[Ads-l] Most Amazing Cakewalk Fact

Sat Sep 5 20:23:51 UTC 2026

The "New York Tribune" published an extensive description of a calk
wake event in July 1870. The article was clipped by Barry Popik
several years ago. Fred may already know about this citation.

Date: July 20, 1870
Newspaper: New-York Tribune
Newspaper Location: New York, New York
Article: A Negro Festival - The "Cake Walk" at Mount Vernon
Quote Page 8, Column 2 and 3
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/article/new-york-tribune-cake-walk-1870/36090158/

Here is a short excerpt.

[Begin excerpt]
Upon long tables were placed a number of cakes with other
refreshments. The largest of the cakes were those destined as prizes
to the successful walkers. The dark beauty who should be adjudged the
best promenader was to receive the largest cake; the one who made the
next best display would carry off the second cake in size-and so on.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Sep 5, 2026 at 3:43 PM Shapiro, Fred
<00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Peter, this is very interesting.  Does the Annals of Newberry book indicate the time-period he was recollecting ?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Peter Reitan <pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Friday, September 4, 2026 14:51
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Most Amazing Cakewalk Fact
>
> I found a description of the game of walking for the cake, as practiced in Newberry South Carolina, which is about 40 miles from Edgefield.
>
> The description is in a book of recollections of the old times by residents of Newberry, called Annals of Newberry.  The story appears in Part II, first published in 1892, in a recollection by a man named Dr. P. B. Ruff, who died in 1888 (as found in  newspapers.com search).  The book is available on HathiTrust.
>
> Ruff's recollections begin on page 483.  In one part he discusses a place along the Broad River, called the Dutch Fork, which he says was settled almost entirely by Germans.  He says that they were very fond of dancing.  On page 488, he describes a wedding dance tradition which he calls "walking for the cake."
>
> "As soon as the bride and groom were married, which was generally about twelve o'clock, then the young folks would walk for the cake hanging up in the house, nearly as large as a grindstone, with a gold finger ring in its centre.  Each young man would take a partner to walk for the cake, there being generally about a dozen couples.  In walking for the cake they would walk around the house, and the man who started in front had a walking stick in his hand, and when he would get around the house to the place where he started from he would give it to the man next behind him, and he to the next when they again came round, and so on until they heard the firing of a gun, when he, in whose hands the stick then happened to be, won the cake."
>
> This game is similar to a game I've seen described elsewhere, referred to as the "Strauss-Cake," which was also said to be of German origin.  The "Strauss-Cake" game is more like musical chairs.  In the Cooper's Clarksburg Register, February 16, 1853, page 2 (which I found on Chronicling America, also available on newspapers.com), described it as:
>
> "A fine cake is prepared for the occasion, and during the evening the floor of the dancing-room is marked off into squares and each square numbered - one of which is designated as the "Strauss-Number;" a clock is set to strike in a few minutes, and then the company promenade round the room to music, and the couple who happen to be on the Strauss-number at the time the clock strikes, wins the cake. . . .  The custom is of German origin, and contributed no little to the hilarity of the company."
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, September 4, 2026 3:52 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Most Amazing Cakewalk Fact
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Most Amazing Cakewalk Fact
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I forgot to mention the most amazing thing about the cakewalk  evidence.  T=
> he Edgefield, South Carolina mentions of "walking for the cake" are not onl=
> y a quarter-century older than any other cakewalk evidence.  They actually =
> state in the 1840s that the custom was already "ancient" at that time.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
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