Tell My Friend the Prison Warden I Hadn’t Time to Call

One other Communist Party of Canada member and labour leader, “Red” Malcolm Bruce, appears as a main figure in some of Dawn Fraser’s poems. Born in Prince Edward Island, Bruce spent much time during the 1920s fighting labour’s struggles in the Cape Breton coal fields. “Honest Bell What did Bruce Say?” “The Hair Breadth Escape of Red Malcolm Bruce” and “Tell My Friend the Prison Warden I Hadn’t Time to Call” focus on events during Bruce’s stay in Cape Breton, including a charge of libel while fighting labour’s cause.

LYRICS

Dear Bell: I will not ask for space
To cover such a feeble case,
Nor should I take the readers’ time
To bore them with my roughneck rhyme;
A few good laughs and I am done-
Oh, Tom, me boy, ain’t we got fun?
You tell them all about the law,
Leave me alone to laugh haw-haw
Six men from different parts of town,
All summoned, mind you, by the crown,
Stood up, and each one swore in turn
As how he hoped some day to burn,
If on that Sunday in the hall
He heard Bruce say “them things” at all.
I marked the smile on every face-
The crown was building quite a case?

One witness don’t remember where
He really was-but he was there-
could not remember every word,
But someone said he overheard
That someone said he know a man-
‘Twas thus the story wildly ran
Till we were dizzy in the head
From “someone said that someone said”
I’ll tell you, Tom, what someone said-
“We’ve got to get this dangerous Red;
Everything is working nice-
Cut him down at any price.
Besco has too much at stake-
Horrors! If the slaves awake!
Make some pretext, find some excuse-
We got to silence Malcolm Bruce.”

But, bon voyage, Malcolm, on your way,
We hope you come another day,
And Malcolm, if you come again,
We won’t invite you to the pen,
Or take such rare exceeding pains
To wrap you up in prison chains;
When next you speak it well might be
On eastern hospitality
Alas, alas, our island fame-
I weep o’er old Cape Breton’s shame.

By BEN FUREY

About Ben Furey

Ben Furey grew up in Coxheath, Cape Breton Island. A graduate of St. Francis Xavier’s music program, he writes and performs songs on his own and with bluegrass rowdies Crowdis Bridge. An accomplished guitarist, mandolin and banjo picker, Ben has recently completed Expedition Cape Breton: Every Shore 2011, a circumnavigation of the island with his friend AJ Fraser where they helped raise money for Cape Breton Firefighters Burn Care Society.