Buffalo Skinner

Come all you old time cowboys
And listen to my song
Please do not grow weary
I'll not detain you long
Concerning some wild cowboys
Who did agree to go
And spend the summer pleasant
On the trail of buffalo

I found myself in Jacksboro
In the spring of seventy-three
A man by the name of Crego
Came stepping up to me
Saying "How do you do, young fellow
And how would you like to go
And spend the summer pleasantly
On the range of buffalo?"

Well I´ve being out of work right then
So to the drover I did say
"going out on the buffalo range
Depends upon the pay
But if you pay good wages
Transportation to and fro
I think, I might go with you
And hunt the buffalo."

"Of course I pay good wages
And transportation too
Provided you will go with me
And stay the summer through
But if you should grow homesick
Come back to Jacksboro
I won't pay transportation
From the range of buffalo."

Now our outfit was complete
Seven able-bodied men
With navy six and needle gun
Our troubles did begin;
Our way it was a pleasant one
The route we had to go
Until we crossed Pease River
On the range of buffalo

There our pushes ended
Our troubles have begun
The first damned tail I went to rip
Christ, how I cut my thumb!
While skinning the old damned stinkers
Our lives they had no show
For the Indians watched to pick us off
On the hills of Mexico

Our meat it was buffalo hump
And iron wedge bread
And all we had to sleep on
Was a buffalo fur of bed
Pease River's as salty as hell fire
The water I never could go
O God! I wished I had never come
To the the range of buffalo

The fleas and gray-backs worked on us
O boys, it was not slow
I tell you there's no worse hell on earth
Than the the range of the buffalo

Our hearts were cased with buffalo hocks
Our souls were cased with steel
And the hardships of that summer
Would nearly make us reel;
The fleas and gray-backs worked on us
O boys, it was not slow
I tell you there's no worse hell on earth
Than the the range of buffalo

The season being over
Old Crego he did say
The crowd had been extravagant
Was in debt to him that day;
We coaxed him and we begged him
And still it was no go
So we left old Crego's bones to bleach
On the range of buffalo

Oh, it's now we've crossed Pease River
And homeward we are bound
No more in that hell-fired country
Shall ever we be found
Go home to our wives and sweethearts
Tell others not to go
For God's forsaken the buffalo range
And the damned old buffalo