The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-06-26
WANT WIVES IN BUNcAfs'
French Canadians in Northwest to
Import Women

"A
French Canadian settlers in the Can
adian northwest territories. A Roman
Catholic clergyman in Alberta is con-
templating trying a scheme suggested
TO him by the disconsOlate bachelors
of his parish for supplying them with
wives.
Women, except sQuaws, are scarce
in the Canadian territories, and there
is an absolute absence of young mar
riageable women Of the same race and
religion as the struggling settlers who
have gone out there from the french
parishes of the province of Quebec. The
priests are anxious to see them mar
ried to wives of their own nationality
and faith, so as to encourage the
growth in the northwest of French
speaking and Roman Catholic popula-
ton. Judging from the wonderful
natural increase of the French Cana
dian nation to the province of Quebec,
the supplying of wives and mothers to
the northwest settlers is all that is ne
cessary for the early establishment OF
an equally pOpulOus settlement on the
western prairies, says the New York
Sun.
The northwest settlers are only too
anxious to fall in with the desires of
their priests in the matter OF mar
rage The lack of manageable Wo-
men in the northwest territories can
not be Obviated by any efforts of their
own. They can not afford the time.
even to pay a visit to the province of
no al
But they are prepared to do so to a
certain extent, by proxy. Provided a
sufficiently large assortment is brought
to their doors to afford them some lit
tie chance for selection, they are pre-
pared to deDute their priests to do the
rest. The scheme has been discussed
in the French Canadian newspapers
and the first party of candidates for
matrimony will probably leave for CAL
gary in a few weeks.
The apparent novelty of the
scheme has drawn down upon it a
large amount of ridcule Those who
are encouraging it argue that it not
only does not SAVIOR of any impropri-
ETY.. but also that not even the charge
of novelty cans be brought against it.
They point out that similar course
was followed in France for supplying
wives to the earliest French settlers
in Canada.
Under the fostering care of Col
bert Louis XIV.'s great minister of
finance and the colonies, girls were ia
ken from the houses of refuge of Paris
and Lyons and sent out to Canada as
prospective wives for the settlers.
Mother Marie de Incarnation wrote
in 1865 that a hundred had come that
summer and We're nearly all provided
with husbands and that 200 more were
to come the following year. In 1872
Count F'rOntenac. the governor of Can
ada, wrote home to Paris complaining
of the scarcity of the supply of young
women sent out from France.
IF $50 girls. as many servants" he
said, had been sent out this year they
would all have found husbands and
masters within a month"
After some of the young women
had been married at Quebec it was
found that they had husbands at
home. The priests became cautious in
tying the matrimonial knot and Col
bert thereupon ordered that each girl
should provide herself with a certffi-
care from the cure. or magistrate of
her parish, to the effect that she was
free to marry.
1t is expected that the same quail
fication will be required of all those
who are to be taken to the Canadian
northwest under ecclesiastical auspi-
ces. Instead of exhibiting them for the
inspection of suitOrs for their hands in
imitation of the course adopted at
Quebec two and a quarter centuries
ago, these new candidates for matri-
mOny will be encouraged by their
conductors to accept places as domes-
tic servants until sought out for wives
by their future husbands.
Considering the loud call for wives
in the northwest of Canada the new
arrivals will not have long to wait.
Nor will it be necessary to entice or
to drive the bachelor settlers into we'd
lock as was the case with some of
their forefathers in Quebec in the mid
die of the seventeenth century