EMIGRANT FROM PIKE
John A. Stone ('Put') 1855

I have just arrived across the plains,
Oh, didn't I have awful times!
It makes the blood run greasy through my veins.
I'm so disappointed in the mines.
When I go home with an empty sack,
I'll show them where the Indians shot me in the back,
And how my mules laid down and died,
And I near starved to death beside.

Chorus:
Hokey, pokey, winker wun,
We're all good fellows, we'll have some fun,
And all get married when we go home,
So what's the use of talking.

I was taken with the bilious cholera,
While I was traveling up the Platte;
All my friends they ran away and left me,
Then, to die contented, down I sat-

Cho. 2
Cramping, twisting, down I sat,
My inwards all tied up in a knot;
My old mule he began to bray,
I, scared to death, began to pray.

When I reached the desert, I was starvin',
Surely thought I'd never get across;
Then I thought of my big brother, Marvin,
Then the bacon and the mule I'd lost.

Cho.
The times to reach the mines were past,
And I, poor devil, was about the last;
And when I thought of my big brother,
I bid farewell to my kind old mother.

I got the though at last, and went to mining,
Stole myself a shovel and pick,
But could not raise the color big and shining,
Swore I'd never strike another lick.

Cho.
Then I went round among my friends
To see if I could raise some tens
To take me home, for I was scared,
My hair was all turning into beard.

If I get home, I bet my life I'll stay there,
California'll trouble me no more;
I've tried my luck at everything and everywhere,
And never have been half so poor before.

Cho.
For I've nothing in the world but meat,
And that I really cannot eat;
Such times, I never saw the like,
Oh, Lord, I wish I was back in Pike!

Text: Stone, 1855, "Put's Original California Songster," pp. 41-42, Appleton and Co., San Francisco.
From Lingenfelter and Dwyer, 1968, "Songs of the American West, pp. 44-45, music edited by David Cohen. Sheet music with chords, using "Nellie Was a Lady;" first chorus from "Old Dan Tucker," second chorus "King of the Cannibal Islands."