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Young Man From Canada
I'm a young man from Canada,
Some six feet in my shoes.
I left my home for Cariboo
On the first exciting news.
In New York City I met a gent,
Introduced himself to me;
Said I, "I come from Canada,
So you can't come over me!"
Chorus:
Said I, "I come from Canada,
So you can't come over me!"
Chorus
I sailed on the crazy Champion
All in the steerage too,
I thought I'd got among the fiends
Or other horrid crew.
If you had only seen them feed!
It quite astonished me,
And I'd been years in Canada
In a lumberman's shanty.
Chorus
With seventy-five upon my back
I came the Douglas way,
And at an easy-going pace
Made thirty miles a day.
I landed here without a dime
In eighteen sixty-three,
But I'd been raised in Canada -
'Twas nothin' new to me.
Chorus
In best of home-spun I was clad
So I was warmly dressed;
The wool it grew near Montreal
At a place in Canada West.
On Williams Creek they called me green
And "Johnny-come-late-lee" -
Said I, "I come from Canada;
I ain't from the old country!"
Chorus
I started out my mining life
By chopping cord wood.
But I was born with axe in hand
So I could use it good;
My chum was from the state of Maine -
Somewhere near Tennessee -
But ah, I came from Canada
And he couldn't chop with me.
Chorus
In a short time I'd made a "raise"
And bought into a claim;
There they called me engineer
Or carman-'tis the same.
The drifters then did try it on
To boss it over me-
Said I, "I come from Canada,
And I'm on the shoulder-ee.
Chorus
In two weeks I got a "div"
Which drove away all care ñ
I went over to the "Wake Up's"
And had a bully square ñ
I danced all night till broad daylight
And a gal smiled sweet on me.
Said I, "I come from Canada
And I'm on the marry-ee."
Chorus
Now all young men who are in love,
And sure I am there's some -
Don't count your chicks before they're hatched,
For they may never come.
O when I asked that gal to wed,
She only laughed at me:
"YOU may come from Canada,
But you can't come over me!"
Notes:
The Young Man From Canada. W., SAWNEY, pp. 43-5. A
reworking of "I'm A Young Man From The Country But You Don't
Get Over Me" (London, c. 1862). Stanzas of SAWNEY 3/4 and
9/10 conf lated, and slight emendations by PJT appear here
in 1.5 (i.e. stanza 1, line 5), 2.8, 4.4, 5.5, 5.7, 6.3,
7.1, 7.3, 7.5-7. Final couplet (8.7-8) is by PJT. Tune is
that of original song, indicated in SAWNEY as "Young Man
from the Countree." Earlier 1 put this song to the tune of
"Tramps, and Hawkers", qv. my article and song selection
"B.C. Songs" in British Columbia Library Quarterly, Vol. 26,
No. 1 (July 1962), p. 26.
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.39-41.
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