And tho’ his harp lies mute and still,
Hill’s murdered dust is vocal yet
With words that burn and notes that thrill.
-Major Honere J. Jaxon
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday November 30, 1915
From The Day Book:
“Another Immortal” by Honore J. Jaxon
In yesterday’s Day Book we find a poem, written by Honore J. Jaxon, which declares Fellow Worker Joe Hill to be “Another Immortal” and begins:
Once more a glorious rebel falls,
Ensnared by knaves in legal guise.
Once more a rebel’s name is smirched
By slaves who peddle purchased lies.
But tho’ his clarion voice is hushed,
And tho’ his harp lies mute and still,
Hill’s murdered dust is vocal yet
With words that burn and notes that thrill.
These words recall the chant voiced by members of I. W. W. Local 69 and their Verdandi allies as they kept vigil throughout the long night of November 18th until sunrise the next morning when the shots rang out that ended the life of Joe Hill. There, in Salt Lake City, on the corner of Second South and Commercial Streets, where Local 69 soapboxers had rallied since its founding five years earlier, they gathered and sang the songs of Joe Hill and listened to speeches by members of the Joe Hill Defense Committee, Ed Rowan and Fred Ritter among them.
The chant began, “And Joe Hill will be shot in the morning,” and was answered by “Not if we can help it!” Then someone called out:
Something is going to happen. Joe Hillstrom will never die,
do you hear it every body, Joe Hillstrom will never die.
From The Day Book of November 29, 1915:
ANOTHER IMMORTAL
By Major Honere J. Jaxon
—–
Once more a glorious rebel falls,
Ensnared by knaves in legal guise.
Once more a rebel’s name is smirched
By slaves who peddle purchased lies.
But tho’ his clarion voice is hushed,
And tho’ his harp lies mute and still,
Hill’s murdered dust is vocal yet
With words that burn and notes that thrill.
And tho’ his murders’ forked tongues
Proclaim that Hillstrom’s course is run,
Their conscience tells their coward hearts
That Hillstrom’s work has but begun!
The call to action, stern and high,
That sprang from Hillstorm’s dauntless soul,
Will rouse the workers from their sleep
And make the faint and halting whole.
Wherever Hillstrom’s songs shall rise
The worker’s brain from fog will clear,
And “Scissor Bills” and “Mister Blocks”
And “Easy Marks” will disappear.
And so from Hillstrom’s martyred blood,
That Utah’s cursed tribune has shed,
Ten million Hillstrom’s soon shall rise
In proof that Hillstrom is not dead.
‘Tis thus that tyrants ever forge
The weapons that will crush their power.
Each crime its own avenger brings
And names the execution hour.
Well, therefore, may we lift our heads
In proud defiance of the knaves
Who seek by perjury and lies
To hold the workers as their slaves.
The stars may leave their ordered course
And planets tumble from the sky,
But truth can never be defied
And Hillstrom’s work can never die!
SOURCES
The Man Who Never Died:
The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon
-by William M. Adler
Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Aug 30, 2011
https://books.google.com/books?id=nCwHDiXYMRMC
Joe Hill
-by Gibbs M. Smith
Gibbs Smith, Sep 1, 2009
https://books.google.com/books?id=wFwsHQVuHVUC
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Nov 29, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/image/77863912/
IMAGES
Joe Hill, charcoal, by L. Stanford Chumley, ISR, Dec 1915
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=9VJIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA326
Honore Jaxon, 1907, Chicago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_Jackson
Verdandi & IWW Local 69 Members?
http://local.sltrib.com/charts/joehill/gallery/trial.html
Cover: The Man Who Never Died, play by Barrie Stavis
https://books.google.com/books?id=Esj9SKStLTEC
See also:
William Henry Jackson (Honoré Joseph Jaxon) 1861-1952
https://oceanflynn.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/william-henry-jackson-honore-joseph-jaxon-1861-1952/
For information on IWW Local 69:
Utah in the Twentieth Century
-by Brian Q. Cannon & Jessie Embry
University Press of Colorado, Jun 15, 2009
(search: “local 69”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=aZK-AwAAQBAJ
For information on Verdandi and to …
“Help The Tribune solve a 1915 Joe Hill photo mystery
Who are the men and women in this circa 1915 photo?”
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=7197536&itype=storyID
The Man Who Never Died by Barrie Stavis
https://books.google.com/books?id=Esj9SKStLTE
“Joe Hill” by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson
-for lyrics and information on the writing of this song:
http://www.folkarchive.de/joehill.html