[Copyright
Feb 22
1875]
"The
Working-Man's
Soliloquy" [22 Feb 1875]
Song and Chorus
Words by
Louis P. Marto
Music by
Alfred P. Cobbin

Philadelphia, PA: S. C. UPHAM, 25 S. Eighth St.
  Lee & Walker, 922 Chestnut St.
  W. H. Boner & Co., 1102 Chestnut St.
New York, NY: W. A. Pond & Co.
Boston, MA: O. Ditson & Co.
Baltimore, MD: Geo. Willig & Co.
Cincinnati, OH: John Church & Co.
San Francisco, CA: M. Gray. Whitney & Co.
St. Louis, MO: Balmer & Weber.
J. M. Armstrong, Music Typographer, N. E. Cor. Fifth & 
  Chestnut Sts., Philad'a.
[Source: 1875-01689@LoC]

1. What makes such silence o’er the land,
So like a sleeping dream,—
When no employ can labor find,
And— hope has not a gleam?
AEolian harps above we hear,
Sounding so sad and low;
No scene to cheer desponding life,
Nor winter’s chilling snow.

CHORUS [sung after each VERSE]
We have a dirge throughout the land,
Whose echo makes us sad;
Oh! sound the note of work for all,
And make our hearts feel glad!

2. The moisy saw, the squeaking plane,
We have no call to ply;—
The music from the anvil’s sound;—
To— all, we bid goodbye.
The furnace fire, whose noisy blast
Makes music on the air,
Is still as death, and all seems lost
In sadness and despair.

3. Oh! land of plenty, art and trade,
’Tis thee that we adore;
Labor gives us, that we may toil,
Then we will ask no more;
The guawworm finds the hollow span
To set its bite and sting;
Hope breaks its shaft and life speeds on
With swiftly flying wing.