The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-07
THE CANADIAN HABITANT
THE FRENCH FARMER OF LOWER
CANADA A EUROPEAN SURVIVAL.
France md the Church the Objects
of His Allegiance and Reverence,
Yet He Is u Good Citizen.
Springfield Republican.

as peculiar but jeans pecuiarities are all
his own; most of them are picturesque and
some of them are very commendable. He
lives under the British flag but when he
has holiday, about the only flag he knows
is the tricolor of France. Outside of his
own province, with its two millions of peo-
pie, the language of the seventy millions
that make up the American community is
English, but he scarcely knows a word of
it. He is as French as the peasantry of
Loire and as stanch Romanist as the
Vatican itself. Living in the new world
with its eager, feverish life throbbing all
around him, he plods on in the path marked
out by his forefathers, who carried flint
locks in the wars with New England back
in the past when the flag of the Bourbons
fioated from the citadel of Quebec. Even
the loss of that flag was not very serious
matter to Jean. Britannia has been a very
easy mistress, and she has paid him well
for his allegiance.
So far as his private rights respecting
persons and property are concerned. he still
lives under the laws of France; his lam
guage is the language of the court and
legislature. and his church is hedged about
with all the privileges she ever had, and
to-day they perhaps greater here than
in any other country. And so Jean is con-
tented and happy He reveres his church
and her clergy; he is proud of the big wigs
who wear silk robes in court and come
down to the parishes to talk to him at cleo
ton time; he is proud of his provincial
legislature where ''les deputies" as he calls
the members, make long speeches and al
ways address the speaker as lie president"
for that is the proper title in France OF
ss1n hi ID orl;o l, ,lo ,lNro a
muneS," at Ottawa. he does not care so
much, for the Anglais seem to predominant
there. and Jean does not understand much
they say. Local questions interest him.
or tariff for revenue he has no taste.
But most of all. Jean loves the level land
of old 3uebeG his own his
very good traits in any man. and go far
m the composition of the stuff. of which
soul, and half of his English neighbors do
not know ii, nor does he understand them.
Sometimes the hot-headed and ignorant on
each side say unpleasant things about each
other: one sums up his case with "sacre
habitant.'
The country of Jean Baptiste is the val
leys OF the St Lawrence and the Richelieu
rivers. For the most part 1t Is level and
exceedingly fertile. There was no better
land on this continent. 1t has ueen cropped
by generation after generation, and yet to-
day ii grows oats and hay that command
England. The average French Canadian
farm is peculiar in shape, for ii is usually
three-quarters of a mile long and not more
than Seventy-fve yards wide. The tendency
is for the farm to grow narrower; not that
the land shrinks, but the farm is subdi-
vded. The sons grow up and the natural
consequence of that is that they marry.
SMALL FARMS.
They do not have to wait until the faith
er dies to receive their share. A line fence
is run down the farm, little house erected
and here the son settles on the strip sliced
off the paternal acres. Perhaps in time the
sons share becomes subdivided, and then,
when the process of division has gone as
far as IL is practicable, the tide turns, and
a period of Capitalization sets in. A MEM
Der of the family upon whom fortune has
smiled or who has married a girl with
little money. buys out several OF the other
heirs and makes a farm of the divided
ilelds, TO be divided again i'll the next gen.
GRAFTON.
The habitant is fond of straight lines. and
perhaps that helps 10 keep him honest. His
level country permits of them. The fences
are straight and true; no zg-zag ones like
those in the English counties that are
known as the eastern townships. The roads
all run at right angles to another
those running the length of the parish are
the concession roads, and upon these the
farms front. The narrowness of the farms
brings the houses close together SO that
miles of these highways look like thin
long-drawn cut villages. They are socia BILE
people, and so the proximity of the neigh
Dors Is TO Jean one OF the great merits or
the system His house is small usually of
wood and snowy white, either with paint or
limewash renewed about every spring 1t
stands close to the road. with perhaps an
onion patch in front and a vegetable garden
at one side. Just at the side are the big
red-roofed barns, each with a weather-cock
on the highest gable. The big wel-sweep
ana the cone-shaped clay oven complete the
home picture.
Here Jean Baptiste lives rears large
family and raises hay, grain and horses
and the horses are usually fat il not par
ticularly well groomed, and in autumn the
barns are well filed.
He has not been in the past a dairyman
There are hundreds of rich inhabitants who
never Kept more than a COW two. A
and Jean will have TO adjust himself to it
Horses no longer sell well, and hay has
been heavily taxed by the old American
tariff. The Canadiantfarmer i'm the east is
turning to butter and cheese Already MANY
dairy factories have been opened in the
French country. and Jean is learning that
he can make money by producing milk
When the autumn plowing is finished
Jeans, years work is almost done The only
big Job remaining is to press and market
winter. and the snow piles up high around
his little house and fills up the road almost
even, with the top of the railfence The
wood is hauled up. and Il small pile 1t is
for his stoves are few and his small house
easily warmed. And then all he has to do
roads, dance and play cards Smoking need
not he added, for that is n summer as well
as a winter amusement.
From New Years until Lent is one round
OF pleasure TO the habitant and his family
and very innocent and verv cheap pleasure
II is too; little card parties where the stakes
are or imaginary value, dances at the.
ne1ghboYS houses without expense for spe-
clal clothing, and a few wedding parties
that set the community i'm a fiutter and
| bring the season TO a climax lust before
Ash Wednesday comes and puts the ban
| upon all festivities
THEIR ADJUSTMENTS
Jean and his family are fond of cards but
| they are not gamblers: they think too much
of their hard-earned money. They are only
amateur sports Euchre is a favorite game.
| for in it chance offsets skill, and il admits
OF a great deal of talking on the part of the
| players. The joker is always in the deck.
| and jeans favorite play is to spring 1t on
, his opponents right bower He ALWAYS
| brings 1t down with a swoop that makes the
! table groan Card parties are of nightly
| occurrence; now at one house then at an
! otner, until the round of the little commun-
| ity has been made. The guests come
| early and stay late: the young men
| bring their girls, and merrier crowd can
| not be found Perhaps there will he \
| llttle whisky blanc some gin for the
men; sweets, apples and native sour wine
| Tor the women. The big deal table in the
KITCHEN and the one In the spare room
| squeezing. and none object 10 that. A has
| ket of apples is brought in and one of
the gallants pays the host for them he
! cause apples are an imported luxury In the
| French country. The apples are divided
and then they proceed to play blur nv
/ the hour ''Rluff : the ha hitaptf.