Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">THE LAST LONGHORN <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page197" name="page197"></SPAN>(p. 197)</span></p> <p>An ancient long-horned bovine<br/> Lay dying by the river;<br/> There was lack of vegetation<br/> And the cold winds made him shiver;<br/> A cowboy sat beside him<br/> With sadness in his face.<br/> To see his final passing,&mdash;<br/> This last of a noble race.</p> <p>The ancient eunuch struggled<br/> And raised his shaking head,<br/> Saying, "I care not to linger<br/> When all my friends are dead.<br/> These Jerseys and these Holsteins,<br/> They are no friends of mine;<br/> They belong to the nobility<br/> Who live across the brine.</p> <p>"Tell the Durhams and the Herefords<br/> When they come a-grazing round,<br/> And see me lying stark and stiff<br/> Upon the frozen ground,<br/> I don't want them to bellow<br/> When they see that I am dead,<br/> For I was born in Texas<br/> Near the river that is Red.</p> <p>"Tell <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page198" name="page198"></SPAN>(p. 198)</span> the cayotes, when they come at night<br/> A-hunting for their prey,<br/> They might as well go further,<br/> For they'll find it will not pay.<br/> If they attempt to eat me,<br/> They very soon will see<br/> That my bones and hide are petrified,&mdash;<br/> They'll find no beef on me.</p> <p>"I remember back in the seventies,<br/> Full many summers past,<br/> There was grass and water plenty,<br/> But it was too good to last.<br/> I little dreamed what would happen<br/> Some twenty summers hence,<br/> When the nester came with his wife, his kids,<br/> His dogs, and his barbed-wire fence."</p> <p>His voice sank to a murmur,<br/> His breath was short and quick;<br/> The cowboy tried to skin him<br/> When he saw he couldn't kick;<br/> He rubbed his knife upon his boot<br/> Until he made it shine,<br/> But he never skinned old longhorn,<br/> Caze he couldn't cut his rine.</p> <p>And the cowboy riz up sadly<br/> And mounted his cayuse,<br/> Saying, <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page199" name="page199"></SPAN>(p. 199)</span> "The time has come when longhorns<br/> And their cowboys are no use!"<br/> And while gazing sadly backward<br/> Upon the dead bovine,<br/> His bronc stepped in a dog-hole<br/> And fell and broke his spine.</p> <p>The cowboys and the longhorns<br/> Who partnered in eighty-four<br/> Have gone to their last round-up<br/> Over on the other shore;<br/> They answered well their purpose,<br/> But their glory must fade and go,<br/> Because men say there's better things<br/> In the modern cattle show.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />