Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-04-20
A CANADIAN LEGEND.
The Strange Story of the Death of
Father Lacrosse.

The Strange Story of the Death of
Father Lacrosse.
April Atlantic
An eclipse Of the sun or moon alarms
the habitant, who has heard from the
fathers and the old man before them
Of the signs and tokens that preceded
the great earthquake of 1868. Father
Hierosme Lalemant says that in the
fall of 1862 fiery serpents were seen in
the heavens, and ball Of fire rushed
from the moon, and, with noise like
thunder, burst and fell behind Mount
Royal. On Jan. z, 1868, three suns
and a rainbow appeared, and on Feb.
5. at P. NJ, the firts shock was felt of
the earthquake that shook Lower Can
ada for six months. The year 1856 is
known as the year of great darkness.
the earth on two Sundays, Oct. 9 and Oct.
10, having been enveloped in s'fiery yell
low atmosphere" On April IL, 1882,
tradition says darkness prevailed on
the Saguenay river, the heavens
mourning for the death of Jesuit,
Father Jean Baptiste Lacrosse, who
died at Tadousac on that day. The
story Of the miracles wrought when
that good man died, as told by DR..
Tache in his "Foresters ct Voyageurs."
and py PAbbe Casgrain in "Un
Pelerinage la Ile-au- Couders," is a
characteristic gulf legend. Father
Lacrosse was native of Poitou. He
arrived at Quebec in 1854, and for
nearly thirty years preached the Cos
pei to white men and Indians along
the st. Lawrence and down in the
wilds of Acadia. On the night of his
death he was at the house of an officer
of the trading-post at Tadousac, and,
although nearly 20 years old, appeared
to be as strong and hearty as man of
40. He was tall and robust, and his
long white hair and sanity face made
him look every inch an apostle. At 9
2. M. he rose, and in solemn tones told
his friends that the hour of his death was
at hand. At midnight he should die,
and the church bell of Tadousac would
announce the news to his Indian chill
dren, who were camped there for the
spring trade in peltries, and to all
the gulf. He babe the company fare
well, charging them, as he left the
house. to 60 to Ile-aux Coudres and
bring Father Complain, the cure, to
give his body Christian sepulture. The
party sat in silence, listening for the
bells, which on the stroke of midnight
began to toll. The village was aroused,
and the people hurried to the chapel.
and there, before the altar, lay the old
Jesuit, dead. They watched by the
corpse until daylight, when the post
officer ordered four men to take a
canoe and go to Ile-aux- Coudres. A
fearful storm was raging in the gulf,
and ice foes almost choked the wide
expanse of water. "Fear not" said
the officer to the fishermen; "Father
Lacrosse will protect you" They
launched the canoe, and great was
their surprise to find that, while the
tempest howled and the waves and the
ice seethed like caldron on each side
OF them, a peaceful channel was
formed by some invisible hand for
their craft. They reached Ile-aux-
Coudres-over sixty miles, as the crow
flies, from Tadousac-without accident.
Father Complain was standing on the
Cliff, and, as they neared the shore, he
cried out: "Father Lacrosse is dead and
you have come to take me to Tadousac to
bury him?" How did he know this J?
The night previous he was sitting alone
in his house, reading his breviary.
When suddenly the bell in the church
dedicated to st. Louis) began to toll.
He ran down to the church, but the
doors were locked, and when he opened
them he found no one within and still
the passing bell was tolling. AS he
approached the altar, Father Complain
heard a voice saying: Father
Lacrosse is dead. The bell announces
his departure. Tomorrow do thou
stand at the lower end Of the island
and await the arrival of canoe from
Tadousac. Return with it, and give
him burial" And at all the mission
posts where Father Lacrosse bad
Chicoutimi, Pile Verte,
Trois-Pistoles. Rimouski, and along the
Baie-des. Chaleurs-the bells, of their
own accord, rang out the death of the
old Jesuit at the same hour. And for |
many year, whenever the Indians of
Saguenay visited Tadousac. they made
a pilgrimage to his grave, and whis-
pered to the dead within through a |
hole in the slab of the vault, believing
that he would la, their petitions before |
God.
A Telling Law.
Mr. NhorIao -