Henry's Songbook

I've wandered all over this country
Prospecting and digging for gold
I've tunnelled, hydraulicked and cradled
And I have been frequently sold

For one who gets riches by mining
Perceiving that hundreds grow poor
I made up my mind to try farming
The only pursuit that is sure

Rolling my grub in the blanket
I left all my tools on the ground
I started one morning to shank it
For the country they call Puget Sound

Arriving flat broke in mid-winter
The ground was enveloped in fog
And covered all over with timber
Thick as the hair on the back of a dog

I looked at the prospects so gloomy
The tears trickled over my face
And I thought my troubles had brought me
To the end of the jumping-off place

I staked me a claim in the forest
And sat myself down to hard toil
For two years I chopped and I struggled
But I never got down to the soil

I tried to get out of the country
But poverty forced me to stay
Until I became an old settler
And nothing could drive me away

And now that I'm used to the country
I think that if man ever found
A place to live happy and easy
That Eden is on Puget Sound

No longer the slave of ambition
I laugh at the world and its shams
As I think of my happy condition
Surrounded by acres of clams

(as sung by Rossavieille)

Tune: (usually) Rosin the Bow; in this version a different one, probably written by the artist

[1999:] One might add that the words were written by Judge Francis Henry, a police court judge in Seattle, in the 1890's, and sheet music for it was reported as selling briskly here then. Its memory was preserved by the late Seattle folksinger, eccentric, TV personality, and (highly successful) restaurateur Ivar Haglund -- it helped him publicize eating clams in his chain of restaurants. He is cited as source by Alan Lomax in "Folk Songs of North America". The tune is the Irish comic song "Rosin the Beau" which has been used for so many regional songs in the U.S. that they are collectively known as "The Emigrant Song". (Joe Felsenstein, rec.music.folk, 31 Oct)