Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-27

Louisiana and the great northwest being
then under the dominion Of France the exiles
naturally sought protection under the French
flag. Some took up plantations in Louisiana,
among them Gabriel, the young lover of Evan
geline. with his father. Basil, the blacksmith.
while others went west among the Indians
Evangeline, under the protection of her ever
faithful priest, kept up the search for her lover,
floating down the Ohio river and through the
bayou OF Louisiana in a fiat boat, reaching the
plantation of Basil, the blacksmith to find that
Gabriel her lover, had left the day before in
pursuit OF her. Year after year she continued
the. search, often near her lover, and vet never
able to meet him. This was before the days
of newspapers, railroads, steamboats, and teie-
graphs, her means of procuring information
Indians with whom she was accustomed to
winter during the many years of her weary
journeying and fruitless search.
UNITED IN DEATH.
By and by the roses left her cheeks. Year
by year her beauty faded. Then came gray
hairs, followed by wrinkles upon her beautiful
face but still she kept up her weary pilgrim
age, believing that some day she would meet
her lover, until the death Of Father Felicias,
when, discouraged and disheartened. she gave
up the search and became Sister of Mercy in
convent in Philadelphia, where for many
years she ministered to the wants Of the poor
and friendless in the hospitals and aims houses
OF that city until the time OF great epidemic,
when one Sabbath morning she discovered her
long lost lover in the person Of an old man,
with long, gray, unkempt hair. dying upon q
pallet in an aims house. She had kept her heart
young and the fire Of love burning bright dur
ing fruitless search Of fifty years, unconscious
that she and her lover were growing old. and
when at last she found him old and friendiess,
dying in poor house. she exclaimed in her
gratitude as she pressed his dying form to her
bosom and closed his eyes in death, Father, 1
| thank Thee.
Evangeline soon followed her lover, and side
by side they have rested for q century in un-
known graves in a Catholic church yard in the
city of Philadelphia.
So anxious has the English government been
| to hide its shame for its treatment of these
people that it has caused every record concern
ing them that could be obtained to be destroyed.
Even the old French wells have been filed up,
| and the graveyard plowed over leaving moth
ing to show where the Acedians buried their
dead. Not long ago while some excavations
were being made one Of the old wells was dis
covered and has been restored to use. Not far
away from this well . coffin in good state of
preservation was found, the body that IL incased
having long ago returned to dust. The spot
where this coffin was found fixes the location of
the old graveyard and of the little church that
stood near by on a knowl about three hundred
| yards north Of the Grand Pre- depot.
To have been consistent England, in her
efforts 10 hide her shame by destroying history,
should have torn away the bikes and given the
rich lands Of the Annapolis valley back to the
ocean, from which it was reclaimed by the
patient toll Of the exiled Acadisns, but selfish
ness stepped in and prevented such action.
NEW NAME SUBSTITUTED.
Even the name given 10 this beautiful country