The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1879-01-30
IN. Y. Herald.1
Gander Pulling.
NEWTON, Ala, Dec. %, 1S7

NEWTON, Ala, Dec. %, 1878.
How the hardy sons of the backwoods
spent Christmas may be to the student of
the kaleidoscope panorama of human
life question replete with interest and
not devoid of value. The sum of human
accomplishments consists not alone of
steam engines, printing presses, regula-
tion Congressional speeches and elevated
railways, but is largely shaped by the
great social question, What shall we do
to kill time? This question is asked by
the petted darlings of fortune, by the re-
cluse in his hermitage and even by the
general, who pharaphrases the question
by calling for "Blucher or night" but all
this tendency to monopoly by each per-
son does not prevent the butternut from
asking the same momentous question
and solving it in his own SUI ge,sris way.
1t has been we'll known for quite an age
that the American backwoodsman is a
queer specimen of compound Independ-
ence, good sense, folly, generosity and
loyalty to convictions. One has but to
flush" his acquaintance at the country
cross-road grocery or the shooting match
to see all the aboriginal peculiarities of
each person standing out as openly OBJ
truded as the "quills upon the fretful
porcupine," and as likely to prick super
sensitive people. Cooper has left his
statue of the frontiersman standing out
clearly against the background of his age,
with outlines softened by that generous
prejudice that kills half of truth in the
transition from life to history until it
wears veil Of poesy and romance. What
ever may be said of the truth of his por
traiture of the man of his day it will be
readily admitted that the frontiersman
or backwoodsman of to day is cast in diff
ferent moulds.
UNIQUE INVITATION.
Such thoughts as the above were in
NV mind on Christmas Day, as rode
along the public road toward country
grocery situated at the forks of two roads,
in what is popularity called by politicians
the "wiregrass" section of Alabama
had been duly invited by an ex,parson,
who kept the grocery and dispensed
"tough leg and "Old Robinson County"
whiskeys to the tipplers of the neighbor-
hood, to attend a rare revival of a pas
time once prominent in the sport of
North Carolina 100 years ago-a "gdnder
pulling" His invitation ran as follows ::
My Dearly Beloved Sur:
Thou art respectfully invited to attend an
ancestral gander pullin', at my premises on the
25th inst, &c.
That expression, ancestral gander
pullin" struck me, and when I was as
sured by a neighbor that they would
have ''rale riproaring time concluded
to go.
PECULIAR CROWD.
AS SOLITARY horseman" I wended my
way toward the scene of this queer cele-
bration of the birth of this man of Naza-
reth. Upon my arrival, about eleven
O clock in the forenoon, found crowd
of some fifty gathered around blazing
fire of pine knots in front of the grog-
gery and scattered over the premises
| One noticeable popularity obtruding itself
proprio vigore was the way they disposed
of their hands They either Whitfield or
| left their hands to repose with sublime
placidity deep down in the profound
mysteries of their trousers pockets
When 1 approached the group around
the pine knots a score of voices greeted
me with:
Hello, Squire, come to pull the gan
der ?" Come up and warm" Give fell
ler YOUR paw" and the like, and followed
by handshaking as universal as Kear-
news deuunciation of the 'bloated bond
holder" each one followed by plunge
of the hand back into the profound
depth of the pantaloons pocket. The air
was damp, heavy and chilly, and the
wind drove the black, SCOT ladened
smoke from the knots in eddying puffs in
all directions and drilted heavily away
among the pine boughs. From all direc
tions citizens were coming in all on
horseback, and after hitching to the
trees and saplings in the vicinity, "corned
up" at the bar, and gathering about the
fire discussed the chances Of the 'pullin', "
as they called it, Old men, young men
and boys, white and black, were there
and all seemed absorbed in this one great
question, and for the time forgot theil
hands, which reposed safely in theii
deepest pockets
AN EX-REVEREND BARTENDER.
Passing into the barroom | was in tht
presence of the functionary of the place
and the occasion. The room was rude
affair, being The smallest of single pine
log huts, clapboards on top, cracks cellee
with the same, rude fireplace, in which
a pile of knots blazed and roared; a boz