I Often Think of Writing Home

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a California miner, often thinks of writing to his family, but seldom does; he's half a mind to tell them he's coming home. "For it keeps a man a-hunting round to keep up with the times And pen and ink is very scarce for people in the mines...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness poverty home separation travel mining hardtimes nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848 - gold found in Sutter's Mill, California.
1849 - multitudes of easterners emigrate west, hoping to "make their pile"
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "I Often Think of Writing Home" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Irish Molly-O" (tune)
File: RcIOTOWH

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