Song add:The Seagulls and Crickets

Subject: Song add:The Seagulls and Crickets ^^
From: Jon W.
Date: 20 Feb 98 - 04:39 PM

Here is another Mormon folk song. This one commemorates the eating of the crickets by the seagulls. This is a true story, attested in many pioneer journals. The song tells the story very well except the year was 1848, not '49 (at least according to the songbook's notes). Also it omits the efforts that the pioneers used to eliminate the crickets before the seagulls showed up: hitting them with shovels, burning them, etc. with little effect. While the pioneers no doubt considered the seagulls a godsend, in later years this event has come to be considered a true miracle and the seagull has been enshrined in a monument on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and the "California Gull" was adopted as Utah's state bird.

X:1
T:The Seagulls and the Crickets
C:Trad. Mormon Folksong
B:Songs of the Mormons
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:80
K:E
|: B,|EEE E-FG|C2 C C2 E|DCB, C2 D|
E3-E2 B,|EEE E-FG|C2 C F2 A|GFE F2 D|E3-E2 :|

W: The winter of forty-nine had passed,
W: The winter of haunting fears,
W: For famine had knocked at the city gates,
W: And threatened the pioneers.
W: But spring with its smiling skies lent grace,
W: and cheer to the hosts within,
W: And they tilled their fields with a new-born trust,
W: And the courage to fight and win.

W: But lo, in the east strange clouds appeared,
W: And dark became the sun,
W: And down from the mountainsides there swept
W: A scourge that the boldest shun.
W: Black crickets by tens of millions came
W: Like fog on the British coast,
W: And the finger of devastation marked
W: Its course on the Mormon host.

W: With visions of famine and want and woe
W: They prayed from hearts sincere,
W: When lo, from the west, came other clouds
W: To succor the pioneers.
W: 'Twas seagulls feathered in angel white,
W: And angels they were forsooth,
W: The seagulls there by the thousands came
W: To battle in very truth.

W: They charged down upon the cricket hordes,
W: And gorging them day and night,
W: They routed the devastating foe,
W: And the crickets were put to flight.
W: And heads were bowed as they thanked their God,
W: And they reaped while the devil raved:
W: The harvest was garnered to songs of praise,
W: And the pioneers were saved.
^^

Subject: RE: Song add:The Seagulls and Crickets
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Feb 98 - 11:45 PM

Keep 'em coming, Jon. Good song.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Song add:The Seagulls and Crickets ^^
From: rich r
Date: 21 Feb 98 - 11:31 AM

Jon,

You all call this a Mormon Song with good justification. But to me it is another "Insect Song". I would suggest that since the "winter of '49 had passed" that the song actually refers to the summer of 1850 which puts its historical accuracy off by 2 years.

Here's 2 more verses that fit in the middle of the song.

".....courage and fight to win"

With the thrill of life, the tender shoots

Burst forth from the virgin plain;

And each day added its ray of hope,

The blessing of ripened grain.

"But lo in the eaststrange clouds.........Its course on the Mormon host.

With a vigor that desparation fanned,

They battled and smote and flew,

But the clouds still gathered and broke afresh

'Til the fields that waved were few.

"With visions of famin....."^^

Subject: RE: Song add:The Seagulls and Crickets
From: Jon W.
Date: 23 Feb 98 - 10:28 AM

Rich, thanks for the extra verses, they certainly help flesh out the story.

A friend and I were wondering about the meaning of "the winter of '49." Is it Dec. '48 to Mar. '49 or Dec. '49 to March '50? Does anyone know if there was a 19th century convention for this type of expression and what it was? In any case, by the summer of '49 the pioneers were apparently in no danger of starving to death as witnessed by a gold rusher's journal entry at the bottom of this page from the LDS Church web site.

As always, I would be interested in knowing what other songs share the tune of The Seagulls and the Crickets.