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As I walked out on the streets of Laredo
As I walked out on Laredo one day
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

'I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy'
These words he did say as I boldly walked by
'Come an' sit down beside me an' hear my sad story
I'm shot in the breast an' I know I must die'

'It was once in the saddle
I used to go dashing
Once in the saddle
I used to go gay
First to the card-house
And then down to Rose's
But I'm shot in the breast
And I'm dying today'

'Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin
Six dance hall maidens to bear up my pall
Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin
Roses to deaden the clods as they fall'

'Then beat the drum slowly
Play the fief lowly
Play the dead march
As you carry me along
Take me to the green valley
Lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cowboy
And I know I've done wrong'

'Then go write a letter to my gray-haired mother
An' tell her the cowboy that she loved has gone
But please not one word of the man who had killed me
Don't mention his name and his name will pass on'

When thus he had spoken
The hot sun was setting
The streets of Laredo
Grew cold as the clay
We took the young cowboy
Down to the green valley
And there stands his marker
We made to this day

We beat the drum slowly
And played the fief lowly
Played the dead march
As we carried him along
Down in the green valley
Laid the sod o'er him
He was a young cowboy
And he said he'd done wrong