The Fools of '49
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-05-12

Day 57 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series  (folksongindex.com)

Sandburg writes: "There were two ways to reach the goldfields from the Atlantic seaboard or the Mississippi Valley. One was by ship around Cape Horn, the other across the Great Plains by covered wagon. These routes are told of in verses from The Fools of '49;  they give facts in a half-comic manner that, as the testimony piles up, becomes sardonic."

Sandburg say sardonic. I think it is incredibly sad and seems to reflect human nature.