bold sailor lads as ever crossed the main;
Full fifty-four, we had on board, when first we did set sail,
Only nine escaped the wreck to tell the dreadful tale.
_Forget Me Not Songster_, 1835 &
_Minstrelsy of Maine_; Fannie Eckstorm; 1927
Right proudly high over Dublin Town they hung out the flag of war,
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud-El-Bar.
And from the plains of Royal Meath strong men cam hurrying through,
While Britannia's sons, with their great guns, sailed in by the foggy dew.
"Easter Rebellion Song," Jerry Silverman, _Folk Song Encyclopedia_
And how well I remember that terrible day,
How our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
So now every April I sit on me porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reviving old dreams and past glory,
THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA, Eric Bogle, DT filename[ BANDPLAY
Or "The Foggy Dew"
For a fine recording of this song (as one of a set of three
chronicaling the history of "The Troubles", concluding with Ron
Kavanagh's fine "Cry, Cry, Cry") - chek out Tomas Lynch's
wonderful CD "Crux of the Catalogue" - IMHO it's the best Celtic
record of all time (but I have to admit to being biased by its
duet between Tomas and June Tabor on another track)
The title comes from a line in a song from James Joyce's
Finnigan's Wake - as you might have gleaned, there's a
wide range of material on the CD.
The CD is on LineCheck in the UK.
Regards
George