I said each one that would sing could have a lock, provided there
was enough to go around.
I now had the ice broken, and could begin to talk to the ladies
and crack a few jokes with them.
The little, fat, chubby young lady, that first started the
conversation, sang a song entitled "The Californian's Lament,"
which was as follows:
Now pay attention unto me,
All you that remain at home,
And think upon your friends
Who have to California gone;
And while in meditation
It fills our hearts with pain,
That many so near and dear to us
We ne'er shall see again.
While in this bad condition,
With sore and troubled minds,
Thinking of our many friends
And those we left behind,
With our hearts sunk low in trouble
Our feelings we cannot tell,
Although so far away from you,
Again we say, farewell.
With patience we submitted
Our trials to endure,
And on our weary journey
The mountains to explore.
But the fame of California
Has begun to lose its hue--
When the soul and body is parting
What good can money do?
The fame of California
Has passed away and gone;
And many a poor miner
Will never see his home.
They are falling in the mountains high,
And in the valleys, too;
They are sinking in the briny deep,
No more to rise to view.
This I thought the prettiest song I had ever heard in my life.
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