It was clear in the journal that I quoted from that that version wasn't complete. It had the asterisk and the note below that it was just "selections."

I suspect the Southern Literary Messenger operated something like the Reader's Digest in presenting popular works but in expurgated versions. Again, the row of asterisks before the final few lines of the poem would indicate that parts are missing. I'm glad masato found the earlier version.

We've made a lot of progress with this song, even if it isn't where Joe Offer was heading recently when he opened a DTthread to look into the "Dying Cowboy" history. :)

SRS