Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-04-16
THE Jumping FRENCHMEN
Peculisrlties of a Wonderful People in til
State of Maine.

Pecu1isrlties of a Wonderful People in thu
State of Maine.
Probably every drummer of 81,
months experience on the road has
seen or heard of the little travel-worr
man who has been selling trusses fol
nearly score of years. His territory
is the United States, and there is hard
" town of 200 inhabitants or over in
the country that he has not visited
again and again. On his return to
New York a few days ago a reporter
called on him to get the story of some
of his experiences. 81 have just come
from part of the country that I had
never before seen," he said, ''and
have now something to talk about that
/ had always believed was the running
down story of wound-up drummer.
I have often seen Shakers and Quakers,
Dunkers and Mormons. Creoles and
Oneida people, poor whites and clay
eaters, the funny Dutch of parts OF
Pennsylvania, and many other sects or
classes that differ from the ordinary
run of mankind; but as a genuine curl
osity of human nature there is nothing
to equal the jumping Frenchmen of the
Aroostook in the northwestern corner
of Maine. I first heard of these people
from a travelling man who years ago
was on the same route / have just been
over. He was driving along one day
with friend, followed by two French
men in the rude kind of cutter common
to that region. Coming to little
.thank-you-ma' am, or rut in the road.
which he had not noticed, he was sud-
denly pitched out of the sleigh head
foremost into the deep snow. He
jumped up laughing, but was aston
ished to see one of the Frenchmen
pitch out of the cutter in precisely the
same way and jump up laughing, as he
had done. It was plain case OF MINI
icry, and he was more puzzled than
ever when the Frenchmen rode by with
scowls on their faces. This was COM
mon kind of incident in the life of the
Frenchman, and he could not have re-
strained himself had his life depended
upon his not following exactly the &C
ton of my surprised friend.
The Aroostook County and the adj
iacent parts of Canada have a popula-
ton made up largely of Frenchmen,
and about one in every four is an imi-
tator, or jumper as he is generally
called. LII is DeIleFeu tndG UneTe IS no
such peculiarly known in any other
part of the world, and no one has yet
given satisfactory explanation of the
queer condition of the nerves of these
people; for it is undoubtedly nervous
affection. saw and heard of many GU
rious antics of jumping Frenchmen. A
large number of the loggers in the
great lumber districts of Northern
Maine are Canadian Frenchmen or half
breeds, and a good proportion of these
are jumpers. While several of the log
gers were at supper seated around a
long table the opportunity was taken
advantage of to show their popularity.
Thevisitors slipped into the room quiet
ly and one of them pointed his fore
finger to a spot on the ceiling and
hoarsely whispered 'Sh-h-h' SO it could
be heard by all. In an instant nearly
every Frenchman dropped his knife,
Jumped to his feet and in exactly the
same attitude pointed to the spot on
the ceiling and cried 'Sh-h-h, in the
same rough, mysterious way. The
sight of all these gh-looking men
acting like so many dummies on wires
was ludicrpus enough, and it was
almost impossible to keep from
laughing. The effect wore off in a