Gold.
PARODY.
By Mrs. Mary Dunn.

Come listen to me, jolly 1ad,
A story I'll relate,
Which happened in the valley
Of the California State;
'Twas down the Feather River land
We hearties went so bold,
And worked like hungry tigers
For the bright and shining gold.

Chorus:
For gold, they say, is brighter than the day,
And when it's mine,
I'm bound to shine,
And drive dull care away.

My creditors gave me a year
To pay them what I owed,
I thanked them very kindly,
And was off for the land of gold;
And as we scraped the valleys dry,
Where the waters used to roll,
I filled my trousers' pockets full
Of the bright and shining gold. For, etc.

Beneath the hot and scorching sun,I worked for many a day,
Most happy, 'cause I got so rich,
I soon was going away;
A monstrous heap of gold I had,
Which from the sand I parted—
I got some boards and boxed it up,
And off for home I started. For, etc.

O, the mountains and the valleys there,
I tell you they're not slow,
And Nature's works in grandeur are,
Whichever way you go;
And there our glorious stars and stripes,
For evermore shall fly,
As each new day the rising sun
Shall gild the eastern sky. For, etc.


Put's Original California Songster, p. 60

Not found in Dwyer & Lingenfelter, The Songs of the Gold Rush

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[Text notes by Artful Codger]
I suspect that the model for this parody was some song with the key phrase "drive dull care away". Of those I found, the most likely candidate is a song apparently of Irish origin (by 1819) called "Dull Care[s]" or "Drive Dull Care Away", beginning "Why should we at our lots complain / Or grieve at our distress?" Though most texts lack a chorus, some have one, in varying forms. For instance, there is a version (with score) in Edward D. Ives' Drive Dull Care Away: Folksongs from Prince Edward Island (pp. 81-2) which might serve the "Gold" parody with a little adaptation.

Digital Tradition: Drive Dull Care Away (with score and MIDIs)

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