THE DISHEARTENED RANGER

Come, listen to a ranger, you kindhearted stranger,
This song, though a sad one, you are welcome to hear;
He has kept the Comanches away from your ranches,
And followed them far on the Texas frontier.

He is weary of scouting, of traveling and routing
The bloodthirsty brutes o’er prairie and wood;
No rest for the sinner, no breakfast, no dinner,
No rest from his suffering bed in the mud.

No corn nor potatoes, no beets nor tomatoes,
The jerked beef’s as dry as the sole of your shoes;
All day without drinking, all night without winking,
I’ll tell you, kind stranger, this never Will do.

Those great alligators, the state legislators,
Are puffng and blowing two-thirds of the time,
But windy orations about rangers and rations
Never put in our pockets one-tenth of a dime.

They do not regard us, they will not reward us,
Though hungry and haggard, with holes in our coats;
But the election is coming, and they will be drumming
And praising our valor to purchase our votes.

For glory and payment, for victuals and raiment,
No longer I’ll fight on the Texas frontier;
So guard your own ranches, and mind the Comanches
Or surely they’ll scalp you in less than a year.

Though sure it may grieve you, the ranger must leave you
Exposed to the arrow and knife of the foe;
So look to the cattle and fight your own battle,
For home to the States I am determined to go.

Where churches have steeples and laws are more equal,
Where churches have people and ladies more kind,
Where work is regarded and worth is rewarded,
Where pumpkins are plenty and pockets relined.

Thanks for listening to the ranger, you kindhearted stranger,
This song, like the ranger is now at an end;
So guard your own ranches, and mind the Comanches
Or surely they’ll scalp you in less than a year.


151 - The Disheartened Ranger
TEXTS with other titles may be found in Lomax, 261-62, and Randolph, II, 178.
The Disheartened Ranger was sung by Mrs. Lula Sublet of Fort Gibson (Oklahoma). Mrs. Sublet was born in Kentucky and came to Indian Territory in 1885. She lived at Stilwell for some years before moving to Fort Gibson.

Source: Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, collected in Oklahoma by Ethel and Chauncey O. Moore. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1964. Pages 315-316

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