Historian Oscar Lewis has estimated that
fewer than one out of twenty California gold seekers returned home
richer than when they left. They expressed their frustration in the
names of ramshackle mining camps like Poverty Hill, Skunk Gulch,
and Hell's Delight.
Loneliness and despair also were recurring themes
in gold-rush ballads such as "The Unhappy Miner," "I'm
Sad and Lonely Here," "I
Often Think of Writing Home," and "The Miner's Lament." One
of the most poignant ballads was "The Lousy Miner," first
published in John A. Stone's Original California Songster (1855).
The opening stanza begins:
----------------------------------------------------
It's four long years
since I reached this land,
In
search among the rocks and sand;
And yet I'm poor when the truth is told,
I'm a lousy miner,
I'm a lousy miner in search of shining gold.
The final
refrain is one of bitter disappointment:
Oh, land of gold,
you did me deceive,
And I intend in thee my bones to leave;
So farewell, home, now my friends grow cold,
I'm a lousy miner,
I'm a lousy miner in search of shining gold.
Loneliness and despair also were recurring themes
in gold-rush ballads such as "The Unhappy Miner," "I'm
Sad and Lonely Here," "I
Often Think of Writing Home," and "The Miner's Lament." One
of the most poignant ballads was "The Lousy Miner," first
published in John A. Stone's Original California Songster (1855).
The opening stanza begins: