Cowboy Songs and Dances
This is an excerpt-- the dance part; a later song section is omitted-- from an article that includes the author's experiences at a cowboy dance in 1903. The author includes typical patter heard at the dances.
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"The dances have an originality all their own. "There's a dance over to Small's a Tuesday" is the common form of invitation to these events, and the word is passed along. Every one is welcome, and unless unavoidably detained, young and old within a radius of fifty miles attend. No social line is drawn in this part of the West; the " help " and the ranchman's wife are "opposite ladies." Cowboy dances last from sunset to sunrise ; the music is furnished by a Mexican fiddler, or occasionally by one of the cowboys on a jews'-harp, with which most of them are quite proficient. They confine themselves to square dances, with a very occasional waltz."
Subjects: Traditional Western (pre-1940)
Tags: cowboy, Grace Ward, New Mexico
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: "The Texas Cattle Country and Cowboy Square Dance" – Olcutt Sanders |
| This Item | is related to | Item: "Partners To Your Places |
| This Item | is related to | Item: At the Keith Ranch (1893) |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Cowboy Dance (1923 article) |
| Item: Balance and Swing | is related to | This Item |
Citation
Dublin Core
Title
Subject
Description
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"The dances have an originality all their own. "There's a dance over to Small's a Tuesday" is the common form of invitation to these events, and the word is passed along. Every one is welcome, and unless unavoidably detained, young and old within a radius of fifty miles attend. No social line is drawn in this part of the West; the " help " and the ranchman's wife are "opposite ladies." Cowboy dances last from sunset to sunrise ; the music is furnished by a Mexican fiddler, or occasionally by one of the cowboys on a jews'-harp, with which most of them are quite proficient. They confine themselves to square dances, with a very occasional waltz."