Lyr. Add: FREIGHTING FROM WILCOX TO GLOBE 2
Univ. Arizona Folklore Archive; sung by A. J. Busby

1
Come all you jolly freighters who travel upon the road,
That ever hauled a load of coke from Wilcox to Globe!
That's how I made my living for ten long years or more,
Was hauling coke for Leverman, no wonder I am poor.

Chorus-
Then it's home, dearest home, at home you'd better be,
Over on the Gila in the white man's coun-te-ry;
Where the cottonwood and ash and mesquite will ever be,
Growing green upon the river, there's a home for you and me.

2
In eithteen eighty-three I started with my team,
Chuck full of glee with that elusive dream.
But that first night out from Wilcox my best horse got stole
And it made me cuss a little when I came out in the hole.
3
That left me with but three, Kate, Molly, and Old Mike,
He being the best one, I put him out on spike;
I went the mountain road so the people wouldn't smile,
And it took me fifteen days to travel fourteen miles.
4
But I got there just the same with my little three-up spike,
But I had to go in debt again to get a mate for Mike.
And you all know how to pity me- when once you get behind
You can never get even, boys, unless you steal them blind.
5
I was an honest man when first I hit the road,
I wouldn't take a note nor I wouldn't tap a load.
But now you ought to see my mules when I begin to cuss,
They wiggle their tails and flop their ears and pull the load or bust.
6
Now I'm a freighter right and I'm up to all the tricks,
I can tap a whiskey barrel with nothing but a stick;
You never can detect it, I've got it down quite pat,
And fill it up with water again, sure there's no harm in that.
7
Barbed wire and bacon is all that they would pay;
We have to use our copper checks to buy our grain and hay.
When you ask them for five dollars, old Myers would scratch his pate,
And their clerks with paper collars will say, "Get down and pull your freight."
8
Out home is round the campfire where e'er we camp at night,
It's there we drink our coffee and pass around the pipe.
We sing our songs and spin our yarns and pass the bottle round,
And it's always filled with something good that some poor freighter found.
9
My clothes are rather rough and I know that they are not genteel,
But they are good enough till I can make another steal.
My boots are number ten, I stole them from a chaw,
And my coat cost "dorell-alles"* from a little Apache squaw. [*dos reales]
10
I've traveled in the sunshine, I've traveled in the rain,
I've lost my wagons in the mud and dug them out again;
I've laid out in the snow till it's a wonder I'm not dead,
With a double "divil-a-bit" of cover but an Arizona bed.
11
We take our money minus Kellner's ten per cent,
And blow it along the road until it is all spent.
And every town we come to, we have a jolly dance,
And try to kiss the pretty girls whenever we get the chance.
12
When we get to Pima the girls they are so fine
A fellow wants to treat them all to Uncle Moses' wine;
But Thatcher has the prettiest girls, it's where we stay all night,
But we have to go to Safford tto get a little tight.
13
Another trip or two and Old Mike he will peg out,
As for Old Kate and Molly, they've gone up the spout.
Old Kate kicked out at Bailey's Wells and Moll lies at the Sub,
And if her bones could speak they'd say she died for want of grub.
14
Now I'll have to quit the road, before I do I'll tell
What I intend to do when I go down to hell;
'Tis there I'll meet old Leverman and Myers with his specs,
For the devil is sure to catch them both when they cash in their checks.
15
Then Leverman and Myers will be my peons, you see,
And I'll treat them like a yellow dog just like they treated me.
Hell fire and brimstone is all that I will pay,
They will have to use their copper checks to buy their grain and hay.
16
And when they ask for money, my clerk will make them wait,
And I'll pay them back in their own coin, "Get down and pull your freight!"

Austin E. and Alta S. Fife, 1969, "Cowboy and Western Songs, "A Comprehensive Anthology," pp. 50-53, with musical score.

There is another version sung by the Mormons, but I have not been able to locate it.

Lingo
Copper checks-All old-timers in the west were familiar with copper checks, which were coin-like tokens used by merchants, trading posts, saloons,and stores; when smaller amounts were owed, the store, etc., would not pay in cash but in tokens. Some trading posts and businesses paid their employees in tokens, meaning that the recipient had to do business with them; the "company store."

barbed-wire- cheap whiskey

A spike was a team, usually mules; sometimes applied to the lead mule(s).

An Arizona bed was the bare ground.

"Moll lies at the Sub"- don't know.

Yellow dog- many dogs, strays or owned by Indians, were yellow.

Chow (chaw)- in Arizona-New Mexico, this meant a Chinaman. Also used in Australia.

Reales- small silver coins, Spanish or Mexican. In the southwest, the name hung on for the American quarter-dollar, much the same size as the two-reales coin.

Arizona towns mentioned are all in southern Arizona. Pima was founded by Mormons; a temple (Gila Valley) is being built between Pima and Thatcher.