California Bank Robbers
Air: Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel 
Put's Golden Songster:
containing the largest and most popular collection of California songs ever published
by John A Stone
San Francisco : D.E. Appleton & Co., 1858
- The California people are determined if they find
Another such a band of robbers
As the banking firm of Adams, from beginning to the end,
They will hang them as they have a lot of rowdies.
CHORUS
So be careful all you rowdies and you rich banker thieves,
Or the California people will hang you;
So be careful all you rowdies and you rich banker thieves,
Or the California people will hang you, I believe.
- They agreed among themselves they could easy make a pile,
By stealing all they had on deposit;
They would do it by a failure, and be honest all the while-
Then a million and a half- what of it?
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- The merchant rushed in, looking whiter than a sheet,
The miner came tearing like a bull-dog;
Poor old washerwomen crying in the street,
And Johnny Bull croaking like a bull-frog.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- Women carried round on the shoulders of the crowd
Really was a sight very funny;
Legs all bare, though they didn't seem to care,
They were bound to have a sight for their money.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- The blind man said to the bankers, "I'm so poor-
Surely, man, you don't intend to rob me!"
The Chinaman said, as they kicked him out the door,
"Me no shabee, John, me no shabee!"
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- In came the shad-bellied Yankee, out of breath,
And he says, "Old Feller, goll-darn ye!"
Then along came Pike, saying, "I'll be the death
Of you bank robbers, dog-on-ye!"
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- I. C. Woods sabed something very strange,
So he vamosed, though he knew it wouldn't sound well.
He hid among the hills in the Contra Costa range,
With a bag of bogus dust- what a scoundrel!
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- Ladies in the jam now and then were heard to say,
"Oh, Lordy-massy, how you squeeze us!"
When a Jew got to the counter, he began without delay,
"Vel, I vants my money, by Sheesus!"
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- Frenchmen they were squawking like a flock of hungrey geese;
Vainly did they parley-voo-de-ding-dong.
Sauer-Kraut was looking for a Justice of the Peace,
To send all the Yankee thieves to Hong Kong.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- Adams he declared that his name was just a sale,
To give "The House" a wholesome reputation;
I. C. Woods says they both agreed to fail,
And swindle all o' God's creation.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- The bank robber Woods had to hunt another hole,
For many were determined they would kill him;
Aoo he gathered up the money he maliciously had stole,
And away went the black-hearted villain.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- Their "Receiver" is a thief- you can see it by his looks,
And the Lord knows what he wouldn't swear to;
After fobbing all the money, why he then stole the books,
And a thousand other things that would scare you.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- They were thrown into the bay 'bout the middle of the night,
By the long-eared, fish-faced Cohen;
And the moment they were found he was quickly out of sight,
For he thought it was time to be goin'.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- Page & Bacon, after Adams thought they'd make a strike,
Concluded in a hurry they would try it,
Pocket what they could, go a-kiting back to Pike-
Now I wonder if they ever will deny it.
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- Like a great many others, they were taken by surprise,
When they came to overhaul their plunder;
Instead of half a million they were sure to realize,
They hadn't stole a dollar, by thunder!
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- They were bound to make a raise, so they started in again,
And carried on a wholesale thieving,
Robbed the orphan, the widow, the farmer of his grain,
And were taken with- a very sudden leaving!
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
- If the English and the French cannot take Sebastopol,
They had better let the job to the Yankees;
Uncle Sam will do it cheap, unless he is a fool-
He could steal it with the California Bankers!
CHORUS- So be careful all you rowdies, &c.
Score from the Library Of Congress
Score from the Lester S Levy Collection
MIDI file of "Jordan Is a Hard Road To Travel" (Used by permission of B. R. Tubb from his website at Public Domain Music.)