The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-26
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS
Evangeline.

HHS uShe or the CfeOleS-
 
 Fair was she to behold, that maiden of l7 summers,
 Black were her eyes as the berry that
 grows on the thorn by the wayslde, Black. yet softly they gleamed beneath
 the brown shade of her tresses.
 Knowing that I was going to New Or leans and that one of the side trips of the Baptist convention was to be through the Teche country, l began to think of Louisiana and so I got out my copy of 'Evangeline" and crammed up and hav- ing got interested I'm going to make you familiar with the story, for it's a beau- tiful one.
 I've been through the famous Teche country, and at present my brother covers it in an automobile from New Orleans and from him I got lot of in- teresting sidelights on my recent trip. The romanticist and he who has love for refined and reposeful landscape will find his aesthetic taste appealed to in this fair "Teche Country" of Louisiana, by which term is meant all the region adja-
 
 
 Beautiful is the land with it's prairies
 and forests of pine trees,
 Under the feet of a garden of flowers,
 and the bluest of heavens
 Bending above, and resting it's dome on
 the walls of the forest;
 They who dwell there have named it the
 Eden of Louisiana
 T aH through Arcadia, drinking in the still beauty of the quiet waters that gleam in the moonlight like sea of molten silver, unconsciously, vagrant tender lines from "Evangellne" float through the mind and repeat their own beauty amid the spots that inspired them. Beautiful was the night. Behind the black wall of the forest
 Tipping it's summit with silver, arose the moon. On the river
 Fell here and there, through the
 branches, tremulous gleam of
 moonlight
 Like the sweet thoughts of love on
 darkened and devious spirit. Nearer, and round about her, the mani-
 fold flowers of the garden
 Poured out their souls in odors, that
 
 Unto the night, as it went it's way, like
 a silent Carthusian."
 The French-Canadian story of "Evange- lne'' was first offered by a mutual friend to Hawthorne while the three were dining, but not caring for it for prose story, Longfellow said: Let me have it for poem." Later Longfellow wrote Hawthorne thanking him for being wiling to forego the pleasure of writing prose tale which many people would have taken for poetry that I might write a poem which many people take for prose-" The visitor to Acadia hears the true story of "Evangeine," whose real name was Emmeline Labche. When the loyal girl sees Gabriel Iouis Arceneaux in real life) she springs forward to greet him. Alas! No lovelight answers hers in his eyes. Gabriel staggers back, then tells her that, weary with waiting, he has given his promise to another. In fair spot called Beau Basin,' near St. Mar tinville Gabriel settled with his new love, and there many of his descendants are living to this day. Evangeline lost her reason when she found herself de- serted, and her ashes are resting in the little graveyard at the back of the old church. For the heart-rending story of the simple folk whom England with ruth less hand thrust from their homes in far-off Nova Scotia, read the beautiful poem of 'Evangeine," and I'll give some of the details in later story about Nova Scotia.
 December r, 1S45, Longfellow writes in his diary: T see a diorama of the Mississippi advertised. This comes apro- pos. The river comes to me instead of my going to the river; and as it is to flow through the pages of the poem, l look upon this as special benedction." He went to see it and wrote: "One seems to be sailing down the great stream, and sees the boats and the sand banks crested with cottonwood, and the bayous by. moonlight. Three miles of canvas and a great deal of merit Then he read Darby's Geographical Description of Louisiana" for facts and local color ing. Evening drops softly on the Teche. You remember Longfelow describes how the sun. like a magician, extends his golden wand over the landscape. How the twinkling vapors arose on that far-away day when the Acadian girl sought her lover along these waters. How the sky and earth seem to melt and mingle together, then twilight came, her. aided by a mocking bird S srevel of song. One who has felt it truly says: Even the prosiest individual gets to dreaming at such time and such a place. The man who can look on the Teche on g moonlight night and feel no poetry try ing to push off the lid of his soul-well. he must be dead indeed to the beauty of the world" Have I bored you with "Evangeline?" We'll like Dr. Holmes, I fell in love with her, and what beautiful creature is the Acadian maiden! From the first line of the poem, from it's first words, we read as we float down broad and placid river, murmuring softly against it's banks, heaven over it. and the glory of the unspoiled wilderness all around. This is the forest primeval" And where is anything prettier than the song of the mocking bird?