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Show aaBaMmmaammaSmammamaammmmmBmmmmammmmmm . Va!7 I V (TTT Kuuda. ,Su doubt many of th Aradians did noi By ELMO SCOTT WATSON W4J 1 t JCM undemtand th summons. Fpw of thm could rrad, -wri . C'X vTl ' " hardly mattered to them that on ons occa- S?j? NE of the tendered love stories In , ,.. JSAir , , Cov slon a nntt on the church door was pnatsd upatds fSV American literature and one of JU2iCXDlZcVD SJTttZW down Boma four hundred anxious peaaanta ap- By ELMO SCOTT WATSON fNE of the tenderest love stories In American literature and one of America's best-loved poets, who made that love story Immortal, are to have an enduring memorial In the form of a national park of 1,000 acres. If present plans are carried forward to a successful conclusion. con-clusion. That story Is the story of the quest of Evangeline, the Acadian maiden, for her lover, the poet Is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote her epic of love and devotion, and the project Is the establishment of a national reservation reserva-tion near St. Martlnvllle. La., to be known as Longfellow-Evangellne National Memorial park. Down In Louisiana the descendants of Evangeline's Evan-geline's people, the Acadlans, have formed a Longfellow-Evangellne National Park association the purpose of which Is stated by its officers as follows: fol-lows: To build a great national memorial to the Acadlans; to erect a splendid bronze statue, representing rep-resenting Longfellow and flie heroine of his poem, "Evangeline," the Acadian maiden ofGrand Pre; to preserve the Evangeline Oak, a tree more than four hundred years old, also the ancient trees around St. Martinsville, the scene of the poem; to preserve the ancient brick building which stands near the oak and which was the trading post of the Attakapns Indians, and to build a museum In which will be kept the records and antiques used by the early Acadlans and French emigrants Into Louisiana, as well as a record of each donor, so that the lives of these people, whom Longfellow Immortalized, may be studied by this . generation and generations to come. In accordance with this plan the association Is enlisting the aid of every cltlzeq of Louisiana to goods. No doubt many of the Aradians did noi understand the summons. Pew of thm could read, and It hardly mattered to them that on ons occa-alon occa-alon a, notice on the church door waa posted upstds down. Borne four hundred anxloua peaaanta ap- peared. Wlnslow read to them a proclamation to the effect that their housea and lands were forfeited for-feited and that they themselves and their famlHss were to be deported. Five vessels from Boston lsy at Grand Tre. In time mors ships arrived, but chill Octoher had coma before- Wlnslow . was Anally ready. By thla time ths Acsdlnns realized what waa to happen. The men were Joined by their families. As fsr aa possible the people of the same vlllsss were kept together. They were forced to march to ths transports, a sorrow-laden company, woman carrying babes In their emu, old and decrepit people borne In csrts, young and strong men drag-King drag-King what belongings they could gather. Wlnslow's task, ss hs says, lay heavy os hie heart' and handa: "It hurts me to hear their weeping and walling and gnashing of teeth." By the flrat of November ha had embarked 1,000 unhappy people. Hla last shipload ship-load hs sent off on ths thirteenth of December. Ths suffering from cold must have been terrible. In all from Grand Pro and other places more than 1,000 Acadlans wars deported. They were scattered In the English colonies from Mains te Georgia and In both Prance and England. Many died; many, helpless In new surroundings, sank Into decrepit pauperism. Rome reached people of their own blood In ths French colony of Louisiana and Canada. Among those who came to Louisiana was young Louis Arceneaux who had become separated from his sweetheart, Emmerllne Lablche, and who settled set-tled on Bayou Teche, a stream which winds In and out like a snake, hence Its name, which Is the Indian term for snake. Here, too, ten years later came Emmerllne Lablche, who had been mourning the loss of her lover. And the aoul of the maiden, between the atari and the fireflies, Wandered alone and she cried, "O, Gabriel. O, my beloved! Art thou so near onto me. and ret I cannot behold erect a statuary g.i depleting "The Vlllag Blacksmith." "Hiawatha" will be Immortalized In bronze by contributions from the Indians of the two countries and an effort will he made to Interest- the si'hool children of America In giving penny contributions which will make possible a statue appropriate to "The Children's Hour." Although they were characters of Action, there once did live a "Gabriel" and an "Evangeline" whose love story Inspired Longfellow's poem. The name of the real "Evangeline" was Emmerllne Lablche, the faithless "Gabriel" was Louis Arceneaux, Arce-neaux, and their life slory Is a part of the tragic tale of the simple folk of Acadia who were deported by British soldiery from their homes away back In 1755. The Acadlans were French colonists who had settled In what Is now Nova Scotia In 1007, and who lived a happy, contented existence In their homes In the New world until caught In the maelstrom of world politics, stirred up by the contest between England and France to decide which nntlon was to dominate the North American continent. In the series of wars between the two countries which began In lOflO Acadia wns a pawn on the International chess-board, now held by the French and now by the British. As for the Acadlans themselves, they were In the main neutral. In fact they were often referred to In the official papers of the time as the "Neutral "Neu-tral French." While the sympathies of most of - them no doubt leaned toward their own country-men country-men and some of them supported the French cause, for the most part they wished to be left alone In their peaceful pursuits as farmers and fishermen. The question of their allegiance was nave me nrsi national para in ine ooutn locatea I In the Pelican state. It has already secured appropriation of $10,000 by the state legislature which has made possible the purchase of a tract of at least 250 acres and It Is asking the federal government for an appropriation of $100,000 In order that more land as much as 1,000 acres, If possible may be bought. The project Is more than one to foster local pride, since by It the natural beauties of that section may be made more apparent ' and made accessible to the thousands of tourists from all parts of the country who drive through the Acadian "country every yenr. For that reason the park has a national significance. It also has an International significance sig-nificance In that French Canadians will be Invited to share In thus honoring the memory of those of their people who, so many years apo, were forced to leave their homes and go Into exile. Included In the plnns for the pnrk are those for a sculptured group of Longfellow and his two famous characters, Evangeline and Gabriel. This group will be placed as nearly, as possible to the spot where tradition says FvangplIne kept her tryst with the lover of her youth. Near It will he built a wading pool and about this will Mand the sculptured symbolic figures of Youth.,-(tlndnesa, Love' and Despair, as exemplified In the poem. And over all this artificial beauty will tower the gray moss-hung oaks and cypress trees which are such a prominent feature of the Louisiana landscape. One of the beauty spots In the park will be an old-fashioned garden in whldi will be found flowers such as Evangeline tended In her garden by the Basin of Sllnas and through which will run shaded walks, winding around quiet pools a place of ancient beauty whose only modern touch will be the driveways for motorists, the gates that mark the entrance and the lighting system which will mnke possible the use of the park at night. Although the park Is situated In the Acadian country and will be a memorial to the Acadlans, It will be no less a memorial to Longfellow, the poet. It has already wt.n the support of many varying Interests. The trades unions of America wHl erect there a monument symbolical of Long-fellows Long-fellows piem, "The Builders." The Iron-workers of Can; (In and the United States are uniting to never definitely settled -after any of the treaties of peace, but In 1755, with France and England girding for the flnnL- decisive struggle, the " Acndinns found themselves caught between the upper and nether millstones of British and French demands for their loyalty. In that year the British, who then held Acadia, decided that the Acadlans were "an enemy en- camped In the heart of the province" and determined deter-mined to force a show-down. They reiterated a demand that had been made many years before, but which had never been Insisted upon that the Acadians hike an oath of ulleginnce to the British crown upon pain of forfeiture of their rights and lands. What followed Is well -described by George M. Wrong In "The Conquest of New France" In Ihe Yale University Chronicles of America as follows: The thins was dons In the summer and autumn of 1755. Colonel Robert Mnnckton, a regular officer, son of an Irish peer, who alwaya. showed an-.lii-effable superiority to provincial otllcers scrvlng; under him, waa placed In eharpe of the work. He ordered the male Inhabitants of ths neighborhood of Beauuejour to meet him there on the tenth of Aucu"t. Only about one-thlr"d of them came eome four hundred. He told them that the Kovernment at Halifax now declared them rebels. Their lands and all tholr Roods were forfeited; thoy them-, selves were to he kept In prison. Not yet, how-- how-- ever, was made known to them tbe decision that Ihey were to be treated as traitors of whom the province must be rid. No attempt was made anywhere any-where to distinguish loyal from disloyal Acadlans. Major Lawrence, British governor at Halifax, g-ave orders to the military officers to clear ths country of all Acadlans, to g;et them by any necessary meana on board the transports which would carry them away, and to burn theJr housea and cropa so that those not caught might perish or be forced to aurrender during; ths comitiff winter. At the moment, ths harvest had Just been reaped or was ripening. When the stern work was done at Grand Pre, at I'islquld, now Windsor, at Annapolla. there were harrowing scenes In command of ths work at Grand Pre was Colonel Wlnslow, an officer from Massachusetts some of whose relatives twenty-flvo twenty-flvo years later were to be driven, because of their loyalty to ths British kins', from their own homes In Boston to this very land of Acadia. Wlnslow Issued a summons In French to all the male Inhabitants, In-habitants, down to lads of ten, to come to the church at Grand Prs ori Frjday, the fifth of September, Sep-tember, to learn the ordera he had to communicate Those who fl.l not appear were to forfeit their thee? Ah, how often thy feet have trod this path to the prairie!" . At last Emmerllne found her lover, and tradition says thnt the meeting took place beneath the historic his-toric Evongellne Oak on the Bayou Teche. where she learned that her faithless lover had married another. It was the story of Emmerllne Lablche and Louis Arceneaux, told to Longfellow when he was an Instructor at Harvard by a student from Louisiana, later Judge Henry Simon, which the poet wove Into his famous poem. If you visit St. Martinsville, La., today they wll' pojnt out to you the hou'se where "Gabriel" (Loult Arceneaux) once lived and they will take you U the spot near the left wing of the old St. Martin Catholic church, established In 1705 by Fatliet Jean Francois, a Capuchin missionary, where sleeps "Evangeline" (Emmerllne Lablche). It Is not strictly true, as Longfellow has written It, - that Side hy aide In ttietr nameless graves, ths lovers are sleeping, Under the humble walls of ths little Catholic churchyard. , In the heart pt ths city, they lie, unknown and unnoticed. ' : -Dally the tides of Ufa go thblng and flowing beside be-side them. But If yon go there you will still hear the soft accents of the Acadian tongue and you may lean-that lean-that upon occasion Maidens still wear their Norman caps and theli klrtles of homespun, And by the evening firs repeat Evangeline's atory For the descendants of the exiled Acadlans are proud of their ancestry with Its heritage of sorrow, nnd In this country of primitive beauty they live simply, yet extending always a hospitality to the stranger that warms the heart. It Is In honor of these simple, kindly people who "have left their forceful personality, the 'gray granite' virtues of honesty and uprightness, piety and political power In the civil records throughout the United States, the country they have done so much to develop.", that the Longfellow-Evangellne National Memorial Memo-rial pnrk Is to be established for the enjoyment of nil Americans. . |
