The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-15
EXTRAORDINARY FAMILIES
Twenty six Children by One Father
and Mother.


A few days ago a farmer named Lavoie
in the parish of Lavaltrie, near Montreal
carried his twenty-sixth child by the
same wife to be christened. Twenty-Five
of the children are living. Fourteen of
them are in the United States. MIR
Ouimet, superintendent of education for
the province, was the twenty-sixth child of
the same father and mother l was at a
golden wedding near Sorel last month, at
which seventeen children belonging TO the
old folks constituted the piece de resist
ance. Nine of them came from New
England, two from Chicago and one from
Manitoba. Mr.. j. NJ. LemOine, a French
Canadian writer, tells Of a habitant near
this city who, accompanied by twenty-six
of his brothers and sisters, went to the
church to have the thirtieth child chris
tened. There were about 10000 French
Canadians in New France when it was
coded to Britain one hundred and thirty
years ago. Emigration from France
practically ceased at that time and the
efforts lately made by the dominion
government to revive it have been un-
availing. Yet the 10000 have increased to
1000, 900 and more, OF whom One-third
are in the United States These figures
alone go far to spbstantiate the boast OF
French Canadians that they are the most
prolific race on the earth.
A Jesuit who travels among the French
Canadian colonies in the states says the
average French-Canadian family in the
factory towns of New England is not as
large as the average family on the banks
OF the st. Lawrence. He attributes the
difference to the fact that in many cases
the young wife continues to work in the
mill; it is to her interest and OF her hus-
band to earn the weekly wages as long as
she can, and swarm of children would
only be in the way On the other
hand, the mortality among French
Canadian children in New England
is below the rate in French
Canada, where sanitary science is
in its swaddling clothes and the old
prejudice against vaccination dies hard
Al factory in Nashua, n. H, fifteen
French Canadians and fifteen Americans.
most of them Irish Americans, were taken
at haphazard and weighed. The French
averaged nine and half pounds less than
The Americans. In Quebec and Montreal
the French Canadian woman weighs from
i've to ten pounds less than English
speaking women. But, as a rule, the
French women possess a more robust con
stituJion, and Href1ot so liable to nervous
complaints, or to those arrangements
which reduce the birth rate. 1t is com
mon enough to see French Canadian
girl of IA married, and to find her buxom
grandmother at 80.
The usual explanation of the amazing
fecundity of these peoples that the clergy
encourage these early marriages for
moral and political reasons-politfcal be-
cause they desire to swell the number of
French Canadian voters within the do
miniou in order to eXalt their own power.
Without doubt the priests do encourage
early marriages, but l don't think polit-
zeal considerations weigh with them By
the constitution of Canada the representa-
ton of the Province of Quebec in the do
tninion parliament is fixed for all time at
siXty-tiVe members. In the other prov
lnces there is a readjustment of the repre-
sentatiOn after each decenuial census, but
in Quebec there is none. 1t would be alb
surd, therefore, for a cure to advocate
early marriages in the hope of augmenting
the French Canadian delegation at
Ottawa, while the Legislature Of Quebec
is so overwhelmingly French that he need
not wish to make 1t more so. EARLY mar
riages have been the fashion since the
foundation of the colony by Champlain,
when premiums were ven for large fani-
lies, but the fecundity of the race is due
primarily 10 the care displayed by the
1OunUers in selecting the first settlers
The males were chosen from the farm
ing and hshing classes and from the army.
All the early writers speak of the extra
ordinary physical vigor of the men. A
voyage across the Atlantic in those DAYS
was a serious undertaking, and when the
journey was over it was no child's play to
go mo the bush and hew out home
amid wolves and wild Indians The seig-
neurs and others who selected the emf
grants were careful therefore, 10 exclude
wedKlings, who might become a burden.
and 70 pick the sturdiest fellows lheV
could md in Normandy, Perche, Beauce
and the Pays d'Aunis. The seigneurs
themselves were retired army officers and
cadets of nOUIe families attracted py The
Reports o. mineral wealth and by the love
-oI adventure The girls shipped out AS
wives were also carefully selected. The
riItran of Paris was turned away. Every
girl had 10 produce a certificate from
ner parish priest, and if ner conduct
on Doaru snip was not satisfactory she
WAS carried back to France. Most of
them belonged TO the peasant class Int
some were The daughters OF broken-down
gentlemen, and one was the niece OF the
governor OF Nancy-a tall brunettee. who
appears 20 have married master car
psnJer and to have borne him fourteen
children. The Ursuline nuns conducted
matchmaking; they kept a list of the
Sc Olers in want of wives and ARRANGED
the pairing the moment the ship arrived
Wnen nAIrled settler died his widow
was sure to ind another husband At
MonCreal widow was married to her
ST ond before The first had been put under
round, but her nasJe was reDuked nv
the e. gy,who thought she ought TO have
Remained single for at least two months
Between lOZl and l64l nearly 700 chiIsren
We're baptized at NOtre Dame in this civ
aud The registers show that only one of
tho loC was born out of wedloek.
The feudal tenure, esta blishmept in
1879, did something to promote large
families. The tenant had his eighty or
ninety acres Of bush, with the ONION of
geCtinga similar tract for each of his
sons anu sous-in-Iaw. Where there il an
abundance of land to be had for the ask
ing, with virg insoil yielding heavy crops.
and plenty OF game and fish, the birth
rate is sure TO be high. If the tenant had
been obliged 10 subdiyiede his holding
among his children, as required bv the
existing French law, IL is possible that
as in France, large families might have
been the exception rather than the rule.
As It was the more children he had the
better no he and his became many families
possessed thousand acres. and some
from being censitaires or tenants rose 10
seigniOrial rank and had tenants OF their
own. the rigorous climate carried on a
process Of natural eolerffon htr lrffff,... ~