The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-12-17
CALL FOR WIVES.
A Consignment of Girls to Be Sent to
Canadian Bachelors.

A crv for wives is the pathetic ap-
peal that comes to the Provinces OF
Quebec from the French-Canadian set
tiers in the Canadian Northwest Terri
ries.
A prominent Roman Catholic clergy
man in Calgary is contemplating CIV
ing effect to a scheme which has been
suggested to him by the disconsolate
bachelors of his parish, and which con-
sists in supplying them with wives.
Women of any kind, with the excep-
ton of squaws, are scarce IN the Cana
dian Territories, and there is an abso-
lutte absence of young marriageaole
females of the same race and rellSlon
as the struggling settlers who nave
gone out there from the Province OF
Quebec. Their priests are extremely
anxious to them married to wives OF
their own nationality and faith, so as
to encourage the growth in the new
Northwest of a French-speaking and
Roman Catholic nationality.
Judging by the wonderful natural
| increase of the French-Canadian ma
ton in the Province of Quebec, due to
the proverbial fecundity OF its women
the supplying of wives and mothers to
necessary to the early establishment OF
an equally populous Nation on the
Western praries. A remarkable lndl-
cation of French-Canadian fecundity is
furnished by the fact that over l,OOO
claims have been already filed with
| the Government of the Province OF
! Quebec for the cranes of 100 acres OF
| land awarded by the Government OF
| M = @lo 20 Of fo nj
twelve or more living children. These
claims represent population of 15,'
600 people, and some of the claimants
have living children, the issue of one
marriage to the number of twenty ano
more.
The Northw est settlers are only too
anxious to fall in with the desires o
their priests in the matter of marriage
and paternity. The dearth of mar
riageable females in the Northwest Ter
ritories cannot be obviated by an.
efforts of their own. They cannot af
ford the time even if they could spar
the means to pay long enough visi
to the Province of Quebec to selec
wives for themselves. But they ar
prepared to do so to certain exten
bv proxy. Providing a sufficiently fai
assortment of such merchandise
brought to their doors to afford ther
some little selection, they are willing t
depute their priests to do the rest. Th
scheme has already been advertised i
the French Canadian newspapers, an
the first party of candidates for matr
mony in the Northwest will probabl
leave for Calgary on their new ventur
in the course of the next few weeks.
The apparent novelty of the schen1
has drawn down upon it larg
. amount of ridicule. 1t has been d.
scribed as a traffic in cattle-''un con
merce d'animaux domestiques. Thos
who are engaging in it argue that
not only does not SAVIOR of any imprc
priety, but also that not, even tt
charge of novelty can be made again
it. They point out that simil
course was followed in France for su
plying wives to the earliest French Sc
tiers in Canada. Under the fosteril
Fl care of Colbert Louis XIV.'s Minist
of Finance and the Colonies, girls we
taken from the houses of refuge
Paris and Lyons and sent out to Cana
as prospective wives of the Fren'
settlers. Mother Marie de rIncarn
ton wrote in 1865 that a hundred hi
come that summer and were nearly ;
provided with husbands, and that 2
more were to come the following yes
NJ In 1872 Count Frontenac, Governor
i Canada, wrote home to Paris col
planning of the scanty supply OF you
women from France. IF $50 girls
as many servants, T" he says, "had be
sent out this year they would all ha
found husbands and masters within
month"
If report speaks truly as to the
for wives in the Northwest the n
arrivals will not have long to ws
J Nor will it likely be necessary either
entice or drive the bachelor settlers
to wedlock, as was the case with tn
forefathers in Quebec in the middle
the seventeenth century. Then q
,'s there bounties were offered on ca
marriages, twenty livres being giN
to each youth who married before
. who, without showing good eau
neglected to marry his children wi
they reached the ages of 20 and 16, v
fined, and each father thus deliqu
was required to present himself ev
six months to the local authorities
declare what reason, if any, he had
Sucn uelay. OruerS were lssueu
tie before the arrival of the yea
ships from France that all single n
should marry within a fortnight al
the landing of the prospective brid
No mercy was shown the obdur
bachelor, who was made as misera
r as possible, and no sooner did the C
Y signments of women arrive than
young men of the colony rushed to
tain wives much as the French -Canad
settlers of the Northwest are expec
to do as soon as their prospective bri
reach Calgary.-Quebec Letter IN
Boston Herald.