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INTRODUCTION |
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naive records of the hard and free life on the range, celebrating such adventures as belong to virgin soil, pioneer hardships, dangers, and fun. Fun is, indeed, one of the chief characteristics of these songs, and it is a fun that includes the same sort of humorous exaggeration in which Mark Twain excelled.
My excuse for touching, in this introduction, upon the pedagogical folk-aspect of these songs, which depends, after all, upon their spontaneous appeal to those for whom they were written, is simply that, in appropriate phraseology, I would rather be caught "heeled," and these are questions which will undoubtedly crop up in connection with the book.
But those who know and appreciate the life celebrated in these songs will need no introduction or explanation; and it is for such readers and old-timers particularly that the book is intended. If Mr. Thorp had written a preface for the book, his gesture would probably have been as simple as that of the Mayor of Las Vegas, who said at the recent Cowboy Reunion, "The town is yours, Boys, take care of it."
ALICE CORBIN HENDERSON Santa Fe New Mexico |
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