The Denver Post (June 20, 1923) reports (via the Philadelphia Ledger) on an old fiddlers' contest in Missouri:


“Music? Boy! how about ‘The Bell Cow,’ with a fiddlin' man a-leanin' on the bow? How about it as he snakes and hogs and foxes that melody while the fiddle fans chant?

Drive up the bell cow, ketch her by the tail,
Hold her by the horn, while I milk her in the pail ...

Went out to milk, but didn't know how,
Milked a goat instead of a cow.

"There was that other tune beloved of hill fiddlers and plantation melody hounds, ‘Sally Goodin and Her Crippled Chickens.’ The fiddler chants as he waves his bow:

Had piece a-pie, had piece a-puddin',
Gave it all away to Little Sally Goodin.

"And ‘Leather Breeches,’ with the crowd patting and moaning and swinging in time:

Leather britches, leath-er-r britches,
Mammy cut 'em out and Daddy sewed the stitches.

"Of course, somebody played ‘Cotton-eye Joe.’ Wouldn't 'a' been a real fiddlin' contest without it:

Biggest fool I ever saw came from the state of Arkansas.
Wore his shirt on over his coat. Buckled his breeches around his throat.

Where did you come from, where do you go?
Where did you come from, Cotton-eye Joe?

"And ‘Lost Indian?’ You could see that poor savage wandering through the woods as that Missourian teased the catgut. It was lonesome. The woods were dark. Poor Indian long way from wigwam. Fiddle wails and moans, ‘Whoooooo!’ and the small boy dives under the chairs.”