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Show Seventeenth Century Ideals Still Fresh The customs, folklore and even the native tongue of France still exists in the little community of Old Mines, Mo., where the inhabitants have persisted in keeping their Seventeenth Sev-enteenth century ideals fresh. Despite the flood tide of over-energetic over-energetic Americans around them, a score or more of families, descendants de-scendants of early settlers, remain French in religion and in every-day life. They speak a sort of old French patoise, as a priest terms it Father Van Tourenhout, a Belgian born In St. Louis, continues to make, journeys to Old Mines to hear French confessions. He encourages celebration of traditional feasts such as the Guignolee. He dons a biretta and soutane for the occasion. The peasant women wear the blue kerchief ker-chief of early France. Each week these peasants drive to nearby Potosi which they still insist on calling Mine a Breton for provisions, pro-visions, herding their families into wagons. For entertainment they meet in the evenings at homes of their neighbors for a singing party or a tale-telling. The stories are those passed down through the centuries. The peasant cannot always tell the meaning of the words he uses. They have been dropped from his vocabulary. He repeats them as a ritual as a child says "fee-fi-fo-fum." Many are altered al-tered versions of tales from Bocac-cio Bocac-cio and La Fontaine. Others are fairy tales with a few details changed to fit the local scene. |