Buffalo Skinners

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 range of the buffalo

Great, I found myself in Griffin

In 1883

When a man the name of Crego

Came walking up to me

He said, "How do you do, young fellow

And how'd you like to go

And spend summer pleasant

On the range of the buffalo?"

Well, of course I pay good wages

I pay transportation, too

If you'll agree to work for me

Until the season's through

But if you do get homesick

And you try to run away

You'll starve to death

Out on the trail and also lose your pay

All the flattering talking

We sat, a crowded train

Of ten or twelve in number

Of able-bodied men

And the trip, it was a pleasant one

Through all New Mexico

Until we crossed Pease River

On the range of the buffalo

It was there our pleasures ended

And our troubles all begun

A lightening storm came on us

And made the cattle run

We got full of the stickers

On the cactus that did grow

And the outlaws came to pick us off

In the hills of Mexico

Yeah, the hills of Mexico

Well, the working season ended

And the drover would not pay

He said, "You lost your money, boy

You're all in debt to me"

But the cowboys never put much stock

On a thing like bankrupt law

So we left the bastard's bones to bleach

On the range of the buffalo