Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-06-02
THE "CAJUNS" OF LOUISIANA.
An Element of Citizenship That Has
NeXer Becorne AmalEanated.

Never Become AnalGun,ated.
The creole of Louisiana has been a
favorite subject of the story writer, and
has been so often and so charmingly de-
scribed by Cable, Grace King and that
queen of southern dialect writer's, Ruth
McEnery Stuart, that of them nothing
remains to be told. But a large ele-
ment OF the French population OF the
state are not creoles, but Acadians, or,
as they call themselves and are gener-
ally called, "Cajuns." Their expulsion
from Acadia forms one of the most
pathetic tragedies in the history of the
settlement of our native land, and is
of additional interest since it furnishes
our immortal Longfellow with the in
SEPARATION for his touching poem. Evan
geline."
After the treaty of Paris, by which
the French abandoned forever all con-
trolling influence in the new world,
these unfortunate refugees were by the
French government assisted to Louisi-
ana and assigned lands to the west
of New Orleans, where their descend
ants live to this day, and where in the
midst of an age of progress they re-
main distinctly medieval in thought,
manners and customs.
Their dwellings are for the most part
built of a kind of clay mixed with moss,
and are not unlike the concrete and
adobe houses of western Texas. Their
furniture is just about what their an
cestors considered necessary for their
Acadian farmhouse over 100 years ago.
The little treadle spinning wheel occu-
pies a conspicuous place in the domestic
economy, and whatever artistic taste
they may have finds vent in the numer-
Gus cheap-colored prints of the Virgin
which adorn the walls of even the poor
est.
Of books there are none, except pos
Eibly a French prayer book, which
which they could not understand any
way, as their dialect differs in so many
respects from the modern French.
They are in a certain sense religious,
but their religion consists in the observ-
ance of the forms and festivals, espe-
cially festivals, of the Catholic church,
some of which are very pretty, but also
very suggestive of the middle ages.
With them, celebration of mass in the
morning is usually followed by ball
at night, an amusement of which they
are passionately fond, and in which
the old, middle-aged, the youth and
children take part with equal zest.
They are extremely hospitable, and
in their dwelling it is said the coffee
pot is never allowed to grow cold, and
every chance guest is served with cup
of this beverage, boiling hot, and very
bitter, which he must not refuse OH
penalty of giving lasting otfense to his
host. This inveterate coffee drinking
seems to be productive of no i'll effect
physically, but have sometimes won
dered if it might not in part account
for the low order of intellect which pre-
walls
They are a pIeasure-loving people,
and work only enough to secure the
necessaries of life, and as they all-men,
women and children-go barefoot ex-
cept on state occasions, and corn bread
and tassa (dried beef form the staple
articles of food, a very little work en-
ables a man to provide for moderately
large family.
Their aversion to regular employ
ment might be ascribed to a probable
strain of Indian blood that flows in
their veins, and for the same reason
they mingle with the superstitions of
the French peasant, some which come
by inheritance from their Indian an-
cestors.
The creoles, many of whom boast of
the bluest of the blue blood, have al
ways treated their plebeian fellow coun-
trymen with a good-natured contempt
(Which the Cajuns bitterly resent and
have SO far done nothing for their So
cial or mental advancement.
Politically, these people are a prob
lem. They take very little personal in
terest in elections, and are usually voted
by the parish priest.
One important factor in the making
Of the children of ignorant foreigners
into good citizens is our public school
system, and with the Caiuns this has
failed so far, partly from prejudice
against brain labor of any kind, which
is innate, and partly from an antipathy
to receiving instruction from hereto,
which is inculcated with their religion.
And as their poverty in most cases pre-
cludes their attending the Catholic
schools, where the creoles educate their
children, they remain after nearly a
century of American citizenship no bet
ter educated in republican institutions
than the immigrant of yesterday
las (Tex) News.