Page 6 |
Previous | 334 of 445 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
Large
Extra Large
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
|
Loading content ...
6 Cowboy Tales 4= : : "When Bill was about a year old, another family moved into the country and located about fifty miles down the river. His father decided the place was gettin' too crowded and packed his family into a wagon and moved west. One day, after they had crossed the Pecos River, Bill fell out of the wagon. As there were sixteen or seventeen other children in the family, his parents didn't miss him for four or five weeks, and then it was too late to find him. "That's how Bill came to grow up with the coyotes along the Pecos. He soon learned the coyote lan¬ guage, and used to hunt with them, and sit on the hills and howl at night. Being so young when he got lost, he always thought he was a coyote. "One day, when he was about ten years old, a cow¬ boy came along just when Bill had matched a fight with two grizzly bears. Bill hugged the bears to death, tore off a hind leg and was just settin' down to breakfast when this cow-boy loped up and asked him what he meant by runnin' around naked that way among the varmints." Bill told him that he was a varmint—a coyote. He pointed out to the cowman that he had fleas and howled around all night, like a respectable coyote. This, the cow-boy explained to him, was no proof since all Texans had fleas and most of them howled. He finally convinced the boy that he was a human being and not a coyote. "Bill went to town with the cow-hand, and in due time he got to enjoy in' all the pleasant vices of man¬ kind, and decided that he certainly was a human. He got to runnin' with the wild bunch and sunk lower and lower, until he became a cow-boy." HIS HORSE WIDOW MAKER Bill had many horses. Most of them could outrun a streak of lightnin', then double back and outrun the next streak. His favorite mount was a horse he called Widow Maker. No one but Pecos Bill was ever known to ride him successfully. The cemeteries down there in the old longhorn country are crowded with the graves of the cowboys who tried. Bill had raised this colt himself on nitroglycerine and dynamite. This probably accounted for his high spirits and tem¬ per. He used to say he had raised him by hand, and showed a hand minus several digits to prove it. When he wanted Widow Maker to give a special perform¬ ance he fed him a skyrocket, a pin-wheel, or a Roman candle or two. Bonebreaker was another of Bill's cow ponies. Ridin' him, as some found to their dis¬ comfort, was like divin' head-foremost into a thresh- in' machine. Hoof-prints of some of Bill's ponies can be seen imprinted in the rock in a number of places in Arizona. Ride him, you cowboy thar, ride him,! Say, you are shore on some hoss! Keep on a settin' astride him 'Till he has larn't who is boss! —F. W. Lafrentz in "Cowboy Stuff"
Object Description
Page Title | Folklore Pamphlets, 1921-1945 |
Author | Brown, Charles E. (Charles Edward), 1872-1946 |
Place of Publication | Madison, Wis. |
Source Creation Date | 1921-1945 |
Language | English |
Digital Format | XML |
Electronic Publisher | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Rights | We believe that online reproduction of this material is permitted because its copyright protection has lapsed or because sharing it here for non-profit educational purposes complies with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Teachers and students are generally free to reproduce pages for nonprofit classroom use. For advice about other uses, or if you believe that you possess copyright to some of this material, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. |
Electronic Publication Date | 2006 |
Digital Identifier | TP423000 |
Description |
Charles E. Brown (1872-1946) was curator of the Museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and secretary of the Wisconsin Archaeological Society. He also collected a substantial body of folklore on Wisconsin Indians, lumbering, steamboating, local history, and related topics which he published in pamphlet form. Brown created these pamphlets for the Wisconsin Archaeological Society, the Wisconsin Folklore Society, courses he taught during University of Wisconsin summer sessions, and simply as privately published booklets for the amusement of his friends and colleagues. Most are only 4-8 pages long. In the printed booklets, Brown did not usually cite sources for the tales, but his correspondence and research notes are available in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives in boxes 2-10 of Wis Mss HB.
The links below will open a collection of 47 pamphlets totaling 444 pages that were issued between 1921 and 1945 (all that are known to exist). They have been grouped loosely according to subject and appear in the following order: Native American Folklore: Indian Folk Lore (1921), Moccasin Tales (1935), Birchbark Tales (1941), Lake Mendota Indian Legends (1927), Indian Flower Toys and Games (1931), Lake Mendota: Prehistory, History and Legends (1933), Winabozho, Hero-God of the Indians of the Old Northwest (1944), Indian Star Lore (1930), Wigwam Tales (1930) Lumbering and Logging: Paul Bunyan Tales (1922; revised editions, 1927 and 1929), Paul Bunyan and Tony Beaver Tales (1930), Paul Bunyan, American Hercules (1937), Paul Bunyan Classics (1945), Paul Bunyan Natural History (1935), Flapjacks from Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty (1941), Brimstone Bill (1942), Johnny Inkslinger (1944), Bunyan Bunkhouse Yarns (1945), Shanty Boy (1945), Ole Olson (1945), Sourdough Sam (1945) Other Wisconsin & American Folklore: Ghost Tales (1931), The Ridgeway Ghost (1943), "Cousin Jack" Stories (1940; Cornish folklore), Prairie Stories (1934), Whiskey Jack Yarns (1940; river rafting folklore), Old Man River (1940), Sea Serpents (1942), Bluenose Brainerd Stories (1943), Bear Tales (1944), Ben Hooper Tales (1944), Hermits (1945), Lost Treasure Tales (1945), Flower Toys and Games (1923), Insect Lore (1929), Cowboy Tales (1929), Little Stories about George Washington (1932), Gems: Magic, Mystery and Myths of Precious Stones (1932), Old Stormalong Yarns (1933), Cloud Lore (1935), Gypsy Lore (1935), Flower Lore (1938), The Trees of the Campus (1925), Wisconsin Indians (1933), French Pathfinders of Wisconsin (1934) |
Owner | Wisconsin Historical Society Library |
Format | Text |
Recommended Citation | Use the bibliographic data on the cover or title page of each individual pamphlet, concluding with the phrase Online facsimile at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1622 |
Document Number | TP423 |
Size | 46 items ; 19-28 cm. |
URL | http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1622 |
Owner Collection | Pamphlet Collection; Pamphlets in Rare Book Collection |
Genre | pamphlet; |
State/Province | Wisconsin |
Sub-Topic | Mid-19th century Immigration; Development of the Railroads; Early U.S. Settlement; Farming and Rural Life; The French Fur Trade; Great Lakes Steamships and Canals; Lead Mining in SOuthwestern Wisconsin; Lumbering and Forest Products; |
Art | Folklore |
Education | University of Wisconsin |
Type | Text |
Description
Page Title | Page 6 |
Author | Brown, Charles E. (Charles Edward), 1872-1946; |
Place of Publication | Madison, Wis. |
Source Publisher | C.E. Brown |
Source Creation Date | 1929 |
Language | English |
Digital Format | JPG |
Electronic Publisher | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Rights | We believe that online reproduction of this material is permitted because its copyright protection has lapsed or because sharing it here for non-profit educational purposes complies with the Fair Use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Teachers and students are generally free to reproduce pages for nonprofit classroom use. For advice about other uses, or if you believe that you possess copyright to some of this material, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. |
Electronic Publication Date | 2006 |
Digital Identifier | TP423333 |
Owner | Wisconsin Historical Society Library |
Format | Text |
Size | 16 p. ; 23 x 11 cm. |
Owner Collection | Pamphlet Collection |
Owner Object ID | 73- 2286 |
Genre | pamphlet; |
Full Text | 6 Cowboy Tales 4= : : "When Bill was about a year old, another family moved into the country and located about fifty miles down the river. His father decided the place was gettin' too crowded and packed his family into a wagon and moved west. One day, after they had crossed the Pecos River, Bill fell out of the wagon. As there were sixteen or seventeen other children in the family, his parents didn't miss him for four or five weeks, and then it was too late to find him. "That's how Bill came to grow up with the coyotes along the Pecos. He soon learned the coyote lan¬ guage, and used to hunt with them, and sit on the hills and howl at night. Being so young when he got lost, he always thought he was a coyote. "One day, when he was about ten years old, a cow¬ boy came along just when Bill had matched a fight with two grizzly bears. Bill hugged the bears to death, tore off a hind leg and was just settin' down to breakfast when this cow-boy loped up and asked him what he meant by runnin' around naked that way among the varmints." Bill told him that he was a varmint—a coyote. He pointed out to the cowman that he had fleas and howled around all night, like a respectable coyote. This, the cow-boy explained to him, was no proof since all Texans had fleas and most of them howled. He finally convinced the boy that he was a human being and not a coyote. "Bill went to town with the cow-hand, and in due time he got to enjoy in' all the pleasant vices of man¬ kind, and decided that he certainly was a human. He got to runnin' with the wild bunch and sunk lower and lower, until he became a cow-boy." HIS HORSE WIDOW MAKER Bill had many horses. Most of them could outrun a streak of lightnin', then double back and outrun the next streak. His favorite mount was a horse he called Widow Maker. No one but Pecos Bill was ever known to ride him successfully. The cemeteries down there in the old longhorn country are crowded with the graves of the cowboys who tried. Bill had raised this colt himself on nitroglycerine and dynamite. This probably accounted for his high spirits and tem¬ per. He used to say he had raised him by hand, and showed a hand minus several digits to prove it. When he wanted Widow Maker to give a special perform¬ ance he fed him a skyrocket, a pin-wheel, or a Roman candle or two. Bonebreaker was another of Bill's cow ponies. Ridin' him, as some found to their dis¬ comfort, was like divin' head-foremost into a thresh- in' machine. Hoof-prints of some of Bill's ponies can be seen imprinted in the rock in a number of places in Arizona. Ride him, you cowboy thar, ride him,! Say, you are shore on some hoss! Keep on a settin' astride him 'Till he has larn't who is boss! —F. W. Lafrentz in "Cowboy Stuff" |
Type | Text |