Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-12-14
THE LOWER CANADIAN,
A Model of Thrift who DwelIs in the Queens
Dominions.
[From the December Atlantic1

Model of Thrift who DwelIs in the Queen's
Dominons.
From the December Atlantic.l
The inhabitant is model of thrift.
He grows his own tobacco, makes his
own " beef moccasins, and manufac-
lures his own whisky. His wife spins
the wool out of which is made J. etouffe
du pays, kind of frieze, in which he
clothes himself His house is a picture
OF neatness. The outside is wbitewashed
at least twice year; the inside is swept
and garnished until it is as bright as
new pin. The floor of pine boards is
scrubbed and sanded every day. The
walls are hung with pictures, somewhat
gaudy as to color, of the pope, st.
Cecilia, ST. Joseph and st. Anne, and
photographs of the parish priest and of
the children who are away in New Eng
land or Minnesota. Over the broad fire
place, in which huge logs blaze in winter
time hangs the family .fusil, the old
tilnt-lock sire carried under Mont
calm, and now used to kill an occasional
bear and to fire a fen de ,jo5e on st. Jean
Baptiste day and other great occasions.
Near it are medals brought from Rome
by the priest or the bishop, and the
rosary that has come down as an heir
loom in the family. The house is dec
grated with sampler work of saints and
angels, for which the women are famed
crucifix hangs above the .fusiI, and in
settlements near church the house is
always supplied with holy water. The
patriarch of the family sits in the ingle-
neuk, putting blasts of smoke from his
long pipe up the believing chimney, and
sporting the togue, an old-fashioned red
night cap with brilliant tassel, which
his fathers before him wore under the
ancien regime. The good wife in
na0aat0Iet of calico skirt of homespun
blue, and neat Norman cap, is at the
spinning wheel; the eldest daughter,
soon to marry the honest husbandman
IN the next clearing, is weaving her
Linen outfit at hand-loom. The pot
in which the pea-soup, the pile
dish, is made, is gurgling on the fire;
smaller pot contains the pork; and in
the gulf parishes the tiuade, composed
of alternate layers of pork and Goldfish,
is still the piece de resistance. The bed
rooms are furnished with old-fashioned
bedsteads, covered with patch work
quilts of cunning and patient workman
ship. Here, too, are pictures of the
Madonna and ST. Ignatius, and small
plaster figure of the great Napoleon,
meditating with folded arms on the
cliffs of ST. Helena; Dough of palm
blessed at Eastertide; holy water, a
specific against lightning; and the
snow-shoes on which the inhabitants
visits his little kingdom of eighty or
one hundred arpents in the long winter
season. The housewife bottles an infn-
tie variety of preserves in the fall,
raspberries, blueberries, blackberries,
huckleberries and other Wild fruits
which the bush and the swamps yield in
abundance; and in the spring the ma
pies furnish a sweet harvest of sugar.
When the defrdcheur comes in from the
woods on a cold evening, he fortifes
himself with draught of the mordant
whisky; the blessing of God is asked
on the more substantial repast, and he
falls to O valiant trencherman, twith an
appetite as keen as his ak. The bon
homme gets out his rosin and his bow,
the lads and lassies come in from the
neighboring farm houses, and as Long
fellow has it of the Acadians in "Evan-
geline":
'Gayly the old man sings to the vibrant sound of
his fiddle.
Tous les Bourgeois de Charities and de Carlton de
Dunkerque."
The dances of the olden time still
hold their own in the country districts.
The cotinious, the gigues, the galopades,
the minuets, the danses rondes and the
ancient ballads, the Claire Fontaine
and the En- Roulant are ever new. At
10 o'clock the grandfather puts away
his fiddle and reverently gives his
blessing to the company, which now
disperses, to be up and at work by
the first peep of morning.