Music of the Gold Rush & Civil war

California Stage Company
Air: Dandy Jim of Caroline
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

1. There's no respect for youth or age
   On board of a California stage;
   But pull and haul about for seats
   As bed-bugs do among the sheets.
   
   CHORUS
   They started as a thieving line
   In eighteen hundred forty-nine;
   All "opposition" they defy,
   So the people must "root hog or die."
   
   
2. You're crowded in with Chinamen,
   As fattening hogs are in a pen;
   And what will more a man provoke,
   Is musty plug tobacco smoke.
   
   CHORUS- They started as a thieving line, &c.
   
   
3. The ladies are compelled to sit
   With dresses in tobacco spit;
   The gentlemen don't seem to care,
   But talk on politics and swear.
   
   CHORUS- They started as a thieving line, &c.
   
   
4. The dust is deep in summertime,
   The mountains very hard to climb;
   And drivers often stop and yell,
   "Get out, all hands, and push- up hill!"
   
   CHORUS- They started as a thieving line, &c.
   
   
5. The drivers, when they feel inclined,
   Will have you walking on behind,
   And on your shoulders lug a pole,
   To help them through some muddy hole.
   
   CHORUS- They started as a thieving line, &c.
   
   
6. They promise, when your fare you pay,
   "You'll have to walk but half the way;"
   Then add aside, with cunning laugh,
   "You'll push and pull the other half!"
   
   CHORUS- They started as a thieving line, &c.
   
   
7. They have and will monopolize
   The business, 'till the people rise,
   And send them "kiting" down below,
   To start a line with Bates and Rowe!
   
   Chorus- They started as a thieving line, &c.

Score from Lester S. Levy Collection
Score from Library of Congress

MIDI file of "Dandy Jim Of Caroline " (Used by permission of B. R. Tubb from his website at Public Domain Music.)