Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-07-27
French.Canadian Peasants,
From the August Harper's. ]

The Frcnch-Canadan peasants are gcncr.
ally rather small, muscular, wcll-knit. They
are dull-lookng, but their rather heavy faces
are not animal and coarse. Even the young
women are very seldom pretty, but they are
all wholesome, modest and unaffected. AS
they advance in life they become stout, and
reach old age with comfortable and placid
expression The beauty of the race seems to
be confined TO the children, who are bright,
robust and cherubc. Thus the people are
externally unpreposessing, but the more
study them the more like them for the quiet
courtesy and perfect simplicity Of their man
ners and their hospitality and uniailng kind
ness. Several types of Canadians were
there, each standing as page of the coun-
try's history. There was the original Cana
dian, the peasant of Normandy and Brittany
just as he was when first landed on the shores
of the st. Lawrence over two hundred years
ago he has kept his material and mental
traits with such extraordinary fidelity that
a Canadian travelling nov in those parts
of France seems to be meeting his
own people. lie is a small, muscular
man of dark complexion, with black eyes, a
round head, rather impervious, and an hon
est face, rather heavy with inertia. He sums
| up the early days of Canada when endir-
ancc and courage of no ordinary stamp were
required to meet the want, the wars and the
hardships of their struggle. And his phc
nomcnal conservatism was not wilt too
strong to preserve his nationality after the
conquest of Canada by race having entirely
opposite tendencies. There also was the Gu
madam with Indian blood he is by no means
a feeble element in the population, in either
numbers or influence. He IS often well
marked with Indian fcaturcs-high checks,
small black eyes and slight beard. The
most characteristic specimens are called "pe-
tits brues. like burned stumps, black, gnar-
| ly aud angular. But now and then you meet
large, fine looking half breeds, with u swar.
| thy complexion warmed with Saxon blood.
There were no women of low character sent
to Canada in the carly days, as there were
to New Orleans and the Antilles the few
women who came sufliced to marry only a
small portion of the colonists so that many
of the gallant Frenchmcn, and later some of
| the Scotch and English, engaged in the fur
| trade, married squaws, and founded legiti-
mate families of half-breeds Thus Indian
| blood became regular portion of the ma
tional body, aud the national policy Of ali-
arce and religious union with the savages
helped the assimilation of Indian traits as
well as of Indian blood. There was also the
Saxon who had become Gaul. There are
Wrights, Blackburns, McPhersons, with blue
eyes and red hair, who can not speak word
OF English and there are Irish tongues roll
ing on their brogue in French. Some of these
strangers to the national body are descend
ants of those English soldiers who mar
ried Canadians and settled here after the
conquest. Others arc orphans that were
taken from some emigrant ships wrecked in
the st. Lawrence. But these stragglers from
the conquering race are now conquered,
made good French Catholics. by the force oi
their environment, and they are lost as dis
tinctive elements, absorbed in the remark
able homogeneous nationality of the French
Canadian people. The finest type of Cana
dian peasant is now rare. He is a descendant
of the pioneer mobiles OF France. After the
conquest (l763) some of these noble families
were too poor TO follow their peers back 10
France they became farmers their facili-
ties for education were very limited, and
their descendants soon sank to the level Of
of the peasantry about them But they have
not forgotten their BIRTH They are COM
manding figures, with features of marked
character, and with much of the pose and
dignity of courters. Some of them, still
preserving the traditions of their sires, re-
ceive you with the msnners prince might
have when in rough disguise.