Australia and the Amazon.
[AIR—Emma Snow.]

Farewell, old California, I'm going far away,
Where gold is found more plenty, in larger lumps they say;
And climate, too, that can't be beat, no matter where you go—
Australia, that's the land for me, where all have got a show.

Chorus:
But I found that good time over,
For all was grief and pain,
And I should never, never make
My ounce a day again.

I sold a claim that paid me just half an ounce a day,
Got robbed at Sacramento, and licked down at the Bay;
I took the Monumental, for Sydney she was bound
Her boilers bursted, she burnt up, and five hundred were drowned.
But I found, etc.

We soon found we were lousy, which did us much surprise.
To hear the cabin gentry say, "They're lousy, blast their eyes!"
But when our journey ended, and we had seen the mines,
Without a cent were shoved in jail, for taxes and for fines.
But I found, etc.

But give me California, where all have equal rights,
Or the Amazon with all her snakes, I'd run the risk of bites;
Such mean, infernal, theiving, outlandish lies are told;
The d—l will get the next poor whelp that does discover gold.
But I found, etc.




Put's Original California Songster, p. 22

Lyrics (no tune) in Dwyer & Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush, p. 80

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Click to play (pdmusic.org)

[Tune notes by Artful Codger]
Sheet music for Emma Snow in the Library of Congress online collection Music for the Nation.

The DigiTrad entry for this song says that the tune for "[Charming] Emma Snow" is that of "Dearest Mae" and "No More the Moon Shines on Lorena"; while it's possible the text was later also sung to that tune, it is not the original tune for "Emma Snow", and cannot be the tune Stone meant: he set "Coming Around the Horm" to the tune "Dearest May".

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