volume is meant to be popular. The songs
have been arranged in some such haphazard way as they were
collected,--jotted down on a table in the rear of saloons, scrawled on
an envelope while squatting about a campfire, caught behind the scenes
of a broncho-busting outfit. Later, it is hoped that enough interest
will be aroused to justify printing all the variants of these songs,
accompanied by the music and such explanatory notes as may be useful;
the negro folk-songs, the songs of the lumber jacks, the songs of the
mountaineers, and the songs of the sea, already partially collected,
being included in the final publication. The songs of this collection,
never before in print, as a rule have been taken down from oral
recitation. In only a few instances have I been able to discover the
authorship of any song. They seem to have sprung up as quietly and
mysteriously as does the grass on the plains. All have been popular
with the range riders, several being current all the way from Texas to
Montana, and quite as long as the old Chisholm Trail stretching between
these states. Some of the songs the cowboy certainly composed; all of
them he sang. Obviously, a number of the most characteristic cannot be
printed for general circulation. To paraphrase slightly what Sidney
Lanier said of Walt Whitman's poetry, they are raw collops slashed
from the rump of Nature, and never mind the gristle. Likewise some of
the strong adjectives and nouns have been softened,--Jonahed, as
George Meredith would have said. There is, however, a Homeric
quality about the cowboy's profanity and vulgarity that pleases rather
than repulses. The broad sky under which he slept, the limitless
plains over which he rode, the big, open, free life he lived near to
Nature's breast, taught him simplicity, calm, directness. He spoke out
plainly the impulses of his heart. But as yet so-called polite society
is not quite willing to hear.

It is entirely impossible to acknowledge the assistance I have
received from many persons. To Professors Barrett Wendell and G.L.
Kittredge, of Harvard, I must gratefully acknowledge constant and
generous encouragement. Messrs. Jeff Hanna, of Meridian, Texas; John
B. Jones, a student of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas; H. Knight, Sterling City, Texas; John Lang Sinclair, San
Antonio; A.H. Belo & Co., Dallas; Tom Hight, of Mangum, Oklahoma; R.
Bedichek, of Deming, N.M.; Benjamin Wyche, Librarian of the Carnegie
Library