COWBOY SONGS JOHNA-LOMAX BALLAD COLLECTION,- UBRARY OF s. GKISWOLD MORLEB DE JOUR U\ JOUR MOURAWT DE IA BffiUOTHfcQUE DE S. GRBWOLD MORLEV Jt University of California Berkeley S. GRISWOLD MORLEY COLLECTION 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 Ifrfogorfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1918 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 Go 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 ~jt~**+j ^&*~ o 6 ~y- -ir^* CONTENTS PAGE ARAPHOE, OR BUCKSKIN JOE 390 ARIZONA BOYS AND GIRLS, THE 211 BILL PETERS, THE STAGE DRIVER 100 BELLY THE Kro 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 VV ,.'... 4" ""* . ". ."'. * . ' CALIFORNIA TRAIL. ". '...' V, 375 CAMP FIRE HAS GONE OUT, THE ....".'. 322 CHARLIE RUTLAGE . ". V . ^ . / i'i . 267 ; . '. CHOPO .... ".y"\ /.".". t , 37i ! IQ6 COLE YOUNGER . *>'.*. YV. V . 'y ' CONVICT, THE. \'.\ V.V./. '* 290 ix Contents PAGE 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 X Contents PAGE GAL I LEFT BEHIND ME, THE 342 GOL-DARNED WHEEL, THE 190 GREAT ROUND-UP, THE 282 GREEK 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 Jm 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 Contents PAGE 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 no 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 xii Contents PAGE 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 or 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, Grr 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 Xlll INTRODUCTION It is now four or five years since my atten- tion was called to the collection of native Amer- ican 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 encour- aging the work, as a real contribution both to litera- ture 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 disput- ing 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 impos- sible to be sure quite how they begun, and by quite what means they sifted through the centuries into Introduction the forms at last securely theirs, in the final rigidity of print. In this collection of American ballads, al- most 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 tech- nical study of literary origins, as is the other consid- eration which made me feel, from my first knowl- edge of these ballads, that they are beyond dispute valuable and important. In the ballads of the old world, it is not historical or philological considera- tions which most readers care for. It is the wonder- ful, robust vividness of their artless yet supremely true utterance; it is the natural vigor of their surgent, unsophisticated human rhythm. It is the sense, de- rived one can hardly explain how, that here is ex- pression 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 Introduction us with a new sense of brimming life. To compare the songs collected by Professor Lomax with the im- mortalities of olden time is doubtless like comparing the literature of America with that of all Europe to- gether. 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 whole- some 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, Pro- fessor Lomax, at my request, read some of these bal- lads 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 n, 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 Ne- vada 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.