The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-01-19
FRENcHMEN IN MAINE.
They Are Taking Up the Abandoned
Farms and Intend 10 stqy
on Them.

Scion Chase writes thus from Chase'i
Mills. Me-:
The freuchman, for better or worse
Is here 10 stay, not only ia our mills
but he is spreading out on our aban-
doned farms. Our summer visitors
come here 10 spend the heated term
and 60 back to their city homes in the
winter, but the Frenchman is here 10
stay the year round with his wife and
children, and is one of us.
''How to maintain schools in farm
ing communities in the old settled parts
Of the state is a perplexing problem.
The little red schoolhouse on the hill
top is fewer and far between. There
is famine Of school children In the
farming districts. In our villages there
are plenty o. school children. In our
cities there are so many school chill
dren that they have TO issue bonds to
provide school buildings.
'In our farming communities, where
there used TO be 40 or 20 scholars in a
school district, now there are only six
or eight. We have tried the plan of
putting two or three school districts
into one and carrying the outlying
scholars by team. This plan is ex-
pensiye and mothers don't like to have
their little children carried three miles
from home to school.
"A farm two or three miles from the
schoolhouse is not a desirable home
fog a Yankee with family OF small
children. 1t is better school privileges
that draws the people from the farms
to the paYements more than anything
else. Yankee boys and girls born on
farm and educated in the city don't
go back to an old farm that is two or
three miles from the schoolhouse to
grub out roots and pick up rocks and
raise sweet corn at $3.50 hundred as
4 life work.
Il have in my minds eye a whole |
school district that six years ago was
crown up to woods. Stone walls in |
he woods marked the division of farms
md the partitions Of farms. The peo-
lie left their homes because Of adverse I
conditions. They went down into the
alleys in the neighborhood of good
chools OF went west to grow up with
he country. A half dozen years ago 7
he timber was cut Off and the land
lid by 10 grow another crop Of timber (
a 50 years.
Three or four Frenchmen bought a
ortion Of this land, built cheap houses
nd moved ia with their wives ard
lildren. After the timber was cut OF
obody would buy st except a French
ian. The land had been in woods 50
ears and produced good crops. Tie
renehman's wife planted flower beds.
he roses bloomed around their door
cps and the sweet peas grew ia the ,
rgin son as high as a man on horse
ick. The Frenchman' wife was as
andy with the hoe as with the broom,
ID sometimes lent a hand in the
armed land sweet corn. When this
nd was stripped Of tile timber it had
tile selling value, because it would
Ike 30 years 10 grow another crop.
hen the Frenehman put in the fire as
freeholder and built his house on his
yn land he became a taxpayer
rye taxpayer according to his means
but his children were growing up un-
r his own vine and fig tree. If he
IS poor in this worlds goods he had a
wealth Of children. y
THE Frenchman's neighbors were
sll-to-do farmers who trace their an
stry without a break back to the
Ie blood that came over in the May
7ver. They live in houses built by
cir grandfathers. They have money
the bank that they inherited from
air fathers and grandfathers, but in =
IS school district there were only y
e or six school children Of the May :.
wer breed. These children were ol
nsported by team 10 school two or IL
zee miles away. OF
These Frenchmen, who built their
mble homes where the lumbermen
laid waste, provided the children to
stablish school. They brought 20 ~
iolars Of the school age and half as Da
ny more too young 10 60 10 school.
choolhOuse was built, and the music -
the schOolmarm's bell mingled with
'chitter' of the woodchuck, and p
med the neighborhood like the y
lding Of a new factory. Men with .
lilies moved in and real estate 'riz.'
American is taught in the school
n, but the young Yankees soon get
Of the lingo Of ia Belle
nee. The two races are growing .