The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1908-12-11
The SONG THAT THE
Z COW BOY SUNG
70 His Cattle while Guarding
Them at NIght---Author
Not Known.

Literary history is replete with beau
tiful things. The bookshelves of the
libraries are loaded with lines that
are famous. Just what their inspiration
was In not generally known-but the
sources are varied. Tbat better men
and women have been made by them
is, Of course true. II. however the
lover of good English could slip back
half century-back into the years and
onto the Kansas plains-when the grea
prairies were like an open book. l!mi-
ted only by tine eye and the sky
line and hear a cowboy singing to his
cattle on some lonely dark night when
there were elemental or animal dis
turbances. he would carry with him
to the end Of his days amemory Of
something that got down under his
vest. The night guards of cattle or
horses herds were wont to sing TO
their charges as they slowly rode round
and round them, keeping watch. II
the cattle stampeded, and were then
brought together again and began NOV
ing in a circle, which the punchers cal
ed milling" and on all occasions of
fear or uneasiness among the stock,
the boys sang to them, and 1t had
quieting effect 1t may sound ludicer-
Gus to speak of Grooming a song to
cattle" but there is liberalism ia the
statement. These ngih riders were per
feet horsemen and seasoned TO the
trail and the range. Their hours were
endless; the calls upon tdem for
endurance were almost beyond human
strength. Picture night on
lonely prairie wild, disconceming, noar
elements a. stampede among half-wild
cattle, and it is NOT hard to know the
task that the cowboy confronted. 1t
is something fine TO think that in
such hours of danger the cattle could
be "crooned" back to normal quiet.
Out of such occasions were tine cow
boy songs born. One that legend has
brought down is called "The Dim, Mar
row Trail" 1t runs like this:
Last night as / lay on the prairies,
Looking up at the stars In the sky
/ wondered If ever a cowboy
Would go to that sweet by and by:
l wondered If eyer a cowboy
Would go to that swee by and by.
The trail TO that fair mystic region
Is narrow and dim all the way,
While the road that leads to perditlon
Is posted and blazed all the way;
While the road that leads TO perdition
Is posted and b,azed all the way
They say there will be a grand round
up,
Where cowboys like cattle must stand
To be cut by the riders OF judgment,
Who are posted and know every brand
To be cut by the riders of judgment,
Who are posted and know every brand.
Perhaps there will be stray cowboy,
Unbranded by any one nigh,
Who'll be cut by the riders of Judgment
And shipped to the sweet by and by;
Who'll be cut by the riders of judgment
And shipped 10 the sweet by and by.
don't see why there are so many
To be lost at that great final sale
Who might have been rich and had
plenty,
Had they known Of that great final
sale;
Who might have been rich and had
plenty,
Had they known of that great final
sale.
No one knows who composed this
poem or the music to which 1t was
sung. ]. H. Nation, who In the early
days was a cattleman In the Southwes
stopped at E. ID. Smiths home, at
Meade, in 1890. and sung the song for
Smiths children. Smith got Nation
to write 1t out, and in that man
ner the song has been preserved.
Those VINO know IT," says Smith,
Insist that the person who composed
the words also composed the tune 10
which 1t was sung. can hardly be-
lleve that to be the way. The cowboy
who could play aviolin we'll. and every
man OF them could were In the habit OF
rendering tune after their own fash
lon and not infrequently improved It,
at least for their audience. Sometimes |
one OF them would play something the
had never heard. and winch he could |
not always repeat, or at least would |
not and which bore no resemblance
to anything I had heard. Usually suci |
a tune II one calls 1t such, had a sub
in II that seemed 70 me |
to express the loneliness OF their life
as we, 'ias something OF hopelessness.
That plays seemed to dimly realize that