If your heart be steeled to triumph
  Nor beats less at your defeat;
Can you watch your whole world melt away
  And still smiling, fortune greet?
Will your heart and brain and sinew
  Crowd you on, when hunger's pain
Gnaws your belly and you're beaten,
  Can you lose, and fight again?
Can you raise the cup of fortune
  To your lips and bravely quaff
The draught she has prepared for you
  And win or lose and laugh?
Can you see the fruits of hardships
  Centered on one desperate throw
And know Fate's dice are loaded
  Nor curse to see them go?
Then take your burden up again
  And stagger up the trail,
You're bound to make a winning
  Cause you don't know how to fail.

I, who've spent my youth in following
  The lure of hidden gold
Must pass the buck to Nature
  And admit I'm growing old.
And yet each spring I hear it calling
  And it's music to my ears,
The call of lonely places
  That I've listened to for years.
It's cost me all most men hold dear
  Some forty years of life,
And all the joys that others get
  In babies, home, and wife.
My life's been all to-morrows
  And my family only dreams
And to the average plodder
  I've missed it all it seems.
Still, I've never taken orders
  And I've always liked the game,
And if life could be lived over,
  Why,—I'd live it just the same.

If you can hit the trail in zero weather
  And laugh at frozen hand, or foot or face;
If you can eat your dogs, and still keep moving
  And beat the rest, and hold the stampede's pace;
If you can stake and dig alone, unaided
  And hold your ground, if needs be with a gun
And find the gold and have some lawyer steal it,
  And lose, and start again, and call it fun.

If you can go a year on mouldy bacon
  And fight the scurvy off with bayo beans;
If you can jump your socks and do your washing
  And smile the while you patch your threadbare jeans;
If you can laugh when sordid hunger mocks you
  And smile while passing strangers eat your grub;
If you can boost when everybody knocks you
  And know him wrong who holds you but a dub.

If you can still the pain when Outside calls you
  And choke back thoughts of friends you still hold dear;
If you can still the dreams when night befalls you
  And wake and strike while eyes and brain are clear;
If you can wait and stick it out a-smiling
  When longing letters come to you from home,
And then don't find the taste of "hootch" beguiling
  You'll like this Land, from Seward up to Nome.

If you can bear the deadly strain of waiting
  Till your turn comes, and fortune smiles on you;
If you can fight and lose and keep on fighting
  And to your early promises stay true;
If you can go thru Hell to spend the summer
  And cuss, and freeze, and starve the winter thru
And start in broke again another New Year
  You don't need this Land to make a man of you.

If you can beat the Row, the Game, the Dance-hall
  And all men's pleasures, that you know are sin;
If you can live alone, and not get lonesome
  Nor heed the "lady" when she says "come in":
If you can pick a winner from the "wild cats"
  And hold and hope when everything looks blue;
If you can give up everything you've ever cared for
  Then ALASKA IS THE ONLY PLACE FOR YOU.

While all Europe is a shambles
  And the whole world is at war,
And half the land the sun shines on
  Is drenched in human gore;
When every Nation counts the men
  It knows are tried and true
We send this message to you, Sam,
  "Alaska stands with you."
You never treated us quite right—
  You grabbed away our coal,
You reserved all our fire wood
  And what we've used, we've stole.
You soaked us on our cable tolls
  But we don't give a damn
Even at twenty-eight cents per word
  WE'RE WITH YOU, UNCLE SAM.

You've squandered untold millions
  On the filthy Philippines,
But you always made Alaskans
  Go and rustle for their beans.
And your black and tan possessions
  Tho they've cost you quite a few
Can never be depended on,
  While we'd go thru Hell for you.
We're quite unused to luxuries
  And we've always played alone,
When we asked for help to build our trails
  You handed us a stone.
You've four-flushed on the railroads
  But we don't care a damn,
If they monkey with the Eagle
  WE'RE WITH YOU, UNCLE SAM.

You gave us lief to make some laws
  Then tied our hands behind;
That gift to us was just the same
  As pictures to the blind.
Your laws all have a "joker,"
  Made to catch some Sourdough,
And it's hard to beat the game, Sam,
  The way it's framed up down below.
We've always been the dumping ground
  For your political misfits,
But Sam, if you're in trouble
  We're willing to call it "quits."
We've never had an even break,
  But we don't care a damn;
If the Lion growls, remember this,
  WE'RE WITH YOU, UNCLE SAM.

We're used to meeting troubles
  And if you put us to the test
You'll find Alaska loves you, Sam,
  Far better than the rest.
But Sam, when this is over,
  As morning follows night,
Pray give us your attention
  And set some matters right.
We need some decent cable rates,
  We need some decent mails,
We need some decent coast lights
  And we need some decent trails.
You've given these to all the rest
  But we don't care a damn;
If it's full grown men you're needing
  WE'RE WITH YOU, UNCLE SAM.

As long as lure o' placer gold
  Brings North the best ye breed,
As long as tales of camps and trails
  Are planted with your seed,
As long as red blood courses thru
  And warms adventure's sons,
They'll sally forth, bound for the North,
  Misfortune's chosen ones.

As long as snow slides claim their toll
  And glaciers split and rend,
And sweepers turn the flimsy craft
  And trails come to an end;
As long as flashing Northern Lights
  Flame in the Arctic sky,
Your boldest ones, your bravest sons
  Come North to win or die.

As long as lust of wealth obtains
  And gold will buy all things,
And bank accounts but mark the line
  'Twixt shovel stiffs and kings;
As long as fancy rides free reined
  And distant fields seem