SCISSOR BILL

(JOE HILL) (1913)
Tune: "Steamboat Bill" (LEIGHTON BROTHERS) (1910)

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Because of his belief that the panacea for all ills of the working class was the I. W. W., Joe Hill was particularly scornful of the worker who resisted organization. "Scissor Bill" became a mocking name for the man who "...says he never organized and never will."

Gibbs M. Smith, Labor Martyr Joe Hill, New York, NY, 1969, p. 33.

First published in the March 6, 1913 edition of the Industrial Worker "Little Red Songbook."

You may ramble 'round the country anywhere you will,
You'll always run across that same old Scissor Bill.
He's found upon the desert, he is on the hill,
He's found in every mining camp and lumber mill.
He looks just like a human, he can eat and walk,
But you will find he isn't, when he starts to talk.
He'll say, "This is my country," with an honest face,
While all the cops they chase him out of every place.

CHORUS:
Scissor Bill, he's a little dippy,
Scissor Bill, he has a funny face.
Scissor Bill, should drown in Mississippi,
He is the missing link that Darwin tried to trace.

And Scissor Bill he couldn't live without the booze,
He sits around all day and spits tobacco juice.
He takes a deck of cards and tries to beat the Chink!
Yes, Bill would be a smart guy if he only could think.
And Scissor Bill he says: "This country must be freed
From Niggers, Japs and Dutchmen and the gol durn Swede."
He says that every cop would be a native son
If it wasn't for the Irishman, the sonna fur gun.

CHORUS:
Scissor Bill, the "foreigners" is cussin',
Scissor Bill, he says: "I hate a Coon";
Scissor Bill, is down on everybody,
The Hottentots, the bushmen and the man in the moon.

Don't try to talk your union dope to Scissor Bill,
He says he never organized and never will.
He always will be satisfied until he's dead,
With coffee and a doughnut and a lousy old bed.
And Bill, he says he gets rewarded thousand fold,
When he gets up to Heaven on the streets of gold.
But I don't care who knows it, and right here I'll tell,
If Scissor Bill is goin' to Heaven, I'll go to Hell.

CHORUS:
Scissor Bill, he wouldn't join the union,
Scissor Bill, he says, "Not me, by Heck!"
Scissor Bill, gets his reward in Heaven,
Oh! sure. He'll get it, but he'll get it in the neck.