Evening star., 1927-04-29
By a staff Correspondent of The Star.


PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La,
April 29.-'"This Is the forest pri-
meval q but where is the thatched-
roof village, the home of Acadian
farmers? Waste are those pleasant
farms, and the farmers forever de-
parted"
Truth is stranger than fiction.
When Longfellow penned the ia
miliar lines of his "Evangeline" clas-
sic he little dreamed, nor does it now
actually seem possible, that they
would apply, by the most remarkable
of condolences, to a second tragic
Tale of Acadie," involving the de-
scendants Of the sturdy French-Cana-
dams who were removed from the
village of Grand Pre- in 1855.
Yet that is exactly what has hap.
pened in this historic bayou country,
a few miles below New Orleans.
Comforting Assurance Challenged.
Down here in the swamp lands of
Louisiana, where the exiled Basil,
the Blacksmith, welcomed Evan.
geline with assurances that his new
found. moss-hung Southern refuge
was "A home better perchance than
the old one" the sovereign State of
forting words of the poets smithy by
re.enacting a dramatic modern ver-
sion of the famous Acadian exodus.
The British two centuries ago
tried the souls of the Acadian peas
ants by fire. Louisiana. haven of
their offspring after the epic French
Canadian pilgrimage down the Mis-
sissippi, today tried the souls of their
great and great-great-Gr t-Grandchildren
with a catacylsmic baptism Of water.
Just as the dazed and grief-stricken
citizens of Grand Pre- saw their homes
wiped out by a ruthless conflagration
at the hands of soldiers of the king
several generations ago. so this after
noon did their children's children live
to see their farms in Louisiana's new
Acadie swept off the map by a roaring
artificial flood unleashed by soldiers
of the State.
Emotions Are Dulled
These are a stole people, these 5000
so.called "Web-Feets" of ST. Bernard
and Plaquemines Parishes. The tribu-
lations through which their forefathers
went have dulled their nerves and
throttled their finer emotions. Small
wonder. then. that sobs were lacking
and outward demonstrations few,
when these people were forced to sur
render their lifelong homes and haunts
that New Orleans and its 425 900 in
habitants might be saved from almost
certain inundation.
Longfellow tells how the old Acadi-
ans of Grand Pre- had "dikes that the
hands Of the farmers had raised with
labor incessant. to shut out the turbu-
lent tides" The poets shade today
well might say the same of the Cajans
of this region, but with the qualif1ca-
ton: Until high noon today"
The press could lift from "Evangel-
inc" scores of descriptive quotations,
arrange them in proper sequence, label
the whole ''by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow" and have an adequate,
colorful front page story of evacuation
of the Poydras territory.
Must Sacrifice Homes.
Until today the forest primeval was
here, and so were the murmuring
4rees, bearded with Spanish moss. in
Instinct in the twilight. Vast meadows
stretched to the eastward, and pas
ture for f1ocks without number. Here,
too, were the orchards and cornfields.
the strongly built houses, the rudely
carved porches, the wells with their
moss grown buckets, tNe DdIllS, the
sheep and the cattle.
Yesterday came the laborers home
from the fields to their homes OF peace
and contentment. Here, as their
fathers before them, the richest were
poor and the poorest lived in abun-
dance. Voices of children at play. the
growing Of cocks in the barnyards,
whirl of wings in the droWsy air and
the cooling of pigeons.
Then, scarce two days ago, the
ominous, almost unbelievable note of
warning---the edict of the governor
calling for sacrifice of their birth
places, their haunts of childhood, their
trysting places, their homes-their
all--for the sake of a threatened city.
Longfellow records that in 1855 the
British commander came from the
ships riding at anchor and announced
that although painful the task, "yet
must | bow and obey, and deliver the
will of our monarch: namely, that
all your lands and dwellings,, and cat
tie of all kinds, be forfeited to the
crown. and that you yourselves from
this province be transported to other
lands. God grant that you may dwell
there ever as faithful subjects, hap
py and peaceable people"
Providence did so grant-until this
day.
Very similar were the steps which
marked the evacuation and destruc-
ton OF the new Evangeline country.
Ships rode at anchor off shore in the
swollen Mississippi. and from
one of them came a commander Of
-