Now sing this to "Roving Gambler."

Lyr. Add: I WAS A TEXAS RANGER

I was a Texas Ranger sixteen long years ago;
I ranged through all of Texas and a part uv Mexico.

Ef I was a gambler, westward I would go;
I'd gamble with the Englishmen en there I'd win my dough.

My children they'll go naked; my wife will have to plough;
Along came an officer en drove off my last caow.

Coll. from East Tennessee mountain whites; sung by F. Le Tellier, 1910.
No 11, from Part VI, Songs Connected with Drinking and Gambling.
E. C. Perrow, Songs and Rhymes from the South, 1915, Jour. American Folklore, vol. 28, p. 159ff.

In the old days, remittance men came from England to Canada and the western U. S., some had money. Some were younger sons who couldn't inherit the 'manor,' others were sent out by their family because they were 'wild,' or avoiding the consequences of some action or crime. Some made good investments or bought ranchland and prospered, others threw their remittances away.