Evening star., 1927-05-30

The United States sixth Great
Lake. the Lake of the Mississippi,
larger than Ontario or Erie, has en-
quilted the Evangeline country.
When it broke the Atchafallaya
Rivers west dikes, the flood lake
rolled it's shores over and beyond st.
Martin and st. Landry parishes.
again the Acadians have been
driven from their homes" says a bull
letin of the National Geographic So
ciety land the disaster is greater,
by number of sufferers, than that Wis
tied upon Evangeline's people in her
time.
"Only 5000 Acadians We're expelled
from Nova Scotia in 1865 by Massa-
chusetts and British bayonets, to be
scattered over the earth from Detroit
to Corsica and Cayenne. Fifteen
hundred of them found their way to
New Orleans. Many pushed on to
Bayou Teche, $50 miles West. There
they increased to some 100000, oc.
cupying Is parishes, or counties,
when the flood spread over their
homes, towns and lands.
" Beautiful is the land with its praries
and forests of fruit trees:
o"der the 'f bes lee' of heaVens Oh
Bending above and resting its dome on the
walls OF the forest.
They who dwell there name it the Eden
All year round the orange groves are in
blossom: and grass grows
More in a single night than whole Cana
dian Summer.
Geography Called Good.
"For a poet, Longfellow's geography
is fairly good. Basil, the Acadian
blacksmith, has become herdsman in
'Evangeline.' Most Of the refugees
of 1865 did turn to stock raising with
a few cattle given to them by chari-
table French merchants Of New Or
leans. Descendants of the Acadians
gave up stock raising for sugar cane
when Etienne de Bore, a Lusianian,
discovered how to crystalline sugar
from cane syrup. They have helped
to make Atchafalaya Valley the Sugar
Bowl of Louisiana.
1.-The route over which I4ongfellow
takes Evangeline serves very well for
n visitor today. Fifteen miles below
Baton Rouge, where,
"'Sweeps with majestic curve the river away
They. too. swerved from their course: and
entering the Bayou of Pla9uemine.
devious waters
''This bayou admits to the lakes Of
the Atchafalaya,' where water lilies
i'm myriads rocked on the slight un-
dulations,' and rocked for years until
the Mississippi broke through. threat
ening to make the Atchafalaya River
it's real mouth instead of an abandon.
ed one.
Poem Is Not Clear.
"How Evangeline got to Bayou
Teche. the poem does not clearly re-
late MANY Swa mn lanes rom m II pfra o
The Bayou Teche parallels the Atcha-
falaya, but it is true river out of
the reach Of swamps and bordered by
Druid oaks. The only early centers Of
Acadian settlement were Opelousas
and st. Martinsville on the banks of
the Teche. Now the flood has reached
st. Martinsville for the first time in
history and swirls at the foot Of the
'Evangeline' oak where her boatmen
landed. An Acadian descendant gave
the Evangeline oak, with $50 acres Of
land. for State park.
while to readers Of 'Evangeline'
the inhabitants of southwest Louisiana
are still Acadians. to Louisianians
they are 'Cajans or 'Cajuns. cor
ruption of Acadian. -Four kinds Of
Frenchmen inhabit the State-the
Creoles. natives of French and Spanish
descent; Frenchmen. who were born
in France: the San DOMINICAN Creoles.
and finally the Nova Scotian Acadians,
the Gains.
Remains in Country.
"The typical Creole frequents the
city; the Clan remains a country
man. Rescue workers with experience
in France have found the 'Cajan very
like the French farmer-conservative