Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1899-04-01


The railroad company has painted
on the sides of its cars, in large let
ters, the words, "Evangeline Route
while you find like references to the
poem on bills of fare at the hotels
and even on lunch counters.
And yet it is SAID that Longfellow
never visited Nova Scotia, certainly
not before he wrote the poem:
THE GREAT PUNISHMENT.
But listen to The story OF the
"Great Banishment."
The home of the Acadians was
Grand Pre- on the shores of the
Basin of Mipas. There in 1855, was
written the saddest and most pa
thetic history of North America.
Early in the 18th century, the
French Acadians settled there.
bikes, by which the tides were kept
from the rich meadows, were built
by them, and they gathered great
crops from these reclaimed lands:
Peace and prosperity smiled upon
these Acadian farmers. The Indians
loved these people, and in return
they loved the Indians.
They cared for little except their
homes of thatched cottages, their
church, and their own kith and kin.
These dixie lands, Grand Pre-,
great prairie or meadow reclaimed
from the high tides of the Bay Of
Fundy, were very rich and covered
with herds of fat cattle, that made
the owners wealthy and independent.
A fter this cession, the British re-
quired the Acadians to take the oath
of allegiance-they rebelled and
showed hostility. The English set
tiers seeing this hostility, hungered
after the richest and fairest Of all
the lands in the province and fretted
because they were held by the AGA
dian people. Yet the Acadians
sowed and reaped unmindful of
everything, save, their loyalty to
God and their native land.
But the British Council at Hall
fox, decided these people must take
the oath of allegiance to Great Brit
ain or be baiished from the country.
Almost unanimously they refused
to take the oath, prefering exile and
confiscation.
Diplomacy aud argument were in
vain, and it was resolved that the
whole Acadian people should be
banished to the Southern American
colonies, and that their estates,
buildings, cattle and vessels, should
be confscated to the Crown. The
Acadians, accordingly were all sum-
moned to the church, and held there
as prisoners four days, and then
taken on board vessels and carried
away, and as they sailed away, they
beheld the coilng smoke from the
burning matched roofs Of their dear
homes at Grand Pre-.
All history, presents no PARALLEL
to this spectacle of the deportation
OF the Acadians. Nations have been
put to the sword, and women and
children have been massacred, but
never was q nation rooted out Of the
soil and ruthlessly scattered TO the
four quarters of the earth, in so brief
q space of time as we're these French
inhabitants of Nova Scotia.
1t is strange that SO beautiful
theme for the poet and novelist, has
been made so little use Of. Long
fellow alone has immol talized it in
his poems, in which, while the story
of Evangeline and Gabriel may be
purely ideal, as to the persons, yet,
the general story as to the "Great
Banishnent,' does not depart in
substance from the facts.
For this. the people of this Prov
ince, have done honor to the great
American poet, as before stated. OF
the Acadians who returned from ex
lie, or escsped deportation at Grand
Pre-, or remained, it is said some ten
thousand of their descendants still
live in Nova Scotia, and thai they
are still to great extent a people
set apart from the rest OF the popu-
lation, living in their own villages,
intermarrying early with their own
race; speaking the French tongue,
and keeping up in dress, traditions,
customs, etc., the simple. hospitable,
kindly traits, depicted in Evapge-
line. In certain Acadian villages,
it is said, the women and maidens
still wear the Norman cap ard bone.
spun kirtle, and the young girl be-
gins at an early age to spin. weave