"Down the Line" (1885)
(The Engineer on His Train)
To the Brotherhood of Engineers

Words by A.K. Owen
Music by George Frederick Root

1.
I feel my engine rock and reel,
O're ribs of oak and bars of steel,
Tho' death be near -- ahead -- below,
I may not heed, but on must go.
Ah! she is dear almost as life,
I love her next the child and wife
Whose faces at the window pane,
I pass each morning on the train.

Refrain
I rock and reel, rock and reel,
O're ribs of oak and bars of steel,
From friends and all my loved away,
I thunder down the line all day,
I thunder down the line all day.

2.
I pass and breath an earnest prayer,
"O Father keep them in thy care;"
What fears I feel, may they not know,
As o're the ringing rails I go.
Tho' storms may gather on the plain,
And maddly dash against my train;
Tho' tempests rage and wild winds blow,
I may not heed but on must go.

[Repeat Refrain]

3.
How many friends I cause to meet,
In blest communion, sacred, sweet;
How many friends I cause to part,
With tearful eye and sorrowing heart.
But with the lever firm in hand,
Between such lives and death I stand;
And may I, taught by love divine,
If need be, for those lives give mine.

[Repeat Refrain]