Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads

<p class="tit-song">SILVER JACK<SPAN id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></SPAN><SPAN href="#footnote7">[7]</SPAN> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page332" name="page332"></SPAN>(p. 332)</span></p> <p>I was on the drive in eighty<br/> Working under Silver Jack,<br/> Which the same is now in Jackson<br/> And ain't soon expected back,<br/> And there was a fellow 'mongst us<br/> By the name of Robert Waite;<br/> Kind of cute and smart and tonguey<br/> Guess he was a graduate.</p> <p>He could talk on any subject<br/> From the Bible down to Hoyle,<br/> And his words flowed out so easy,<br/> Just as smooth and slick as oil,<br/> He was what they call a skeptic,<br/> And he loved to sit and weave<br/> Hifalutin' words together<br/> Tellin' what he didn't believe.</p> <p>One day we all were sittin' round<br/> Smokin' nigger head tobacco<br/> And hearing Bob expound;<br/> Hell, he said, was all a humbug,<br/> And he made it plain as day<br/> That the Bible was a fable;<br/> And <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page333" name="page333"></SPAN>(p. 333)</span> we lowed it looked that way.<br/> Miracles and such like<br/> Were too rank for him to stand,<br/> And as for him they called the Savior<br/> He was just a common man.</p> <p>"You're a liar," someone shouted,<br/> "And you've got to take it back."<br/> Then everybody started,&mdash;<br/> 'Twas the words of Silver Jack.<br/> And he cracked his fists together<br/> And he stacked his duds and cried,<br/> "'Twas in that thar religion<br/> That my mother lived and died;<br/> And though I haven't always<br/> Used the Lord exactly right,<br/> Yet when I hear a chump abuse him<br/> He's got to eat his words or fight."</p> <p>Now, this Bob he weren't no coward<br/> And he answered bold and free:<br/> "Stack your duds and cut your capers,<br/> For there ain't no flies on me."<br/> And they fit for forty minutes<br/> And the crowd would whoop and cheer<br/> When Jack spit up a tooth or two,<br/> Or when Bobby lost an ear.</p> <p>But at last Jack got him under<br/> And he slugged him onct or twict,<br/> And <span class="pagenum"><SPAN id="page334" name="page334"></SPAN>(p. 334)</span> straightway Bob admitted<br/> The divinity of Christ.<br/> But Jack kept reasoning with him<br/> Till the poor cuss gave a yell<br/> And lowed he'd been mistaken<br/> In his views concerning hell.</p> <p>Then the fierce encounter ended<br/> And they riz up from the ground<br/> And someone brought a bottle out<br/> And kindly passed it round.<br/> And we drank to Bob's religion<br/> In a cheerful sort o' way,<br/> But the spread of infidelity<br/> Was checked in camp that day.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />