The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-09
THE OLD CAMP MEETING AND
THE SHUCKING OF THE CORN
A Story of Federal Point a Pretty Girl and Tub
of Founders With the
Pilots.
Pilots.

tney OSeu 10 nolQ cafnp-neellHSS IL
my young days, and have big corr
stockings, SOW wheat, and begin tc
get ready for winter, by taking the
leather out of the tan trough, curryins
and working it, preparatory to making
shoes for we bare-footed boys, who
had been shoeless all summer.
How many memories the old-tlme
camp-meetings bring up! There are
the rows of log tents, forming a hol-
low square. and there is the large
bush arbor, underneath which is a
pulpit and an altar; and, arranged
around are enough seats to accommo-
date a thousand people, who come
from all directions to spend a week
i'm the old time way of preaching
singing and shouting.
Usually there would be at those
meetings a half dozen preachers and
quite as many exhorters; and from
the time the bugle announced the first
service until the meeting came to a
final close, the old hill would be 4
lively and noisy place. Such preach
ing, such singing and such shouting
would, if heard now, shock latter day
saints. who are not used to such
things; but, they were all right, in
that day and time. A man or woman
might shout as much and as loud as
he or she pleased and it was consid-
cred all right. But 1 fear if one got
OPP Il shout now he'd be laughed at,
by some of the young folks who never
went to camp meeting.
! used to love to go to camp-meet-
ings for several reasons. In the first
place, as a young man, 1 expected to
meet a. great many pretty girls, and
have a good time with them; and l
Early loved to attend the many SER
vices. hear the preaching and singing.
as well as the shouting. And then
there was so much good eating and
such pleasant company to be enjoyed.
l had a good time, from start to finish,
and was always sorry when the meet
ing breke up, and we had to separate.
The MethCdists started the camp
meetings, and the first one they held
i'm North Carolina was in 1902, on the
land of Rev. John Doub, in Davidson
county; from which time until the
war of 1861 they were held in almost
every county especially in the middle
and western sections of the State: and
they We're cyclones of religious power,
doing more to popularize and build w.
the Methodist denomination than any
ether single agency.
Why not have camp meetings now?
They are out of style. Things have
q anged most wonderfully in the last
fifty years, and, whether for better or
worse, q will not undertake to de-
cide). our people have substituted for
them "protracted meetings" which
are generally held after the crop is
laid by" or between fodder pulling
and cotton picking.
The tobacco business came we'll nigh
breaking up the protracted meetings,
for. right in the time that they had
formerly been held, the tobacco had
to be saved; and so, in many localities,
the people came to believe they had
no time for protracted meetings, until
after frost, when the tobacco had 'all
been cured. 1 asked a man in Wilson
county last year when would be the
best time TO hold meeting. He re-
piled about as follows: 1--WE can't hold
meeting in May because we are
mighty busy setting out tobacco; we
can't hold it in June, for that is the
time when crops need most attention
Ii, July we are worming and succor-
ing tobacco, and in July, also. we have
to begin curing. In August we are
still curing. tobacco and pulling fod-
der. In September We work some Of
the tobacco and carry it to market,
sell it and get some money and little
whiskey, and then we don't want any
meeting. because we feel good
enough.
In the old times they had plenty
of time to hold meetings, and. as l re-
member now, they made a plenty to
eat and to wear, and certainly lived
we'll But, in these latter days we are
almost run to death; and, L can't ac-
count for it, only upon the ground
that we try to live like millionalres,
instead of in the old democratic style,
in which our fathers were reared.
mfr 6o
think OF those other autumn days
when, at old Buckhorn Camp Ground,
i'm Chatham county, and at Soapstone
and Hollands, in Wake county. l used
to enjoy weeks of meetings, and every
body seemed to be so happy.
And pretty soon thereafter came the
big corn stockings. One or two hun
red barrels made a pile that lookec
like a mountain; but when fifty or {
hundred negro men got around 1T, anC
the corn-shucking songs beganS the
ears going over the pile toward the
crib would be as thick as bees swarm
ing. 1t was understood that a treat
and a supper would be the reward
when the last ear was shucked and the
shucks were put in pens. The negroe:
did not usually come in till eight OF
nine o'clock, and they generally came
in droves; one of the number giving
out the song, While the others QrOneQ
a sort of chorus When a crowd ar
rived, the captain of that crowd would
mount the corn pile and, with a shuck
in his hat to represent the captains
feather. he would walk from one enc
to the other and give out the holler,
as it was termed. This is about the
way the song went:
Captain: We've come to shuck dis
corn out"
Chorus by all hands: "Shuck boys
shuck."
Captain: sole marster's gwine tc
treat uS!''
Chorus: "Shuck, boys, shuck."
Captain: "Ole mistess is a lady,"
Chorus "Shuck, boys, shuck'
Captain: THE coffee pots a bilin'."
Chorus: "Shuck. boys. shuck."
Captain: 1.-The taters is a bakin'.'
Chorus: "Shuck, boys shuck."
Captain: Boys why don't you send
the corn erlong?"
Chorus: Corn gwine erlong."
Captain: Don't you hit de capting"
Chorus: Corn gwine erlong!''
Captain: 81 smell de meat a fryin''
Chorus: Corn gwine erlong!"
Captain: de white pile is grow
in"
Chorus: Corn gwine erlong.''
Captain: "Hurrah boys, hurrah!"
(bOrnS. "Do corn G Owipa arlOno- -