Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net. Music transcribed by Linda Cantoni,
Joyce Wilson, Espe (Nada Prodanovic), and the PG Finale
Project Team.
[Transcriber's notes:
-Page vii: The word following "view of what Owen" was unclear,
and may not be the "Writes" which has been chosen.
-(Mus. Not.) following a title means that the original book contains
musical notation for that song.]
COWBOY SONGS
AND OTHER FRONTIER BALLADS
What keeps the herd from running,
Stampeding far and wide?
The cowboy's long, low whistle,
And singing by their side.
COWBOY SONGS
AND OTHER FRONTIER BALLADS
COLLECTED BY
JOHN A. LOMAX, M.A.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
SHELDON FELLOW FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF AMERICAN BALLADS,
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
BARRETT WENDELL
_New York_
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1929
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1910, 1916,
By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1910.
Reprinted April, 1911; January, 1915.
New Edition with additions, March, 1916; April, 1917;
December, 1918; July, 1919.
Reissued January, 1927. Reprinted February, 1929.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
BY BERWICK & SMITH CO.
_To_
MR. THEODORE ROOSEVELT
WHO WHILE PRESIDENT WAS NOT TOO BUSY TO
TURN ASIDE--CHEERFULLY AND EFFECTIVELY--AND
AID WORKERS IN THE FIELD OF AMERICAN
BALLADRY, THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY
DEDICATED
Cheyenne
Aug 28th 1910
Dear Mr. Lomax,
You have done a work emphatically worth doing and one which should
appeal to the people of all our country, but particularly to the
people of the west and southwest. Your subject is not only
exceedingly interesting to the student of literature, but also to
the student of the general history of the west. There is something
very curious in the reproduction here on this new continent of
essentially the conditions of ballad-growth which obtained in
mediaeval England; including, by the way, sympathy for the outlaw,
Jesse James taking the place of Robin Hood. Under modern conditions
however, the native ballad is speedily killed by competition with the
music hall songs; the cowboys becoming ashamed to sing the crude
homespun ballads in view of what Owen Writes calls the "ill-smelling
saloon cleverness" of the far less interesting compositions
of the music-hall singers. It is therefore a work of real importance
to preserve permanently this unwritten ballad literature of the back
country and the frontier.
With all good wishes,
I am
very truly yours
Theodore Roosevelt
CONTENTS
PAGE
ARAPHOE, OR BUCKSKIN JOE 390
ARIZONA BOYS AND GIRLS, THE 211
BILL PETERS, THE STAGE DRIVER 100
BILLY THE KID 344
BILLY VENERO 299
BOB STANFORD 265
BONNIE BLACK BESS 194
BOOZER, THE 304
BOSTON BURGLAR, THE 147
BRIGHAM YOUNG, I 399
BRIGHAM YOUNG, II 401
BRONC PEELER'S SONG 377
BUCKING BRONCHO 367
BUENA VISTA BATTLEFIELD 34
BUFFALO HUNTERS 185
BUFFALO SKINNERS, THE 158
BULL WHACKER, THE 69
BY MARKENTURA'S FLOWERY MARGE 224
CALIFORNIA JOE 139
CALIFORNIA STAGE COMPANY 411
CALIFORNIA TRAIL 375
CAMP FIRE HAS GONE OUT, THE 322
CHARLIE RUTLAGE 267
CHOPO 371
COLE YOUNGER 106
CONVICT, THE 290
COW CAMP ON THE RANGE, A 358
COWBOY, THE 96
COWBOY AT CHURCH, THE 246
COWBOY AT WORK, THE 352
COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS BALL, THE 335
COWBOY'S DREAM, THE 18
COWBOY'S LAMENT, THE 74
COWBOY'S LIFE, THE 20
COWBOY'S MEDITATION, THE 297
COWGIRL, THE 251
COWMAN'S PRAYER, THE 24
CROOKED TRAIL TO HOLBROOK, THE 121
DAN TAYLOR 51
DAYS OF FORTY-NINE, THE 9
DEER HUNT, A 379
DESERTED ADOBE, THE 350
DISHEARTENED RANGER, THE 261
DOGIE SONG 303
DOWN SOUTH ON THE RIO GRANDE 331
DREARY BLACK HILLS, THE 177
DREARY, DREARY LIFE, THE 233
DRINKING SONG 305
DRUNKARD'S HELL, THE 395
DYING COWBOY, THE 3
DYING RANGER, THE 214
FAIR FANNIE MOORE 219
FOOLS OF FORTY-NINE, THE 404
FOREMAN MONROE 174
FRECKLES, A FRAGMENT 360
FULLER AND WARREN 126
FRAGMENT, A 306
FRAGMENT, A 309
FREIGHTING FROM WILCOX TO GLOBE 207
GAL I LEFT BEHIND ME, THE 342
GOL-DARNED WHEEL, THE 190
GREAT ROUND-UP, THE 282
GREER COUNTY 278
HABIT, THE 327
HAPPY MINER, THE 409
HARD TIMES 103
HARRY BALE 172
HELL IN TEXAS 222
HELL-BOUND TRAIN, THE 345
HERE'S TO THE RANGER 354
HER WHITE BOSOM BARE 271
HOME ON THE RANGE, A 39
HORSE WRANGLER, THE 136
I'M A GOOD OLD REBEL 94
JACK DONAHOO 64
JACK O' DIAMONDS 292
JERRY, GO ILE THAT CAR 112
JESSE JAMES 27
JIM FARROW 237
JOE BOWERS 15
JOHN GARNER'S TRAIL HERD 114
JOLLY COWBOY, THE 284
JUAN MURRAY 276
KANSAS LINE, THE 22
LACKEY BILL 83
LAST LONGHORN, THE 197
LIFE IN A HALF-BREED SHACK 386
LITTLE JOE, THE WRANGLER 167
LITTLE OLD SOD SHANTY, THE 187
LONE BUFFALO HUNTER, THE 119
LONE STAR TRAIL, THE 310
LOVE IN DISGUISE 77
MCCAFFIE'S CONFESSION 164
MAN NAMED HODS, A 307
MELANCHOLY COWBOY, THE 263
METIS SONG OF THE BUFFALO HUNTERS 72
MINER'S SONG, THE 25
MISSISSIPPI GIRLS 108
MORMON SONG 182
MORMON BISHOP'S LAMENT, THE 47
MUSTANG GRAY 79
MUSTER OUT THE RANGER 356
NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM 413
NIGHT-HERDING SONG 324
OLD CHISHOLM TRAIL, THE 58
OLD GRAY MULE, THE 403
OLD MAN UNDER THE HILL, THE 110
OLD PAINT 329
OLD SCOUT'S LAMENT, THE 117
OLD SCOUT'S LAMENT, THE 348
OLD TIME COWBOY 365
ONLY A COWBOY 124
PECOS QUEEN, THE 369
PINTO 340
POOR LONESOME COWBOY 32
PRISONER FOR LIFE, A 200
RAILROAD CORRAL, THE 318
RAMBLING BAY 397
RAMBLING COWBOY, THE 244
RANGE RIDERS, THE 269
RATTLESNAKE--A RANCH HAYING SONG 315
RIPPING TRIP, A 407
ROAD TO COOK'S PEAK 388
ROOT HOG OR DIE 254
ROSIN THE BOW 280
ROUNDED UP IN GLORY 393
SAM BASS 149
SHANTY BOY, THE 252
SILVER JACK 332
SIOUX INDIANS 56
SKEW-BALL BLACK, THE 243
SONG OF THE "METIS" TRAPPER, THE 320
STATE OF ARKANSAW, THE 226
SWEET BETSY FROM PIKE 258
TAIL PIECE 326
TEXAS COWBOY, THE 229
TOP HAND 373
TEXAS RANGERS 44
TRAIL TO MEXICO, THE 132
U.S.A. RECRUIT, THE 249
UTAH CARROLL 66
WARS OF GERMANY, THE 204
WAY DOWN IN MEXICO 314
WESTWARD HO 37
WHEN THE WORK IS DONE THIS FALL 53
WHOOPEE-TI-YI-YO, GIT ALONG LITTLE DOGIES 87
WHOSE OLD COW 362
WILD ROVERS 383
WINDY BILL 381
U-S-U RANGE 92
YOUNG CHARLOTTIE 239
YOUNG COMPANIONS 81
ZEBRA DUN, THE 154
INTRODUCTION
It is now four or five years since my attention was called to the
collection of native American ballads from the Southwest, already
begun by Professor Lomax. At that time, he seemed hardly to appreciate
their full value and importance. To my colleague, Professor G.L.
Kittredge, probably the most eminent authority on folk-song in
America, this value and importance appeared as indubitable as it
appeared to me. We heartily joined in encouraging the work, as a real
contribution both to literature and to learning. The present volume is
the first published result of these efforts.
The value and importance of the work seems to me double. One phase of
it is perhaps too highly special ever to be popular. Whoever has begun
the inexhaustibly fascinating study of popular song and literature--of
the nameless poetry which vigorously lives through the centuries--must
be perplexed by the necessarily conjectural opinions concerning its
origin and development held by various and disputing scholars. When
songs were made in times and terms which for centuries have been not
living facts but facts of remote history or tradition, it is impossible
to be sure quite how they begun, and by quite what means they sifted
through the centuries into the forms at last securely theirs,
in the final rigidity of print. In this collection of American
ballads, almost if not quite uniquely, it is possible to trace the
precise manner in which songs and cycles of song--obviously analogous
to those surviving from older and antique times--have come into being.
The facts which are still available concerning the ballads of our own
Southwest are such as should go far to prove, or to disprove, many of
the theories advanced concerning the laws of literature as evinced in
the ballads of the old world.
Such learned matter as this, however, is not so surely within my
province, who have made no technical study of literary origins, as is
the other consideration which made me feel, from my first knowledge of
these ballads, that they are beyond dispute valuable and important. In
the ballads of the old world, it is not historical or philological
considerations which most readers care for. It is the wonderful,
robust vividness of their artless yet supremely true utterance; it is
the natural vigor of their surgent, unsophisticated human rhythm. It
is the sense, derived one can hardly explain how, that here is
expression straight from the heart of humanity; that here is something
like the sturdy root from which the finer, though not always more
lovely, flowers of polite literature have sprung. At times when we
yearn for polite grace, ballads may seem rude; at times when polite
grace seems tedious, sophisticated, corrupt, or mendacious, their very
rudeness refreshes us with a new sense of brimming life. To
compare the songs collected by Professor Lomax with the immortalities
of olden time is doubtless like comparing the literature of America
with that of all Europe together. Neither he nor any of us would
pretend these verses to be of supreme power and beauty. None the less,
they seem to me, and to many who have had a glimpse of them,
sufficiently powerful, and near enough beauty, to give us some such
wholesome and enduring pleasure as comes from work of this kind proved
and acknowledged to be masterly.
What I mean may best be implied, perhaps, by a brief statement of
fact. Four or five years ago, Professor Lomax, at my request, read
some of these ballads to one of my classes at Harvard, then engaged in
studying the literary history of America. From that hour to the
present, the men who heard these verses, during the cheerless progress
of a course of study, have constantly spoken of them and written of
them, as of something sure to linger happily in memory. As such I
commend them to all who care for the native poetry of America.
BARRETT WENDELL.
Nahant, Massachusetts,
July 11, 1910.
COLLECTOR'S NOTE
Out in the wild, far-away places of the big and still unpeopled
west,--in the canons along the Rocky Mountains, among the mining camps
of Nevada and Montana, and on the remote cattle ranches of Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona,--yet survives the Anglo-Saxon ballad spirit that
was active in secluded districts in England and Scotland even after
the coming of Tennyson and Browning. This spirit is manifested both in
the preservation of the English ballad and in the creation of local
songs. Illiterate people, and people cut off from newspapers and
books, isolated and lonely,--thrown back on primal resources for
entertainment and for the expression of emotion,--utter themselves
through somewhat the same character of songs as did their forefathers
of perhaps a thousand years ago. In some such way have been made and
preserved the cowboy songs and other frontier ballads contained in
this volume. The songs represent the operation of instinct and
tradition. They are chiefly interesting to the present generation,
however, because of the light they throw on the conditions of pioneer
life, and more particularly because of the information they contain
concerning that unique and romantic figure in modern civilization, the
American cowboy.
The profession of cow-punching, not yet a lost art in a group
of big western states, reached its greatest prominence during the
first two decades succeeding the Civil War. In Texas, for example,
immense tracts of open range, covered with luxuriant grass, encouraged
the raising of cattle. One person in many instances owned thousands.
To care for the cattle during the winter season, to round them up in
the spring and mark and brand the yearlings, and later to drive from
Texas to Fort Dodge, Kansas, those ready for market, required large
forces of men. The drive from Texas to Kansas came to be known as
"going up the trail," for the cattle really made permanent, deep-cut
trails across the otherwise trackless hills and plains of the long
way. It also became the custom to take large herds of young steers
from Texas as far north as Montana, where grass at certain seasons
grew more luxuriant than in the south. Texas was the best breeding
ground, while the climate and grass of Montana developed young cattle
for the market.
A trip up the trail made a distinct break in the monotonous life of
the big ranches, often situated hundreds of miles from where the
conventions of society were observed. The ranch community consisted
usually of the boss, the straw-boss, the cowboys proper, the horse
wrangler, and the cook--often a negro. These men lived on terms of
practical equality. Except in the case of the boss, there was little
difference in the amounts paid each for his services. Society,
then, was here reduced to its lowest terms. The work of the men, their
daily experiences, their thoughts, their interests, were all in
common. Such a community had necessarily to turn to itself for
entertainment. Songs sprang up naturally, some of them tender and
familiar lays of childhood, others original compositions, all genuine,
however crude and unpolished. Whatever the most gifted man could
produce must bear the criticism of the entire camp, and agree with the
ideas of a group of men. In this sense, therefore, any song that came
from such a group would be the joint product of a number of them,
telling perhaps the story of some stampede they had all fought to
turn, some crime in which they had all shared equally, some comrade's
tragic death which they had all witnessed. The song-making did not
cease as the men went up the trail. Indeed the songs were here
utilized for very practical ends. Not only were sharp, rhythmic
yells--sometimes beaten into verse--employed to stir up lagging
cattle, but also during the long watches the night-guards, as they
rode round and round the herd, improvised cattle lullabies which
quieted the animals and soothed them to sleep. Some of the best of the
so-called "dogie songs" seem to have been created for the purpose of
preventing cattle stampedes,--such songs coming straight from the
heart of the cowboy, speaking familiarly to his herd in the stillness
of the night.
The long drives up the trail occupied months, and called for
sleepless vigilance and tireless activity both day and night. When at
last a shipping point was reached, the cattle marketed or loaded on
the cars, the cowboys were paid off. It is not surprising that the
consequent relaxation led to reckless deeds. The music, the dancing,
the click of the roulette ball in the saloons, invited; the lure of
crimson lights was irresistible. Drunken orgies, reactions from months
of toil, deprivation, and loneliness on the ranch and on the trail,
brought to death many a temporarily crazed buckaroo. To match this
dare-deviltry, a saloon man in one frontier town, as a sign for his
business, with psychological ingenuity painted across the broad front
of his building in big black letters this challenge to God, man, and
the devil: _The Road to Ruin_. Down this road, with swift and eager
footsteps, has trod many a pioneer viking of the West. Quick to resent
an insult real or fancied, inflamed by unaccustomed drink, the ready
pistol always at his side, the tricks of the professional gambler to
provoke his sense of fair play, and finally his own wild recklessness
to urge him on,--all these combined forces sometimes brought him into
tragic conflict with another spirit equally heedless and daring. Not
nearly so often, however, as one might suppose, did he die with his
boots on. Many of the most wealthy and respected citizens now living
in the border states served as cowboys before settling down to quiet
domesticity.
A cow-camp in the seventies generally contained several types of
men. It was not unusual to find a negro who, because of his ability to
handle wild horses or because of his skill with a lasso, had been
promoted from the chuck-wagon to a place in the ranks of the cowboys.
Another familiar figure was the adventurous younger son of some
British family, through whom perhaps became current the English
ballads found in the West. Furthermore, so considerable was the number
of men who had fled from the States because of grave imprudence or
crime, it was bad form to inquire too closely about a person's real
name or where he came from. Most cowboys, however, were bold young
spirits who emigrated to the West for the same reason that their
ancestors had come across the seas. They loved roving; they loved
freedom; they were pioneers by instinct; an impulse set their faces
from the East, put the tang for roaming in their veins, and sent them
ever, ever westward.
That the cowboy was brave has come to be axiomatic. If his life of
isolation made him taciturn, it at the same time created a spirit of
hospitality, primitive and hearty as that found in the mead-halls of
Beowulf. He faced the wind and the rain, the snow of winter, the
fearful dust-storms of alkali desert wastes, with the same uncomplaining
quiet. Not all his work was on the ranch and the trail. To the cowboy,
more than to the goldseekers, more than to Uncle Sam's soldiers, is
due the conquest of the West. Along his winding cattle trails the
Forty-Niners found their way to California. The cowboy has fought
back the Indians ever since ranching became a business and as long as
Indians remained to be fought. He played his part in winning the great
slice of territory that the United States took away from Mexico. He
has always been on the skirmish line of civilization. Restless,
fearless, chivalric, elemental, he lived hard, shot quick and true,
and died with his face to his foe. Still much misunderstood, he is
often slandered, nearly always caricatured, both by the press and by
the stage. Perhaps these songs, coming direct from the cowboy's
experience, giving vent to his careless and his tender emotions, will
afford future generations a truer conception of what he really was
than is now possessed by those who know him only through highly
colored romances.
The big ranches of the West are now being cut up into small farms. The
nester has come, and come to stay. Gone is the buffalo, the Indian
warwhoop, the free grass of the open plain;--even the stinging lizard,
the horned frog, the centipede, the prairie dog, the rattlesnake, are
fast disappearing. Save in some of the secluded valleys of southern
New Mexico, the old-time round-up is no more; the trails to Kansas and
to Montana have become grass-grown or lost in fields of waving grain;
the maverick steer, the regal longhorn, has been supplanted by his
unpoetic but more beefy and profitable Polled Angus, Durham, and
Hereford cousins from across the seas. The changing and romantic
West of the early days lives mainly in story and in song. The last
figure to vanish is the cowboy, the animating spirit of the vanishing
era. He sits his horse easily as he rides through a wide valley,
enclosed by mountains, clad in the hazy purple of coming night,--with
his face turned steadily down the long, long road, "the road that the
sun goes down." Dauntless, reckless, without the unearthly purity of
Sir Galahad though as gentle to a pure woman as King Arthur, he is
truly a knight of the twentieth century. A vagrant puff of wind shakes
a corner of the crimson handkerchief knotted loosely at his throat;
the thud of his pony's feet mingling with the jingle of his spurs is
borne back; and as the careless, gracious, lovable figure disappears
over the divide, the breeze brings to the ears, faint and far yet
cheery still, the refrain of a cowboy song:
Whoopee ti yi, git along, little dogies;
It's my misfortune and none of your own.
Whoopee ti yi, git along, little dogies;
For you know Wyoming will be your new home.
As for the songs of this collection, I have violated the ethics of
ballad-gatherers, in a few instances, by selecting and putting together
what seemed to be the best lines from different versions, all telling
the same story. Frankly, the volume is meant to be popular. The songs
have been arranged in some such haphazard way as they were
collected,--jotted down on a table in the rear of saloons, scrawled on
an envelope while squatting about a campfire, caught behind the scenes
of a broncho-busting outfit. Later, it is hoped that enough interest
will be aroused to justify printing all the variants of these songs,
accompanied by the music and such explanatory notes as may be useful;
the negro folk-songs, the songs of the lumber jacks, the songs of the
mountaineers, and the songs of the sea, already partially collected,
being included in the final publication. The songs of this collection,
never before in print, as a rule have been taken down from oral
recitation. In only a few instances have I been able to discover the
authorship of any song. They seem to have sprung up as quietly and
mysteriously as does the grass on the plains. All have been popular
with the range riders, several being current all the way from Texas to
Montana, and quite as long as the old Chisholm Trail stretching between
these states. Some of the songs the cowboy certainly composed; all of
them he sang. Obviously, a number of the most characteristic cannot be
printed for general circulation. To paraphrase slightly what Sidney
Lanier said of Walt Whitman's poetry, they are raw collops slashed
from the rump of Nature, and never mind the gristle. Likewise some of
the strong adjectives and nouns have been softened,--Jonahed, as
George Meredith would have said. There is, however, a Homeric
quality about the cowboy's profanity and vulgarity that pleases rather
than repulses. The broad sky under which he slept, the limitless
plains over which he rode, the big, open, free life he lived near to
Nature's breast, taught him simplicity, calm, directness. He spoke out
plainly the impulses of his heart. But as yet so-called polite society
is not quite willing to hear.
It is entirely impossible to acknowledge the assistance I have
received from many persons. To Professors Barrett Wendell and G.L.
Kittredge, of Harvard, I must gratefully acknowledge constant and
generous encouragement. Messrs. Jeff Hanna, of Meridian, Texas; John
B. Jones, a student of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas; H. Knight, Sterling City, Texas; John Lang Sinclair, San
Antonio; A.H. Belo & Co., Dallas; Tom Hight, of Mangum, Oklahoma; R.
Bedichek, of Deming, N.M.; Benjamin Wyche, Librarian of the Carnegie
Library, San Antonio; Mrs. M.B. Wight, of Ft. Thomas, Arizona; Dr.
L.W. Payne, Jr., and Dr. Morgan Callaway, Jr., of the University of
Texas; and my brother, R.C. Lomax, Austin;--have rendered me
especially helpful service in furnishing material, for which I also
render grateful thanks.
Among the negroes, rivermen, miners, soldiers, seamen, lumbermen,
railroad men, and ranchmen of the United States and Canada there are
many indigenous folk-songs not included in this volume. Of some
of them I have traces, and I shall surely run them down. I beg
the co-operation of all who are interested in this vital, however
humble, expression of American literature.
J.A.L.
Deming, New Mexico,
August 8, 1910.
COWBOY SONGS
AND OTHER FRONTIER BALLADS
THE DYING COWBOY[1]
"O bury me not on the lone prairie,"
These words came low and mournfully
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay
On his dying bed at the close of day.
He had wailed in pain till o'er his brow
Death's shadows fast were gathering now;
He thought of his home and his loved ones nigh
As the cowboys gathered to see him die.
"O bury me not on the lone prairie
Where the wild cayotes will howl o'er me,
In a narrow grave just six by three,
O bury me not on the lone prairie.
"In fancy I listen to the well known words
Of the free, wild winds and the song of the birds;
I think of home and the cottage in the bower
And the scenes I loved in my childhood's hour.
"It matters not, I've oft been told,
Where the body lies when the heart grows cold;
Yet grant, Oh grant this wish to me,
O bury me not on the lone prairie.
"O then bury me not on the lone prairie,
In a narrow grave six foot by three,
Where the buffalo paws o'er a prairie sea,
O bury me not on the lone prairie.
"I've always wished to be laid when I died
In the little churchyard on the green hillside;
By my father's grave, there let mine be,
And bury me not on the lone prairie.
"Let my death slumber be where my mother's prayer
And a sister's tear will mingle there,
Where my friends can come and weep o'er me;
O bury me not on the lone prairie.
"O bury me not on the lone prairie
In a narrow grave just six by three,
Where the buzzard waits and the wind blows free;
Then bury me not on the lone prairie.
"There is another whose tears may be shed
For one who lies on a prairie bed;
It pained me then and it pains me now;--
She has curled these locks, she has kissed this brow.
"These locks she has curled, shall the rattlesnake kiss?
This brow she has kissed, shall the cold grave press?
For the sake of the loved ones that will weep for me
O bury me not on the lone prairie.
"O bury me not on the lone prairie
Where the wild cayotes will howl o'er me,
Where the buzzard beats and the wind goes free,
O bury me not on the lone prairie.
"O bury me not," and his voice failed there,
But we took no heed of his dying prayer;
In a narrow grave just six by three
We buried him there on the lone prairie.
Where the dew-drops glow and the butterflies rest,
And the flowers bloom o'er the prairie's crest;
Where the wild cayote and winds sport free
On a wet saddle blanket lay a cowboy-ee.
"O bury me not on the lone prairie
Where the wild cayotes will howl o'er me,
Where the rattlesnakes hiss and the crow flies free
O bury me not on the lone prairie."
O we buried him there on the lone prairie
Where the wild rose blooms and the wind blows free,
O his pale young face nevermore to see,--
For we buried him there on the lone prairie.
Yes, we buried him there on the lone prairie
Where the owl all night hoots mournfully,
And the blizzard beats and the winds blow free
O'er his lowly grave on the lone prairie.
And the cowboys now as they roam the plain,--
For they marked the spot where his bones were lain,--
Fling a handful of roses o'er his grave,
With a prayer to Him who his soul will save.
"O bury me not on the lone prairie
Where the wolves can howl and growl o'er me;
Fling a handful of roses o'er my grave
With a prayer to Him who my soul will save."
[Footnote 1: In this song, as in several others, the chorus should
come in after each stanza. The arrangement followed has been adopted
to illustrate versions current in different sections.]
The Dying Cowboy (Mus. Not.)
"O bu-ry me not on the lone prai-rie,"
These words came low ... and mourn-ful-ly ...
From the pal-lid lips of a youth who lay
On his dy-ing bed at the close of day.
THE DAYS OF FORTY-NINE
We are gazing now on old Tom Moore,
A relic of bygone days;
'Tis a bummer, too, they call me now,
But what cares I for praise?
It's oft, says I, for the days gone by,
It's oft do I repine
For the days of old when we dug out the gold
In those days of Forty-Nine.
My comrades they all loved me well,
The jolly, saucy crew;
A few hard cases, I will admit,
Though they were brave and true.
Whatever the pinch, they ne'er would flinch;
They never would fret nor whine,
Like good old bricks they stood the kicks
In the days of Forty-Nine.
There's old "Aunt Jess," that hard old cuss,
Who never would repent;
He never missed a single meal,
Nor never paid a cent.
But old "Aunt Jess," like all the rest,
At death he did resign,
And in his bloom went up the flume
In the days of Forty-Nine.
There is Ragshag Jim, the roaring man,
Who could out-roar a buffalo, you bet,
He roared all day and he roared all night,
And I guess he is roaring yet.
One night Jim fell in a prospect hole,--
It was a roaring bad design,--
And in that hole Jim roared out his soul
In the days of Forty-Nine.
There is Wylie Bill, the funny man,
Who was full of funny tricks,
And when he was in a poker game
He was always hard as bricks.
He would ante you a stud, he would play you a draw,
He'd go you a hatful blind,--
In a struggle with death Bill lost his breath
In the days of Forty-Nine.
There was New York Jake, the butcher boy,
Who was fond of getting tight.
And every time he got on a spree
He was spoiling for a fight.
One night Jake rampaged against a knife
In the hands of old Bob Sine,
And over Jake they held a wake
In the days of Forty-Nine.
There was Monte Pete, I'll ne'er forget
The luck he always had,
He would deal for you both day and night
Or as long as he had a scad.
It was a pistol shot that lay Pete out,
It was his last resign,
And it caught Pete dead sure in the door
In the days of Forty-Nine.
Of all the comrades that I've had
There's none that's left to boast,
And I am left alone in my misery
Like some poor wandering ghost.
And as I pass from town to town,
They call me the rambling sign,
Since the days of old and the days of gold
And the days of Forty-Nine.
Days of Forty-Nine (Mus. Not.)
You are gaz-ing now on old Tom Moore, A
rel-ic of by-gone days; 'Tis a bum-mer now they
call me. But what cares I for praise; It is
oft, says I, for days gone by, It's oft do I repine
For those days of old when we dug out the gold, In the
days of For-ty-nine, In those days of old when we
dug out the gold, In the days of For-ty-nine.
JOE BOWERS
My name is Joe Bowers,
I've got a brother Ike,
I came here from Missouri,
Yes, all the way from Pike.
I'll tell you why I left there
And how I came to roam,
And leave my poor old mammy,
So far away from home.
I used to love a gal there,
Her name was Sallie Black,
I asked her for to marry me,
She said it was a whack.
She says to me, "Joe Bowers,
Before you hitch for life,
You ought to have a little home
To keep your little wife."
Says I, "My dearest Sallie,
O Sallie, for your sake,
I'll go to California
And try to raise a stake."
Says she to me, "Joe Bowers,
You are the chap to win,
Give me a kiss to seal the bargain,"--
And I throwed a dozen in.
I'll never forget my feelings
When I bid adieu to all.
Sal, she cotched me round the neck
And I began to bawl.
When I begun they all commenced,
You never heard the like,
How they all took on and cried
The day I left old Pike.
When I got to this here country
I hadn't nary a red,
I had such wolfish feelings
I wished myself most dead.
At last I went to mining,
Put in my biggest licks,
Came down upon the boulders
Just like a thousand bricks.
I worked both late and early
In rain and sun and snow,
But I was working for my Sallie
So 'twas all the same to Joe.
I made a very lucky strike
As the gold itself did tell,
For I was working for my Sallie,
The girl I loved so well.
But one day I got a letter
From my dear, kind brother Ike;
It came from old Missouri,
Yes, all the way from Pike.
It told me the goldarndest news
That ever you did hear,
My heart it is a-bustin'
So please excuse this tear.
I'll tell you what it was, boys,
You'll bust your sides I know;
For when I read that letter
You ought to seen poor Joe.
My knees gave 'way beneath me,
And I pulled out half my hair;
And if you ever tell this now,
You bet you'll hear me swear.
It said my Sallie was fickle,
Her love for me had fled,
That she had married a butcher,
Whose hair was awful red;
It told me more than that,
It's enough to make me swear,--
It said that Sallie had a baby
And the baby had red hair.
Now I've told you all that I can tell
About this sad affair,
'Bout Sallie marrying the butcher
And the baby had red hair.
But whether it was a boy or girl
The letter never said,
It only said its cussed hair
Was inclined to be red.
THE COWBOY'S DREAM[2]
Last night as I lay on the prairie,
And looked at the stars in the sky,
I wondered if ever a cowboy
Would drift to that sweet by and by.
Roll on, roll on;
Roll on, little dogies, roll on, roll on,
Roll on, roll on;
Roll on, little dogies, roll on.
The road to that bright, happy region
Is a dim, narrow trail, so they say;
But the broad one that leads to perdition
Is posted and blazed all the way.
They say there will be a great round-up,
And cowboys, like dogies, will stand,
To be marked by the Riders of Judgment
Who are posted and know every brand.
I know there's many a stray cowboy
Who'll be lost at the great, final sale,
When he might have gone in the green pastures
Had he known of the dim, narrow trail.
I wonder if ever a cowboy
Stood ready for that Judgment Day,
And could say to the Boss of the Riders,
"I'm ready, come drive me away."
For they, like the cows that are locoed,
Stampede at the sight of a hand,
Are dragged with a rope to the round-up,
Or get marked with some crooked man's brand.
And I'm scared that I'll be a stray yearling,--
A maverick, unbranded on high,--
And get cut in the bunch with the "rusties"
When the Boss of the Riders goes by.
For they tell of another big owner
Whose ne'er overstocked, so they say,
But who always makes room for the sinner
Who drifts from the straight, narrow way.
They say he will never forget you,
That he knows every action and look;
So, for safety, you'd better get branded,
Have your name in the great Tally Book.
[Footnote 2: Sung to the air of _My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean_.]
THE COWBOY'S LIFE[3]
The bawl of a steer,
To a cowboy's ear,
Is music of sweetest strain;
And the yelping notes
Of the gray cayotes
To him are a glad refrain.
And his jolly songs
Speed him along,
As he thinks of the little gal
With golden hair
Who is waiting there
At the bars of the home corral.
For a kingly crown
In the noisy town
His saddle he wouldn't change;
No life so free
As the life we see
Way out on the Yaso range.
His eyes are bright
And his heart as light
As the smoke of his cigarette;
There's never a care
For his soul to bear,
No trouble to make him fret.
The rapid beat
Of his broncho's feet
On the sod as he speeds along,
Keeps living time
To the ringing rhyme
Of his rollicking cowboy song.
Hike it, cowboys,
For the range away
On the back of a bronc of steel,
With a careless flirt
Of the raw-hide quirt
And a dig of a roweled heel!
The winds may blow
And the thunder growl
Or the breezes may safely moan;--
A cowboy's life
Is a royal life,
His saddle his kingly throne.
Saddle up, boys,
For the work is play
When love's in the cowboy's eyes,--
When his heart is light
As the clouds of white
That swim in the summer skies.
[Footnote 3: Attributed to James Barton Adams.]
THE KANSAS LINE
Come all you jolly cowmen, don't you want to go
Way up on the Kansas line?
Where you whoop up the cattle from morning till night
All out in the midnight rain.
The cowboy's life is a dreadful life,
He's driven through heat and cold;
I'm almost froze with the water on my clothes,
A-ridin' through heat and cold.
I've been where the lightnin', the lightnin' tangled in my eyes,
The cattle I could scarcely hold;
Think I heard my boss man say:
"I want all brave-hearted men who ain't afraid to die
To whoop up the cattle from morning till night,
Way up on the Kansas line."
Speaking of your farms and your shanty charms,
Speaking of your silver and gold,--
Take a cowman's advice, go and marry you a true and lovely little wife,
Never to roam, always stay at home;
That's a cowman's, a cowman's advice,
Way up on the Kansas line.
Think I heard the noisy cook say,
"Wake up, boys, it's near the break of day,"--
Way up on the Kansas line,
And slowly we will rise with the sleepy feeling eyes,
Way up on the Kansas line.
The cowboy's life is a dreary, dreary life,
All out in the midnight rain;
I'm almost froze with the water on my clothes,
Way up on the Kansas line.
THE COWMAN'S PRAYER
Now, O Lord, please lend me thine ear,
The prayer of a cattleman to hear,
No doubt the prayers may seem strange,
But I want you to bless our cattle range.
Bless the round-ups year by year,
And don't forget the growing steer;
Water the lands with brooks and rills
For my cattle that roam on a thousand hills.
Prairie fires, won't you please stop?
Let thunder roll and water drop.
It frightens me to see the smoke;
Unless it's stopped, I'll go dead broke.
As you, O Lord, my herd behold,
It represents a sack of gold;
I think at least five cents a pound
Will be the price of beef the year around.
One thing more and then I'm through,--
Instead of one calf, give my cows two.
I may pray different from other men
But I've had my say, and now, Amen.
THE MINER'S SONG[4]
In a rusty, worn-out cabin sat a broken-hearted leaser,
His singlejack was resting on his knee.
His old "buggy" in the corner told the same old plaintive tale,
His ore had left in all his poverty.
He lifted his old singlejack, gazed on its battered face,
And said: "Old boy, I know we're not to blame;
Our gold has us forsaken, some other path it's taken,
But I still believe we'll strike it just the same.
"We'll strike it, yes, we'll strike it just the same,
Although it's gone into some other's claim.
My dear old boy don't mind it, we won't starve if we don't find it,
And we'll drill and shoot and find it just the same.
"For forty years I've hammered steel and tried to make a strike,
I've burned twice the powder Custer ever saw.
I've made just coin enough to keep poorer than a snake.
My jack's ate all my books on mining law.
I've worn gunny-sacks for overalls, and 'California socks,'
I've burned candles that would reach from here to Maine,
I've lived on powder, smoke, and bacon, that's no lie, boy, I'm not
fakin',
But I still believe we'll strike it just the same.
"Last night as I lay sleeping in the midst of all my dream
My assay ran six ounces clear in gold,
And the silver it ran clean sixteen ounces to the seam,
And the poor old miner's joy could scarce be told.
I lay there, boy, I could not sleep, I had a feverish brow,
Got up, went back, and put in six holes more.
And then, boy, I was chokin' just to see the ground I'd broken;
But alas! alas! the miner's dream was o'er.
"We'll strike it, yes, we'll strike it just the same,
Although it's gone into some other's claim.
My dear old boy, don't mind it, we won't starve if we don't find it,
And I still believe I'll strike it just the same."
[Footnote 4: Printed as a fugitive ballad in _Grandon of Sierra_, by
Charles E. Winter.]
JESSE JAMES
Jesse James was a lad that killed a-many a man;
He robbed the Danville train.
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave.
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.
It was Robert Ford, that dirty little coward,
I wonder how he does feel,
For he ate of Jesse's bread and he slept in Jesse's bed,
Then laid poor Jesse in his grave.
Jesse was a man, a friend to the poor,
He never would see a man suffer pain;
And with his brother Frank he robbed the Chicago bank,
And stopped the Glendale train.
It was his brother Frank that robbed the Gallatin bank,
And carried the money from the town;
It was in this very place that they had a little race,
For they shot Captain Sheets to the ground.
They went to the crossing not very far from there,
And there they did the same;
With the agent on his knees, he delivered up the keys
To the outlaws, Frank and Jesse James.
It was on Wednesday night, the moon was shining bright,
They robbed the Glendale train;
The people they did say, for many miles away,
It was robbed by Frank and Jesse James.
It was on Saturday night, Jesse was at home
Talking with his family brave,
Robert Ford came along like a thief in the night
And laid poor Jesse in his grave.
The people held their breath when they heard of Jesse's death,
And wondered how he ever came to die.
It was one of the gang called little Robert Ford,
He shot poor Jesse on the sly.
Jesse went to his rest with his hand on his breast;
The devil will be upon his knee.
He was born one day in the county of Clay
And came from a solitary race.
This song was made by Billy Gashade,
As soon as the news did arrive;
He said there was no man with the law in his hand
Who could take Jesse James when alive.
Jesse James (Mus. Not.)
Jes-se James was a lad that killed a-ma-ny a
man; He robbed the Dan-ville train; But that
dirt-y lit-tle cow-ard that shot Mis-ter
How-ard Has laid poor Jes-se in the grave.
REFRAIN.
Poor Jes-se had a wife to mourn for his life.
Three chil-dren, they were brave; But that
dir-ty lit-tle cow-ard That shot Mis-ter
How-ard Has laid poor Jes-se in the grave.
POOR LONESOME COWBOY
I ain't got no father,
I ain't got no father,
I ain't got no father,
To buy the clothes I wear.
I'm a poor, lonesome cowboy,
I'm a poor, lonesome cowboy,
I'm a poor, lonesome cowboy
And a long ways from home.
I ain't got no mother,
I ain't got no mother,
I ain't got no mother
To mend the clothes I wear.
I ain't got no sister,
I ain't got no sister,
I ain't got no sister
To go and play with me.
I ain't got no brother,
I ain't got no brother,
I ain't got no brother
To drive the steers with me.
I ain't got no sweetheart,
I ain't got no sweetheart,
I ain't got no sweetheart
To sit and talk with me.
I'm a poor, lonesome cowboy,
I'm a poor, lonesome cowboy,
I'm a poor, lonesome cowboy
And a long ways from home.
BUENA VISTA BATTLEFIELD
On Buena Vista battlefield
A dying soldier lay,
His thoughts were on his mountain home
Some thousand miles away.
He called his comrade to his side,
For much he had to say,
In briefest words to those who were
Some thousand miles away.
"My father, comrade, you will tell
About this bloody fray;
My country's flag, you'll say to him,
Was safe with me to-day.
I make a pillow of it now
On which to lay my head,
A winding sheet you'll make of it
When I am with the dead.
"I know 'twill grieve his inmost soul
To think I never more
Will sit with him beneath the oak
That shades the cottage door;
But tell that time-worn patriot,
That, mindful of his fame,
Upon this bloody battlefield
I sullied not his name.
"My mother's form is with me now,
Her will is in my ear,
And drop by drop as flows my blood
So flows from her the tear.
And oh, when you shall tell to her
The tidings of this day,
Speak softly, comrade, softly speak
What you may have to say.
"Speak not to her in blighting words
The blighting news you bear,
The cords of life might snap too soon,
So, comrade, have a care.
I am her only, cherished child,
But tell her that I died
Rejoicing that she taught me young
To take my country's side.
"But, comrade, there's one more,
She's gentle as a fawn;
She lives upon the sloping hill
That overlooks the lawn,
The lawn where I shall never more
Go forth with her in merry mood
To gather wild-wood flowers.
"Tell her when death was on my brow
And life receding fast,
Her looks, her form was with me then,
Were with me to the last.
On Buena Vista's bloody field
Tell her I dying lay,
And that I knew she thought of me
Some thousand miles away."
WESTWARD HO
I love not Colorado
Where the faro table grows,
And down the desperado
The rippling Bourbon flows;
Nor seek I fair Montana
Of bowie-lunging fame;
The pistol ring of fair Wyoming
I leave to nobler game.
Sweet poker-haunted Kansas
In vain allures the eye;
The Nevada rough has charms enough
Yet its blandishments I fly.
Shall Arizona woo me
Where the meek Apache bides?
Or New Mexico where natives grow
With arrow-proof insides?
Nay, 'tis where the grizzlies wander
And the lonely diggers roam,
And the grim Chinese from the squatter flees
That I'll make my humble home.
I'll chase the wild tarantula
And the fierce cayote I'll dare,
And the locust grim, I'll battle him
In his native wildwood lair.
Or I'll seek the gulch deserted
And dream of the wild Red man,
And I'll build a cot on a corner lot
And get rich as soon as I can.
A HOME ON THE RANGE
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright.
The red man was pressed from this part of the West,
He's likely no more to return
To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering camp-fires burn.
How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars,
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.
Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours,
The curlew I love to hear scream,
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain-tops green.
Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Flows leisurely down the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.
Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Home on the Range (Mus. Not.)
Oh, give me a home where the buf-fa-lo roam,
Where the deer and the an-te-lope play;...
Where sel-dom is heard a dis-cour-ag-ing word
And the skies are not cloud-y all day.
Home, home on the range, Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where sel-dom is heard a dis-cour-ag-ing word
And the skies are not cloud-y all day.
TEXAS RANGERS
Come, all you Texas rangers, wherever you may be,
I'll tell you of some troubles that happened unto me.
My name is nothing extra, so it I will not tell,--
And here's to all you rangers, I am sure I wish you well.
It was at the age of sixteen that I joined the jolly band,
We marched from San Antonio down to the Rio Grande.
Our captain he informed us, perhaps he thought it right,
"Before we reach the station, boys, you'll surely have to fight."
And when the bugle sounded our captain gave command,
"To arms, to arms," he shouted, "and by your horses stand."
I saw the smoke ascending, it seemed to reach the sky;
The first thought that struck me, my time had come to die.
I saw the Indians coming, I heard them give the yell;
My feelings at that moment, no tongue can ever tell.
I saw the glittering lances, their arrows round me flew,
And all my strength it left me and all my courage too.
We fought full nine hours before the strife was o'er,
The like of dead and wounded I never saw before.
And when the sun was rising and the Indians they had fled,
We loaded up our rifles and counted up our dead.
And all of us were wounded, our noble captain slain,
And the sun was shining sadly across the bloody plain.
Sixteen as brave rangers as ever roamed the West
Were buried by their comrades with arrows in their breast.
'Twas then I thought of mother, who to me in tears did say,
"To you they are all strangers, with me you had better stay."
I thought that she was childish, the best she did not know;
My mind was fixed on ranging and I was bound to go.
Perhaps you have a mother, likewise a sister too,
And maybe you have a sweetheart to weep and mourn for you;
If that be your situation, although you'd like to roam,
I'd advise you by experience, you had better stay at home.
I have seen the fruits of rambling, I know its hardships well;
I have crossed the Rocky Mountains, rode down the streets of hell;
I have been in the great Southwest where the wild Apaches roam,
And I tell you from experience you had better stay at home.
And now my song is ended; I guess I have sung enough;
The life of a ranger I am sure is very tough.
And here's to all you ladies, I am sure I wish you well,
I am bound to go a-ranging, so ladies, fare you well.
THE MORMON BISHOP'S LAMENT
I am a Mormon bishop and I will tell you what I know.
I joined the confraternity some forty years ago.
I then had youth upon my brow and eloquence my tongue,
But I had the sad misfortune then to meet with Brigham Young.
He said, "Young man, come join our band and bid hard work farewell,
You are too smart to waste your time in toil by hill and dell;
There is a ripening harvest and our hooks shall find the fool
And in the distant nations we shall train them in our school."
I listened to his preaching and I learned all the role,
And the truth of Mormon doctrines burned deep within my soul.
I married sixteen women and I spread my new belief,
I was sent to preach the gospel to the pauper and the thief.
'Twas in the glorious days when Brigham was our only Lord and King,
And his wild cry of defiance from the Wasatch tops did ring,
'Twas when that bold Bill Hickman and that Porter Rockwell led,
And in the blood atonements the pits received the dead.
They took in Dr. Robertson and left him in his gore,
And the Aiken brothers sleep in peace on Nephi's distant shore.
We marched to Mountain Meadows and on that glorious field
With rifle and with hatchet we made man and woman yield.