Gold Rush: Them Forty-Niners!

All the newspapers say “Go West, young man”

Have some adventure, get yourself some land

Nobody mentioned just how rough it would be

Crossing these prairies as broad as the vast sea

They has found some glittery gold or so they say

At an old mill on the river out Californie way

Men are packing their belongings; loadin’ their chuck

To head on out to Californie and try their luck

Me, I’m stayin’ right here on this prairie ground

There probably ain’t enough gold there to go around

I’ll just farm my land and pray for some rain

No, no gold for me; nothing ventured, nothing gained

Greed can make a man want for a lots of nice things

Fine riding horses, clothing, and big diamond rings

Me, I don’t need all that much to get myself by

Just three squares, a roof, and a soft place to lie

Them boys will run for Californie hell-bent-for-leather

Cross them big mountains in snow and cold weather

To get to a place none of them have ever seen

All for some shiny flakes of gold; a poor fools’ dream

They say them rocks is the size of hen eggs

They’re a pannin’ in water halfway up their legs

A feller could get rich in just a couple of days

Then retire to a life of strictly rich man’s ways

Me, I don’t believe it any of it, not on a bet

Go on to Californie and see how rich you get

I’ll wait here fer ya and just work this ol’ land

Tryin’ to raise crops in this dry ol’ prairie sand

I reckon some boys might get themselves rich

If they can find nuggets runnin’ down that ditch

Good men have tried and already failed at the test

They left here with everything and came back with less

Newspaper says 300,000 are headed in that direction

Forty-Niners, they call them, the name of selection

Don’t know about you but that’s too many folks for me

I’ll just stay back on the prairie and do me a wait n’ see

Forty-niners got themselves an adventure to behold

That is if they really do find all that glittering gold

A fool has chased worse things in this life he chose

Not me, I’ll stay and work this prairie farm I suppose

©Copyright WBrown2011. All Rights Reserved

11/15/2011