Chapter I: Front Matter

SONGS OF THE CATTLE
TRAIL AND COW CAMP

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO

SONGS OF THE CATTLE
TRAIL AND COW CAMP

COLLECTED BY
JOHN A. LOMAX, B.A., M.A.

Executive Secretary Ex-Students' Association,
the University of Texas.

For three years Sheldon Fellow from Harvard University
for the Collection of American Ballads; Ex-President
American Folk-Lore Society. Collector of
"Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier
Ballads"; joint author with Dr.
H. Y. Benedict of "The
Book of Texas."

WITH A FOREWORD BY
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1919

_All rights reserved_

COPYRIGHT, 1919
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1919.

"THAT THESE DEAR FRIENDS I LEAVE BEHIND MAY KEEP KIND HEARTS' REMEMBRANCE OF THE LOVE WE HAD." _Solon._

In affectionate gratitude to a group of men, my intimate friends during College days (brought under one roof by a "Fraternity"), whom I still love not less but more,

_Will Prather_, _Hammett Hardy_, _Penn Hargrove_ and _Harry Steger_, of precious and joyous memory;

_Norman Crozier_, not yet quite emerged from Presbyterianism;

_Eugene Barker_, cynical, solid, unafraid;

_"Cap'en" Duval_, a gentleman of Virginia, sah;

_Ed Miller_, red-headed and royal-hearted;

_Bates MacFarland_, calm and competent without camouflage;

_Jimmie Haven_, who has put 'em over every good day since;

_Charley Johnson_, "the Swede"--the fattest, richest and dearest of the bunch;

_Edgar Witt_, whose loyal devotion and pertinacious energy built the "Frat" house;

_Roy Bedichek_, too big for any job he has yet tackled;

_"Curley" Duncan_, who possesses all the virtues of the old time cattleman and none of the vices of the new;

_Rom Rhome_, the quiet and canny counter of coin;

_Gavin Hunt_, student and lover of all things beautiful;

_Dick Kimball_, the soldier; every inch of him a handsome man;

_Alex_ and _Bruce_ and _Dave_ and _George_ and _"Freshman" Mathis_ and _Clarence_, the six Freshmen we "took in"; while _Ike MacFarland_, _Alfred Pierce Ward_, and _Guy_ and _Charlie Witt_ were still in the process of assimilation,--

To this group of God's good fellows, I dedicate this little book.

No loopholes now are framing
Lean faces, grim and brown,
No more keen eyes are aiming
To bring the redskin down;
But every wind careening
Seems here to breathe a song--
A song of brave careering,
A saga of the strong.