Louie Roy: It's no surprise that Fletcher did not (or was not permitted to) include his bawdy version. In fact, NO bawdy versions of cowboy songs were printed together with parlor versions or in any scholarly book until Logsdon in 1989. To date, there is still no scholarly work on, eg bawdy sailor or logging or railroad songs and you know there must have been many of them, too.

Joe, well posted, good research. I got curious when I first read Logsdon, what all those diseases were. Took a while to look up but I'm glad I did - no particular surprise but they were very well chosen, not just any old diseases:

epizootic = an interspecies STD - equine influenza (distemper)
glanders = a highly contagious, debilitating equine STD; transmittable to & usually fatal in cowboys. Includes pustules & ulcerating lesions.
crud = build-up of filth & crusts
cankers = corroding or gangrenous ulcers, especially at the mouth
strictured = abnormal narrowing of any body passage


(Notice that repeated interspecies reference - why should shepherds have all the fun?)

Plus: cayuse = a wild, scrubby horse &
strawberry roan = red on red coloring
kat, Lomax isn't aware it's Fletcher's on 1916 Cowboy but he does credit him in the 1938 edition. He uses the text direct from I think that and "Night-Hearding Song" are the only songs in the book attributed (rightly or not) to a single author.

And yes, I'm still hoping to see the sheepherding song.