The Mystery of Sis Joe: Ghost Workers on the Railroad

One of Master Chorus Eastside’s altos became quite intrigued by a number we are rehearsing, so she decided to do some research into the colorful railroad language it employs, and then wrote the following blog entry.  She has a witty and imaginative turn of mind and a ready way with words, and I always love what she writes.  I think you will too!

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic director and conductor

Master Chorus Eastside

♫

 Sacramento~Sis Joe is a song which will be on the program of MCE’s Independence Day concert on June 30, 2013.

We can establish historically and folk-lorically that “Sis Joe” is the name of a train.

 We hear the voices of the passengers who are headed for the gold fields of California to make their fortunes. What a great time to be alive! Those were the days of the good old time—1849!—when an enterprising American could stake a claim and dig up chunks of gold “as heavy as a brick”!

There is another set of voices in this mysterious song. The words are in English, but the language is a foreign one to us today. What do you make of these words?

All right now boys, let me tell you about Sis Joe,

This time Sis Joe!

On the M & O, 

Track heavy, but she will go,

On the Mud Line,

Jack the rabbit, 

Take a lining bar, 

For to line this track, 

Take a mule on the sand,

Take a jack, get a man!

In some versions of this song, the words are arranged in rhyming couplets:

Take a mule, take a jack,

Take a lining bar, for to line this track,

On the mud line, on the sand,

On the mud line, get a man,

Jack the rabbit, on the M & O, 

Track heavy, but she will go.

I have learned to depend on the kindness of the World Wide Web in solving mysteries. Not much escapes the breadth and depth of information available to us on the Internet. I began my research expecting to find a clear, definitive translation of these words. All I found was other researchers seeking the meaning of these enigmatic phrases.

There were a few clues here and there—definitions of the separate words. Some words had multiple definitions and there was more speculation than certainty in the information provided. The trail of clues led to the ultimate source of information--a book by John and Alan Lomax, who collected and compiled two volumes of American ballads and folk songs in 1941, often making recordings of singers and taking detailed notes. “Sis Joe” appears on page 262 of their Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs.

Here is my “free” translation of these ghost voices from the past. Most “experts” agree that these voices are singing about working on the railroad. Outdoors, that is, with hand tools and man power.

“All right now boys...! “The leader calls the men together, gets their attention and describes where the job will be, what they will be doing, what tools they need and how they will get to the work site.

“Okay guys, we will be working on the Mud Line section of the M & O railroad. We have to line the track so that it is straight and true. Bring your lining bars. It’s going to be heavy work, but we can do it. We have to re-arrange the track—you will be using your jack tool to pull up the stakes. We’re going to jack that rabbit. For you new guys—the “rabbit”—that’s where we pulled a section of rails away from the main line to sidetrack the train onto flat ground. That keeps the train from building up speed on the down grade and having a wreck. Now we have to join the rabbit back to the main line. We are going to all pile into the mule, that little steam locomotive over there, so we can get to the work place. Bring your lining bars, someone bring a jack or two, and we’ll need another man.  Someone go over and rouse up Jim Williams. The passenger train’s due now, and we got to get down there and line that track up straight so it’s just like a knitting needle before the train gets there...”

That’s my version, and if someone knows a better version, well, speak up now, and sing it yourself.

Roberta DeBruler

MCE musical correspondent