The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-03-14
a GEORGIA conN-sHuoKINo.


The life aud humor of this autumn festi-
val, at the South, are described BY David @.
Barrow, Jr., in the Century, and are also
Illustrated by several character sketches:
The farmer who proposes to give corn.
shocking selects level spot in his lot, con-
Veniently near the crib rakes away all trash
and sweeps the place clean with brush
broom. The corn is then pulled off the
stalks, thrown into wagons, hauled to the
lot, and thrown out ON tie spot selected, all
in one pile. If it has been previously mo.
rated" through the neighborhood that there
is to be plenty to eat and drink at the corn.
shocking, and if the night is suspicious,
there will certainly be crowd. Soon after
dark the negroes begin to come in, and be-
fore long the place will be alive with them.
--men, women, and children. After the
crowd has gathered and been moderately
warmed up, two gin'rls are chosen from
among the most famous corn-shuchers on
the ground, and these proceed to divide the
shuckers into two parties, later comers re.
porting alternately to one side or the other,
SO as to keep the forcos equally divided.
The next step, which is one Of great impor-
lance, is to divide the compile. This Is
done by laying fence-rail across the top of
the compile, so that the vertical plane. pass
ing through the rail- will divide the pile into
two equal portions. Laying tho rail is of
great Importance, since upon this depends
the accuracy of the division it is accom-
panied with much argument, not to say
wrangling. The position of the raii being
determined, the two generals moant the
Compile and the work begins The neces-
sity for the 'ginr'ls 10 occupy the most
conspicuous position accessible, from which
to cheer their followers is one reason why
they get up on top of the corn but there il
another, equally important, which is to keep
the rail from being moved, 1t being no I'M
common thing for one side to change the
position of the rail, and thus throw an undue
portion of the work upon their adversaries.
The position Of "gin'r'l" in a eorn-shuekei
differs from that of the soldier, in that the
former is in greater danger than any of his
followers for the chances are that, should
his side seem to lie gaining, one of their OPP.
ponents will knock the leader off the corn
pile, and thus cause n momentary panic,
which is eagerly taken advantage of. This
proceeding, however, is considered fair only
in extreme cases, and not unfrequently leatls
10 general row. If it is possible, Imagine
a negro man standing up on pile of corn,
holding in his hand an ear of corn, and
shouting the words of song below. and yon
will have pictured the 'corn gir$.'l." 1t is
prime requisite that he should be ready in
his appropriations aud have a good voice.
so that he may lead in the corn-song. The
corn-song is almost always song with
chorus, or to use the language of corn-shuck-
ers, the "gin'r'ls give oat,' and the shuck-
ers "drone." These songs are kept up con-
tinuously during the entire time the work is
going on, and though extremely simple, yet,
when sung by fifty pairs of lusty lnngs, there
are few things more stirring.