Know Ye the Land?
Quote:Know ye the land where the bare rocks and old pinesPower: gatesong away from a deeply dystopian Step.
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?
Where the last hopes of thousands, dissolved by the gold mines,
To many bring suff'ring, drive others to crime?
'Tis a land of adventurers gleaned from all nations:
English, French, Yankee, Italian, and Jew;
Uncared-for, all former distinctions and stations
All find the same level who seek Cariboo.
'Tis a land of false swearing, of cursing, blaspheming,
Where the sharper through poker or monte gain wealth.
Where he who is cute can live easy in scheming
While the miner's soon bankrupt in pocket and health.
'Tis a land of log cabins, bedrock, flumes, and ditches;
Of tunnels, hydraulics, of sluices and shafts.
Wherein keen strike to accumulate riches,
All friendships forgotten, and hardened all hearts.
'Tis the land of the gambler, the thief, and the debtor,
Of the storekeeper ruined through trusting to jaw.
Where the sentence of Begbie loads those with a fetter
Whom he should hang in justice, but cannot by law.
'Tis here that the Almighty Dollar is rated
A god in this Anglo-American land!
Where the greatest of blackguards, if lucky, is fêted,
While the poor man, though honest, may starve and be damned!
Know ye the land where the bare rocks and old pines
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?
Where the last hopes of thousands, dissolved by the gold mines,
To many bring suffering, drive others to crime?
How happy I'll be when on board of the steamer,
How joyful, I cannot find language to tell!
When wishing each miner, each loafer, each schemer,
Cariboo and its horrors a final farewell!