| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Pecos Tom | | By N. Howard Thorp |
| | From “Cowboy Songs”
WHERE the old Fort Sumner Barracks look down on the Pecos wide, | |
| In a dug-out near the crossin’ we was a-sittin’ side by side. | |
| Old Pecos Tom, the cow-man, en your humble servant me, | |
| Was a-swappin’ cow-camp stories in the fall of Eighty-three, | |
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| When my gaze it sorter fastened on a gun slung on his side, | 5 |
| Worth some fifteen thousand dollars—say, maybe you think I’ve lied? | |
| But the handle was plumb covered with diamonds of all size, | |
| En she’d glitter, en she’d glisten, es she hung down from his side. | |
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| You could have bought his whole darned outfit fer a yearlin’ steer or two; | |
| Hat, boots, overalls, en chaps—there was nothin’ that was new. | 10 |
| Lived down in a dug-out, on jus’ sour-dough bread en beef, | |
| En was just about es happy es a Choctaw Indian chief. | |
| |
| Figured he had ten thousand cattle en the whole wide range was his, | |
| En if he wanted a good six-shooter it was no one else’s biz. | |
| So when he shipped a train er steers to Chicago late one fall, | 15 |
| En was strollin’ on up State Street, he thought he’d make a call | |
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| On the biggest jewelry outfit, that kept gaudy things to wear. | |
| But when he asked for a six-shooter the Jew clerk began to stare: | |
| “Yes, we’ve got one that was ordered for a bloomin’ English lord, | |
| But I reckon from your outfit it’s a gun you can’t afford. | 20 |
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| “It will cost you fifteen thousand.” Says Old Tom, “Just give her here, | |
| You counter-jumpin’ goniff!” En he grabbed him by the ear, | |
| En he peeled off fifteen thousand to the Hebrew standing there, | |
| Sayin’, “Don’t judge western cow-men by the outfits that they wear!” | | | | |
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