The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-04-13
1.-THE ACADIANS
AND Their FATE
Driven From Their Homes in Nova Scotia
to Becomes Wanderers on
the Earth.
The Deepest. Stain on the British Empire is
the Deportation Of the
Colonists.
u
The Story of Evangeline Pathetically Told
!, in Recent Address by
DR.. Fowler

had just been defeated at Fort Du-
quesne, and it was therefore easy to
stir up the hatred Of the New England
troops-who were to be the chief
agents of the deportation-against the
"Papists" of Acadia, whose lands they
were to possess.
On the 18th of September, 1864,
Major Charles Lawrence, originally
housepainter's apprentice, was made
governor Of Nova Scotia. He was
man Of violent character, and pos
sessed all the faults of one suddenly
raised to supreme power for which he
was not fit. This was the agent Sc
lected by the British government and
upon whom rests the responsibility
Of the deportation of the Acadians.
He began by letter to the Lords Of
Trade, dated August 1, 1854, before
his formal installment as governor, in
which he threw doubt on the neutral
ity of the Acadians and adding, super
fcially, that they possessed the largest
and best tracts of land in the province,
thereby preventing it's settlement by
English colonists.
The next step was to deprive the
| Acadians Of their arms and ammuni-
ton, which they unwittingly surren-
dered at his autocratic demand, thus
rendering their expulsion possible and
enabling the governor to actively oc-
cupy himself in putting the project
into execution.
The expulsion of the Acadians was
an act of consummate cruelty and in
| justice that has no parallel in history.
"Wives were torn from their hus-
bands. and mothers too late saw their
children left on land extending their
arms in widest entreaties." Evange-
line Bellefontaine (whose real name
was Emmeline Labiche), just seven
teen years Of age and the pride Of the
village, was affianced to Gabriel La
jeunesse QIouis Arcenau), the son Of
Basil the blacksmith. Longfellow
thus describes Evangeline:
"Fair was she to behold, that maiden
Of seventeen summers,
Black were her eyes as the berry that
grows on the thorn by the wayside,
Black, yet how softly they cleaned
beneath the brown shade Of her
tresses!
Sweet was her breath as the breath of
kline that feed in. the meadows,
When in the harvest heat she bore to
the reapers at noontide
Flagons of home -brewed ale, ah! fair
in sooth was the maiden.
Fairer was she when, on Sunday morn,
while the bell from its turret
Sprinkled with holy sonnets the air,
as the priest with his hysop
SprinlSles the congregation, and scat
ters blessings upon them,
Down the long street she passed, with
her chaplet of beads and her mis-
sal,
Wearing her Norman cap, and kirtle
of blue, and the earrings,
Brought in the olden time from France,
and since. as an heirloom,
Handed down from mother to child,
! through long generations.
But celestial brightness--a more ethe-
real beauty
Shone on her face and encircled her
form, when. after confession,
Homeward serenely she walked with
Gods benediction upon her.
When she had passed, it seemed like
the ceasing Of exquisite music"
| She and Gabriel We're carried away
on separate ships. The efforts of
13vangeline. accompanied by Father
Felician (Father Felix PALM, her
friend and father confessor, to find
the whereabouts of her fiance, their
wanderings from town to town and
through the wilderness to Louisiana.
is story that touches the heart as no
| other ever could.
1t was the latter part of very cold
winter that 1 visited the land Of the
live oak, jasmine and magnolia for the