An Honest Miner.
[AIR—Low Back Car.]

When first I went to mining, I was uncommon green,
With a "gallus" rig I went to dig, and claimed a whole ravine;
But when I could not make my grub, with implements to gag,
An honest miner might have been seen at night with a pig in a bag.

Chorus
As he lugged it away from the pen,
Was thinking how lucky he'd been;
Went into a hole, dug deep after gold,
With pig in the bag tumbled in.

I wandered round from place to place, and no one did mistrust,
But what an honest miner had — most any amount of dust;
It seems a gang of theives had robbed a hen-roost neat and clean,
An honest miner wringing their necks, might possibly have been seen.

Chorus
As he thought of the elegant stew,
The rooster would make — but he flew;
But he'd cook up the hens and invite in his friends,
As the dog run him out of the roost.

No matter who was robbed or killed, 'twas all laid to Joaquin,
His band out in the chapparal not long ago was seen;
With pick and shovel on his back, as though out on a tramp,
An honest miner might have been seen, robbing a Chinese camp.

Chorus
As he pulled them around by the tails,
They scratched with their long finger nails;
A tom iron round his body was bound,
So of course it must be Joaquin.

A certain class will drink and fight, and gamble all the while,
And live among the prostitutes, in low, degraded style;
The people think it's with the few, but I for one will tell,
An honest miner's often seen crawling out of a Spanish corral.

Chorus
And pretend to respectable be
Will damn them from A to Z;
They're first in the shout of "Let's run 'em out,"
And the first to get round where they be.

An honest miner's like a pile — almighty hard to find;
So, what's a chicken among so few, when they are chicken inclined?
But if you'll give the d—l his due, there's not a cent to choose,
An honest miner's often round when pigs and chickens you lose.

Chorus
Though it's always a gang of thieves,
The lucky one laughs in his sleeves;
He looks with surprise, and seems to despise
Anything like a pig in a bag.

An honest miner'll drink and fight, and raise the very d—l;
But that's all right, if once a week he's seen with pick and shovel.
Of course he'll starve before he'll steal, but, try a trip and see,
I've mined too long to be deceived, I have that, yes-sir-ree.

Chorus
But we're all of us bound to live,
By mining though, without or with;
Though after awhile we'll all make a pile,
So, remember the pig in a bag.


Put's Original California Songster, p. 29-30



Lyrics and tune in Dwyer & Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush, p. 83

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What's a "gallus rig"?

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Click to play (pdmusic.org)

[Tune notes by Artful Codger]
"The Low Back'd Car" was written by Samuel Lover; the tune is reputedly "The Jolly Ploughboy".
Sheet music [PDF] (1846) in the Lester S. Levy Collection.
Mudcat thread, where Jim Dixon posted the lyrics (with chords) and Warsaw Ed posted an ABC of the melody.

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