The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-09-16
WEDNESDAY,, SEPTEMBER Is, 1891.
BILL ARP.
An Old Time Gander Pulling.


let me venture upon some unoccupled
territory and tell how Cherokee,
Georgia, became the home of that
much-maligned and misunderstood
individual known as the Georgia
cracker. I have lived long in his re-
gion and am close akin to him
There is really but little difference
between the Georgia cracker and the
Alabama or Tennessee cracker. They
all have or had the same origin, and
until the Appalachian range was
opened up to the rest of mankind by
railroads and the schoolhouse these
crackers had ways and usages and a
language peculiarly their own.
Il will be remembered that until
1885 the Cherokee Indians owned
and occupied this region Of Georgia
the portion lying west of the Chat
tahoochee and north Of the Tallapoo-
So rivers. They were the most peace
able and civilized of all the tribes,
but they were not subject to Georgia
laws, and had many conflicts and dis
turbances with their white nabors.
1t seemed to be the manifest destiny
that they should go. s'Go west, red
man, was the white mans fiat. They
went at the point of the bayonet, and
all their beautiful country was sud-
denly opened by the ingress Of whom
soeyer might come. Georgia had it
surveyed and divided into lots Of
forty and $50 acres, and then made a
lottery and gave every man and wild
ow and orphan child a chance at the
drawing. But the cracker dident
wait for the drawing. The rude, un-
tanned and restless people from the
mountain borders of Georgia and the
Carolinas focked hither to pursue
their wild and fascinating occupation
of hunting and fishing for livei-
hood. They came separately, but
soon assimilated and shared COM
mon interest. There are such spirits
in every community. There are some
right here now who would rather go
up TO Cohutta mountains on a bear
hunt than to go to New York or Paris
for pleasure. I almost would myself,
and I recall the earnest cravings of
my youth to 60 west and find a will
derness, and with my companions live
in nut and kill deer and turkeys,
and sometimes bear and a panther.
But for my town raising and old
field school education I too would
have made very respectable cracker.
This was the class of young mer and
middle-aged that first settled among
these historic hill and valleys and
climbed these mountains and fshed
in these streams. By and by the for
tunate owners of these lands received
their certificates and many of them
came from all parts of the State to
look up their lots and see how much
gold or how much bottom land there
was upon them, but gold was the
principal attraction. The Indians
had found gold and washed it out Of
the creeks and branches and traced
it in small parcels to the white man,
and it was believed that.eyery stream
was lined with golden sand. This
proved an Illusion, and so the squat
ters were not disturbed or else they
bought their titles for song and
then sang sweet home" of their own.
They built their cabins and cleared
their lands and raised their scrub cat
tie, and with their old-fashioned rifles
kept the family in game. Many of
these settlers could read and write,
but in their day there was but little
to read. No newspapers and but few
books we're found by the hunters
friends. Their children grew up the
same way, but what they lacked in cul-
ture they supplied in rough expert
ences and hair-breadth. escapes and
ireside talk, and in the sports that
were either improvised or inherited.
Pony races, gander pullings, shooting
matches, coon huntings, and cuttings
had more attraction than books. How
they got to using such twisted Ian
guage as you'uns and we'uns and In
gums and mout and gwire and all sich
is not known, nor was such talk uni
versal. When such idioms began in
a family they descended and spread out
among the kindred, but it was not
contagious. I know one family
now of very extensive connections
who have folklore of their own, and
it can be traced back to the old an
cestor who died half a century ago.
But these corruptions Of language are
by no means peculiar to the cracker,
for the English cockneys and the gen
uine Yankee have an idiom quite as
eccentric, though they do not realize
it and would not admit it.
The Georgia cracker was merry
hearted, unconcerned, independent
creature, and all he asked was to be
let alone by the laws ana the OUTSIDE
world.
The justice court of his beat was
quite enough limitation for him. He
had far more respect for the old spec
tacled squire than for the highest
court of tie nation. From this home
made tribunal he never appealed un-
til the young lawyers began to figure
in it, and se.iuced him into the mys
teries of the law and the wonderful
performances of the writ of "Sashera
ry." Nevertheless they looked upon
lawyers as suspects and pirasites, and
their descendants have the same opin-
ion still. The old squire was special
ly s:fornent" them, and looked upon