The Cariboo Gold Rush Folksongs

Old Faro

Old Faro (Gambler's Song)

I'll sing you now a mournful song
All of a fine old Man
Who lived some years in Cariboo
All by his sleight of han'.

Chorus:
Come back Faro, Faro dear
Or I'll sing too-ral-la-day-o,
Come back Faro, Faro dear
Sing too-ral-la-de-ay.

Chorus

Although he lay in his bed all day
He was wide awake at night,
And when the luck was on his side
His face beam'd with delight.

Chorus

At times he'd grumble of hard luck
And say he'd ne'er a dollar;
Yet he lived a jolly lord
And wore a paper collar!

Chorus

Ah, many a time he found me grub
When I had ne'er a red-
Now I must work ten hours a day
Since good old Faro's dead.

Chorus

What e'er you were, old Faro, dear
I'll not defame the dead-
Your ghost might haunt me some cold night
And "freeze me out" in bed.

Final Chorus
Goodbye Faro, Faro dear,
May you strike it in White Pine,
Goodbye Faro, Faro dear
And may we strike it here!

Notes:

Old Faro. W., SAWNEY, pp. 49-50, with tune indicated as "Peter Gray". In the late 1860's there were two "Peter Gray" songs, differing in form only in their choruses. "Old Faro" was a reworking of the one preserved in Henry de Marsan's New Comic and Sentimental Singer's Journal, Vol. 1, No. 15, p. 84 (c. 1868), the tune of which has not yet been found. W. & m., chorus, slightly adapted to fit the surviving tune as sung by PIT. Stanzas 3 and 6 omitted.

From Songs of the Pacific Northwest. Ed. Philip J Thomas. Music Transcription and Notation by Shirley A. Cox. Saanichton, B.C.: Hancock House Pub (1979.) p.42-43.