CPR Line

The CPR Line

Recruitment of labourers to help construct the CPR was big business. Here we get a sense of the diversity of these recruits and how they felt once their jobs came to life. "The CPR Line" is one version of a popular traditional Canadian railroad song, known variously as the Scantaling, Fox River, Rock Island or Margineau Line. This version was passed on to Edith Fowke by Pierre Berton.

More information: Canadian Folk Music Bulletin, 1982, 16(2), 12-13. Click HERE to see more background on this song.

(Barry: vocal, autoharp; Tim: guitar; Grit: mandolin; Patty: bass)

There were tinkers and tailors, shoemakers and snobs
There were heavers and weavers, all looking for jobs
There was a lager beer man who did hail from the Rhine
They were all heading west for the CPR Line.

There were Russians and Prussians, Norwegians and Jews
They were all in a fluster for to see Jimmy Hughes
To tip him a dollar for a paper to sign
To be forward next spring up the CPR Line.

They had agents in Dublin, Liverpool and Cork
They had five in Chicago and ten in New York
There were fifteen in Boston, ten on the Maine
To transfer these bums to the CPR Line.

So we started to work on the first day of May
One dollar and fifty we heard was the pay
At the end of six weeks we summed up our time
We were scarcely out of debt on the CPR Line.

So we stopped at Rocky Carling's so short you can bet
If we stopped there much longer he'd have starved us to death
For sauerkraut and salt pork, he chewed it up fine
And he slung it for hash on the CPR Line.

So we hoisted out turkeys and tramped down the line
We met there with Snyder, a noble divine
We met there with Snyder, a noble divine
With his bright Number Two on the CPR Line.

There he stood on the banks and those teamsters he'd scold
"It's bring in those teams or its goll-darn your soul
And if you don't like it you can all take your time
And skedaddle to hell from the CPR Line."

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About The CPR Line

The song on the album tells of the multicultural mix of the workers who constructed the CPR Line. When I look at this piece, I'm struck by a major omission from the first three verses; namely, mention of the considerable force of Chinese labourers who were so important to CPR construction, especially through the mountains. Indeed, as I examine the canon of Canadian railroad songs, the Chinese are scarcely mentioned, making them a major untold story of the Canadian railway. Happily, a Calgary performer, Su-Chong Lim, has addressed this omission. Su-Chong, a practicising physician, is a wonderful writer and singer whose unique perspective gives voice to many aspects of the Asian presence in Canada's history.

In his "Demon Fire-Carriage Road" we find a sensitive portrayal of the lives of the 6,000 labourers from southern China who were imported to work on the CPR between 1881-84. Conditions were poor and risks high, with as many as 1,500 "Chinamen" dying in accidents and from disease. This song is copyright to Su-Chong Lim, 1992.

Demon Fire-Carriage Road

Well it's far away to come for pay for the men from the Middle Kingdom
To the Golden Mountain-Land of the Free
And it's lucky joss that the Demon Boss needs men enough to bring them
Six thousand, packed like cattle, sent by sea

But it's harsh and cold in this land of gold and the work is long and heavy
Fourteen killing hours every day
Just a cheap pair of hands from foreign lands, a nameless, faceless navvy
To be used, to sweat and bleed your life away

   There's the smell of death on Golden Mountain
   A price in blood is paid on every load
   And you bury your friends, too many for counting
   In the rock and the mud of the Demon Fire-Carriage Road

Well it's hammer, drill and blast, and still the rock she don't give any
So it's drill once more, and careful, or you'll die
For the gorge is cheap, but men are cheap, and China men are many
When they're all used up there's plenty more to buy

So you hang from your rope, and you drill and you hope that once more you can take it
And you try not to think of Leung who fell last night
And you light your fuse and you try to use your shaking arms to make it
To the top to hide from the blast of dynamite

   There's the smell of death on Golden Mountain
   A price in blood is paid on every load
   And you bury your friends, too many for counting
   In the rock and the mud of the Demon Fire-Carriage Road

       Late at night when the shift is over
       You still lay awake to see the heaven's gleam
       From the Sky Kingdom shine the lovers
       Still parted by the heaven's starry stream
       Still they wait forever
       But meeting never
       Their sorrow like a knife in your soul
       And heaven shares your pain
       As you think of your woman again
       And the tears they flow beyond control

Now you're wearing rags from old flour bags against the wind that tears you
And you wonder-How much cold can the winter bring?
But you sprinkle your dish with your rice and fish and you hope the scurvy spares you
Till the work and wages start again in spring

When the stones and the sands of this Demon land once more will claim your spirit
Though you dream in vain of the land that gave you birth
For the Heavens who give the will to live can just as simply kill it
And you know in your heart you are doomed for this demon earth

   There's the smell of death on Golden Mountain
   A price in blood is paid on every load
   And you bury your friends, too many for counting
   In the rock and the mud of the Demon Fire-Carriage Road
   In the rock and the mud of the Demon Fire-Carriage Road
   In the rock and the mud of the Demon Fire-Carriage Road

Dr. Lim indicates that, in the eyes of the Chinese, anything non-Chinese is viewed as "uncultured, uncivilized and generally barbaric." Thus, the non-Chinese person is a "foreign demon," and the white man's railroad is the "Demon Fire-Carriage Road." In the middle section of the song, the "lovers" from the Sky Kingdom "parted by the heaven's starry stream" refer to stars called the Spinning Maid (aka Allair) and the Cowherd (aka Vega), for which there is a legend in Chinese tradition.

In his inimitable way, Su-Chong brings humour and irony to this difficult story in the form of a parody of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land." In the 4th verse, Dr. Lim makes a strong statement about the coolies, and the manner in which, despite official policies attempting to prevent it, many were able to raise above difficult times. Indeed, to the patient go the spoils.....

To build the railroads, those CP stoolies
Imported whale-loads of cheapie coolies
But the buggers stayed here-now got it made here
In This land that's made for you and me

Chorus:
Dis land is your land dis land is my land
Dis Groc'ry Store and Laund'y, Chop Suey Gai land
Though we talk funny, we got all your money
In Dis land dat's made for me and you

There's a highly-memorable glint in Dr. Lim's eyes when he sings the third line of the chorus.

Su-Chong Lim's CD, Golden Mountain (Vancouver BC: Aural Tradition, (Vancouver Folk Festival Recordings), ATRCD 306, 1993) is available for $19.00 (which includes postage and handling) from the:

   Canadian Folk Music Mail Order Service
   PO Box 65066, North Hill Post Office
   Calgary, AB Canada T2N 4T6

Please make cheques payable to the Canadian Society for Traditional Music

This brief resource is a "work in progress." If you have any suggestions for corrections or additions please let us know .

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