Charlie Rutledge

DESCRIPTION: "Another jolly cowboy has gone to meet his fate. We hope he'll find a resting place inside the Golden Gate." Charlie Rutledge is the third man to die on the XIT range. One of the cattle tries to escape, Charlie heads it off; in the confusion, Charlie dies
AUTHOR: Words: D. J. O'Malley
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Miles City, Montana Stock Grower's Journal)
KEYWORDS: death cowboy horse
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 1, pp. 27-31, "Charlie Rutledge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 430-431, "Charlie Rutledge" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CHRLRTLG*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 73-100, "D. J. 'Kid' O'Malley, Cowboy Poet" (1 text, the original, on pp. 84-85)
Roud #8024
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Charlie Rutlage
A Cowboy's Death
NOTES [83 words]: D. J. O'Malley is also credited with "The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot)" [Laws B27], which also appeared in the Miles Ciry journal in the 1890s, and a number of other cowboy poems.
For background on O'Malley (and some prints from the Miles City newspaper), see the John I. White article cited in the ADDITIONAL references. On p. 83, White says that O'Malley's original title was "A Cowboy's Death"; it was based on "The Lakes of Ponchartrain." O'Malley signed it with the initials D. J. W. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Logs001

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