Evening star., 1931-06-27
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BookloVer

0oAAc " Dc ACOoBAI1zto. ASIS mas
always been the enduring Of hardships,
usually uncomplainingly; active par
ticipation in the making of q home in
the wilderness, the sharing of dangers
with the men and taking care of her
self and her children when the men
iell victims to any of the nenaces to
LIE. which beseC the pioneer. Her minor
troubles have always been the neces-
slty OF producing for herself all the
utilities and comforts of her home and
of getting along without what she could
not produce. The efforts of the ordi-
nary pioneer woman have usually been
confined to her own family and i'm
mediate neighbors The field Of some
OF the pioneer nuns has been much
broader. Agnes Repplier, in her recent
DOCK, Mere Marie of the Ursulines," :"
tells, with all the perfection of style
usual to her, the story Of Marie Guyard,
born at Tours in 1899, who, after hav-
ing been married and having brought
up her son to the age of IL, entered
the Ursuline Convent Of Tours and
from there was sent eight years later
as a pioneer TO the colony of Quebec
in New France.
*& **
| Mere Marie was both a mystic and
an executive. Her greatest happiness
| throughout her life she found in con-
temptation and intense consciousness
of personal relation with God. Her
| greatest usefulness was as a builder, an
educator, the head Of a community,
the adviser of provincial rulers. "If
she habitually contemplated the heav-
ems she walked the earth with Arm
and sure steps" AS a poor young
widow she had conducted the house,
hold affairs and some Of the business
affairs OF her brother-ln-laW and sister
so efficiently that they naturally re-
| gretted losing her and SO opposed her
entering the convent at Tours. Arriv-
ing in New France, with two other
Ursulines and the wealthy and erratic
widow. Nine. De la Peltrie, who was
financing the expedition, she found
abundant opportunity for her rather
remarkable combination of abilities and
characteristics. Her hitherto placid life
was changed into one of adventure and
hardship and the secluded nun became
"a pioneer whose name Is a familiar
and cherished one in the land Of her
adoption, and In the annals of her
order" When she first saw Quebec,
after three-month voyage, it was an
outpoN in the wilderness, "a settlement
Of $50 colonists, dependent for its needs
upon France" in continual danger
|
ravaged by a smallpox epidemic. The
nuns were housed in a shack COM
prtsing Two fair rooms. an attic and
little chapel of plankS and rough plas-
tering." which one of them christened
THE Louvre" Their first duty was
as nurses of smallpox patients, and
they were so busy that none of them
had time to catch the disease and
so escaped. When the epidemic was
over Mere Marie began the study of
several Indian languages in order to
teach the Indian girls, for whom she
| Immediately started a school For 80
years she carried on her work in
! Quebec, begging money from France
for her convent buildings, begging more
when they burned down, teaching the
/ French girls and the Indian girls. writ
ing simple catechiSms, sacred histories
collections of prayers and a primitive
dictionary in the Huron, Algonquin and
Iroquois tongues. nursing the sick in
emergencies, cooking and performing
| all other household tasks, even when
! the bitter cold of the Canadian Win
ters made it impossible to keep the
convent warm, training novices, Doth
French and Canadian, in order to build
up the Ursuline order for the increas-
ing work to be done. At the death
of Mere Marie de Incarnation, in
1872, all Quebec mourned, but Her
work was done, her hurts were healed
and home was close at last. She looked
SO supremely happy lying dead on her
narrow couch that the mourners dried
their tears and rejoiced. 1t was no
occasion for grief"
Il X
In Mere Marie Of the Ursulines."
Agnes Repplier gives many an Incl
dental picture of the Iroquois. the most
dangerous enemies of the French at
Quebec and of the Algonquins and
Hurons friendly to the French Bru-
tality, bloodthirstiness. haughtineSs,
craft and scorn were characteristic of
the IroquoiS in their dealings with the
Canadian colonists. When infamed by
alcoholic liquor (sold to them by the
| colonists), their savagery was unre-
strained and incalculable. Gambling
was passion with all the Indians and
! much distressed the sensible Mere
Marie, who had been used all her life
to thrift and wise expenditure. Other
vices were more degrading, but no
other was SO inherently futile, and no
other took SO tight a grip upon its
victim. The savage had little to lose.
but that little was his all. A
bowl Of bark and some black and white
| pebbles, in lieu of dice, constituted the
simple outfit. With its help the young
brave risked his tobacco. his orna-
ments, his weapons, his wife, his
blankets, beavers, moccasins, and
| whatever else he happened to possess.
| Reduced to nakedneSs, he wagered his
| hair. which, If he lost was cut off and
burned; and a finger or two which
were severed from his hand, though of
no earthly use to the winner. It must
! be said for him that if he was the
Nf IV-{Il he uyoC al
| gambler. He never permitted himself
| to show the slightest annoyance when
he lost, nor any exultation when he
won. The jubilant laughter of the
successful and highly civilized bridge
! player would have seemed to him inde-
cent and ill-bred."
X x + X
"Mellows," a collection Of Negro
| spirituals, edited several years ago by
| r. Enmet Kennedy, has been followed
by a second volume, More Mellows"
| ruption of melodies" Mr.. Kennedy
| is a musician and a Southerner He
| says Of the Spirituals in the collections:
Regarded in the light of original
poetry the words of many Of these
| spirituals cannot justly lay claim to
! any degree of imaginative force; but
most of them possess more than a
small infusion of genuine melody of a
| soulful quality which will undoubtedly
| preserve them from oblivion. No care
full analysis is necessary to show that
these creations of the American Negro
are far superior to the fragmentary
chants Of his jungle ancestors. While
/ the same elementary musical form is
| found underlying nearly all the devo-
| tional songs and many of the folk
songs produced by the American Negro,
it cannot be denied that the develop
/, ment Of his musical proclivities owes
much to the civilized environment he
has known Stree the time of his intro
duction into Virginia in 1920"
~ II \