Here you will find the Poem Ho For California! of poet Frances Ellen Watkins
Rouse ye, Yankees, from your dreaming! See that vessel, strong and bold, On her banner proudly streaming, California for gold! See a crowd around her gather, Eager all to push from land! They will have all sorts o' weather Ere they reach the golden strand. Rouse to action, Fag and faction; Ho, for mines of wealth untold! Rally! Rally! All for Cali- Fornia in search of gold! Away, amid the rush and racket, Ho for the California packet! Wake ye! O'er the surging ocean, Loud above each coral cave, Comes a sound of wild commotion From the lands beyond the wave. Riches, riches, greater--rarer, Than Golconda's far-famed mines; Ho for California's shores! Where the gold so brightly shines. O'er the ocean All's commotion; Ho for mines of wealth untold! Countless treasure Waits on pleasure; Ho for California's gold! Let us go the rush and racket, On the Californian packet. Hear the echo wildly ringing Through our country far and wide! Thousands leaving home and springing Into the resistless tide. Now our nation's roused from sleeping, All alert and wide awake. O, there's no such thing as keeping Folks asleep when gold's the stake! Old Oregon We'll look not on; Ho, for mines of wealth untold! We'll take our way, Without delay, In search of gold--of glittering gold! Here we go, amid the racket, On the Californian packet! Yankees! all who have the fever, Go the rush without delay! Take a spade and don your beaver; Tell your friends you must away! You will get a sight o' money; Reap perhaps a hundred-fold! O, it would be precious funny To sit in a hall of gold! Let's be going, Gales are blowing, Ho, all hands for digging gold! Romance throwing Colors glowing Round these mines of wealth untold! Ho, we go amid the racket, On the Californian packet!