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CHAPTER XIV |
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THE FORTY-NINERS PASS THROUGH
"Oh! California That's the land for me!" —Marching song to the music of "Oh! Susanna,"
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HERE followed within six months the streaming of emigrants through Cincinnati on the rush to California. "The Gold Excitement,;' "The Thirst for Gold/' "An Incident in Gold Digging/' "Route to California"—such were the headings of items which peppered the news pages.1 As has already been told, Irwin & Foster in the spring of 1849 had their share in the transportation of emigrants bound for the great starting point for wagon parties, Independence, Missouri. Without in the least planning it, their bookkeeper contributed a more vital and picturesque share. Stephen's "Oh! Susanna," of which no one knew the author, was caught up by these west-bound travellers in a fashion made familiar to the present generation by Emerson Hough's novel The Covered Wagony and by the motion picture based upon it. How they dropped the "come from Alabama" and added fresh words to the irresist- |
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