Lyr. Add: A COWPUNCHER WATCHES THE CROWD
S. Omar Barker, c. 1925

"It has been said that Tex Austin's Rodeo cowboys got more kick out of watching New Yorkers on the streets than the Gothamites did in seeing the cowpunchers perform."

Hi, Pete! yeah, I'm a-playin' corner post.
Lost? No, jest standin' herd and judging stock!
Why sure! it's jest like sortin' cattle, Pete,
To watch folks come a-shovin' down the block.

Go to a show? Hell no! What for? This here's
The show. It kinder makes me homesick, too.
Reminds a man of Dogie Williams bunch
All mixed; hey look! Ol' Spotty's comin' through,
Doggone my hide, if that old girl ain't jest
The twin fer Dogie's pinto cow we found
Up Horse Thief Creek! Yeah, fat one there with furs.
See how she horns her way and holds her ground?
But looky, Pete! Jest like old Spot she knows
Which ones won't take no hornin' from a cow.
She's edged her way around that muley bull
I mean that necky banker, see 'em? Wow!

That there's a right pert heifer comin' by!
I'd easy say she's pure-bred Hereford from the way
She's slender at the ankles and still shows
She's built to carry meat? What did you say?
Quit starin'? Why, you scrub, these folks don't care
How much one pore cowpuncher reads their brands!

I aint no more to them, not near as much
As dudes is to Tom Talle's cows or hands.
Gee whimpers! What a lot of two-year olds!
Them fellers there and heifers too all sleek
And dainty-steppin' stuff; might fool yuh Pete.
Jest like scrub cows that gits smooth in a week
But never has no meat inside their skins.
Slick lookin' hide ain't never been no sign
Of breedin' underneath no more for folks,
I reckon, than it is fer cows like mine.
It's more the way their bones is built, and how
Their heads is shaped and oh, I guess you know
Jest what I mean, it's even in their eyes-
Yeah, meanin' cows and folks. Now ain't it so?

And listen, Pete, remember how the cows
Leave all their calves in some old bossy's care
While they go grazin' with the bunch? Now watch
Here looks like lots of "mamma-cows," but where
Are all their calfies? School? Well, yes, I guess
Schoolmarms is meant, like critters on the range
To do their job. Move on? Why, who are you?
A bull? Gee, Pete, ain't human cattle strange?

Santa Fe New Mexican, 1925.
Reproduced in "Anthology Of Newspaper Verse for 1925, Seventh Annual Issue." Punctuation, verses, in this online typescript not easy to determine.

Tex Austin took his Rodeo across the country, and to London twice, the first time getting charged with animal cruelty, the last time in 1934 when the king and queen attended..
In the late 1930s he was trying to run a restaurant in Santa Fe. My grandfather sometimes took me there to eat. Good food, but few customers towards the end; I think he was ill for a long time (died 1938). I loved his stories, especially those about serving under Pancho Villa when he was in Madero's forces.
(American adventurers active in the Mexican revolution remain unsung).

Thanks to Joe for finding these anthologies of newspaper verse.
Thread 16158:
< href="/thread.cfm?threadid=16158"> Newspaper verse