Backwoods to Border Page: 29
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THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
T.-How am I to get at it?
S.-You can't git at it nary time, till the weather stiffens
down sum. Well, about a mile beyant, you come to a place
whar thur's two roads. You kin take the right-hand ef you
want to, you'll foller it a mile or so, and you'll find its
run out.
You'll then have to come back and try the left, when you
get about two miles on that, you may know you are wrong,
fur they ain't any road thar.
You'll then think you are mighty lucky ef you kin find
the way back to my house, whar you kin come and play
that tune as long as you please.5
TYPE C, VERSION 2
When the Arkansas Gazette celebrated its centennial
on November 20, 1919, an article by C. T. Davis ap-
peared in the special edition. Davis quotes the article
by H. C. Mercer to be discussed below in his considera-
tion of the origin of the story and tune, but reproduces
the dialogue, not as Mercer had given it, but almost
identically as Pope had quoted it.6
TYPE C, VERSION 3
Fred W. Allsopp has included the story in his two-
volume collection of Arkansas folklore. His story, like
Davis's, closely follows Pope.7
TYPE C, VERSION 4
Wayman Hogue, in the story of his youth in Arkan-
sas, which he calls Back Yonder, tells of attending a "free
show" at a refreshment stand where "The Arkansas
Traveler" tune and dialogue were played. His version
shows a repetition of the dialogue in Type C, Version 1,
except that the squatter measures the time he has lived
in that place by the "knot on that tree," a mode of
reckoning similar to the measurement in Type A, Ver-
sion 1, which is by "that mountain thar." When asked
5William F. Pope, Early Days in Arkansas, pp. 325-330.
6C. T. Davis, "The Story of the 'Arkansaw Traveler,'" Arkansas Ga-
zette, Centennial Edition, November 20, 1919, p. 26.
7Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, II, 48-50.29
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Backwoods to Border (Book)
Book about folklore in Texas, including folk songs, ghost stories, Mexican animal tales, anecdotes about lawyers, folklore about Texas plants, riddles and miscellaneous legends. The index begins on page 225.
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Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964. Backwoods to Border, book, 1943; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38306/m1/43/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.