One of my great favorites. Gus Meade says in Country Music Sources that it was written by Ben Dodge c. 1877. However he also cites "They've All Got a Mate But Me," w&m Gus Williams? c. 1876, which was recorded by Frank Crumit but never issued.

One folk rendition of "Mate" is "Fox and Hare," an English song found on a single thread in the Mudcat message archive but not among the songs in the DT. This one is a classic American performance, genial and fun. (I have a second version I'll post in a separate message.)

THEY'VE ALL GOT A WIFE BUT ME
^^
As recorded by Branch and Coleman (Bernice Coleman and Ernest Branch), OK 45556, Atlanta 10/27/31.

A story true I'll tell to you of the troubles of my life,
Though in love I've been like many other men, I never could find a wife,
The girls are shy, I can't tell why, oh sad, it is too late,
I've tried and tried till I've almost died, and still I can't find a mate.

Cho:    There's the monkey and the dogs, the turtles and the frogs,
          The fish that swim in the sea,
          The pretty little squirrel with a tail in a curl,
          They've all got a wife but me.

When first in love with [a turtle?] dove, it was with a gal named Lize,
She'd a nose hard to beat and Number Ten feet, and a pair of googoo eyes,
I offered my hand, and a [future?} grand, what do you suppose,
She said very cool she wasn't no fool, and she turned up her big red nose.

Cho2:   The chickens and the cats, the weasel and the rats,
            The skeeter and the bumblebee,
            The cunning little lizard and the naughty old buzzard,
            They've all got a wife but me.

My gal number two was a gal named Sue who clerked in a dollar store,
Each day I dressed in all my best and wandered by her door,
I wrote her a letter, I oughta knowed better, asked her to share my lot,
Next day I met a feller and he hit me in the smeller, that was the answer I got.

Cho3:   There's the horse and the steer, the goat and the deer,
            The [giraffe?], the walrus and the flea,
            A fuzzy old coon and the ugly baboon,
            They've all got a wife but me.