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picture of life drawn by people who knew nothing about it. Here is part of one of the most vigorous of these protests:
A cowboy's life is a dreary, dreary life,
Some say it's free from care: Rounding up the cattle from morning till night
In the middle of the prairie so bare.
Half-past four, the noisy cook will roar,
" Whoop-a-whoop-a-hey!" Slowly you will rise with sleepy-feeling eyes,
The sweet, dreamy night passed away.
The greener lad he thinks it's play, He'll soon peter out on a cold rainy day,
With his big bell spurs and his Spanish hoss, He'll swear to you he was once a boss.
Springtime sets in, double trouble will begin,
The weather is so fierce and cold; Clothes are wet and frozen to our necks,
The cattle we can scarcely hold.
The cowboy's life is a dreary one, He works all day to the setting of the sun;
And then his day's work is not done, For there's his night herd to go on.
The wolves and owls with their terrifying howls Will disturb us in our midnight dream,
As we lie on our slickers on a cold, rainy night Way over on the Pecos stream.
Many other songs describe the long drive to the railroad in Kansas or the juicy grass of the Northwest. One of the most popular of them with radio singers is "Whoopee-Ti-Yi-Ho, Git Along Little Dogies." The dogies, it should be said, were the yearling steers being moved several hundred miles from short to long grass. The song served the double purpose of passing the time for the rider in the saddle and of soothing the cattle and thus lessening the danger of stampede.
Tales of heroism in the saddle are often told in the songs. There is the story of Utah Carroll, who saved his boss's |
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