A Libel on Digby Country

Newspaper
Year
1895
Month
10
Day
17
Article Title
A Libel on Digby Country
Author
-----
Page Number
3
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
A LIBEL ON DIGBY COUNTRY. (From the Free Press.) American journals and their correspondents, in search of sensational narratives and descriptions, carry their newspaper enterprise to altogether too great an extent. These writers are sometimes perfectly reckless in their statements. From the inner domestic life and personal affairs of Queen Victoria and all the British nobility, to the “backwoods” life of Canada, the American newspaper men can tell you all about it. We will not attempt to set them right in their highly colored, and generally scurrilous, accounts of society in England, nor quarrel with their vivid sketches of life in the Canadian shanty or on the wilds of Labrador. But, living as we do, in the centre of this county and in touch with our fellow-citizens of Clare, we do enter an earnest protest against such unmitigated nonsense as appears in a recent issue of the Boston Transcript, headed “The Acadian Remnant,” with the usual sensational headlines “Survivals of the expatriated French colonists— the Acadian family pride—the little country schools—the French Sisters.” The writer’s naive air of condescending kindliness makes the far-fetched and ridiculous description none the less offensive. In fact the patronizing tone of the article makes it just a little more objectionable. “Far, far away in Nova Scotia” it begins, “miles and miles from the ancient and traditional Grand Pre, lies a quaint little village in Digby County, District of Clare, situated” &c. The writer finds it “as fresh and unconventional as a wild-rose bud. Each family owns his” (we didn’t know a family was a he, before) “own small farm, his own yoke of oxen, and delights in his own ancestral reflections. Is there a spot in the world where one does not find pride of ‘family’ among its people?” “Ah, indeed,’ they say in broken English, ‘we have not the money or the rich lands our grandfathers had. We are poor, poor Acadians here’.” Now, we hardly think any of our Acadien friends could be found to whine in that poor-spirited style; and even if this visitor did pick up such a remark by chance, it was not very good taste to set it down as a typical utterance of those people, which we aver it is not. Oats and potatoes, we learn, are almost the only production raised in any abundance, the ground being hard and poor; but over the berries the visitor gushes with several exclamation points! Mollified, apparently, by a plentiful feast of berries, the writer then gives a paragraph of affable and patronizing praise to the happy, peaceful temperament, and charitable and hospitable disposition of these poor Acadian Remnants. For such kindly remarks, evidently written in ail sincerity loo, we should feel truly thankful; but the article is quite spoiled again by the following grotesque and absurd description of an Acadien wedding: “The festivity lasts for three days. The day before the marriage the groom invites his friends to go off with him and the bride invites her friends to go off with her on the same day. It is supposed to be a secret where either party is going. I believe, however, that the bride often tells her part of it, not being able to “keep a secret.” Well, they all get home the next morning, and their marriage ceremony begins, and their is feasting and dancing all day and all night. The next morning the bride goes away with her husband to the home he has prepared, and the feasting goes on for eight hours by the relatives and friends.” It must be interesting, though not very gratifying, to our friends in the district of Clare, to find it gravely stated to the American public, that a marriage in that section is made the occasion of a three day’s spree, and other queer practices. Next we are treated to a bright little sketch of that “pretty Acadian custom.” a weaving-bee, to which we are actually told that “the girls and old ladies come from far and near with their spinning wheels. The large cosy kitchen is cleared away to make room for the wheels and chairs, and all sit down to weave until dusk” —with spinning wheels! Of course, the Catholic church, at Church Point, with the Sigogne memorial tablet, furnishes another chatty little sketch, when “everything seems so fresh and bright on an Acadian Sabbath morning”, and when, by “one of the prettiest and most picturesque of all” the Acadian customs, according to this faithful chronicler, “the black silk handkerchiefs come out from the sweet-scented chests and great preparation is made for church.” The church decorations and altar, we are told, “are much like all Catholic churches except the atmosphere of uniqueness because it is Acadia, and the service is, of course, all in French.” A unique altar because it is Acadia, and a service all in French—in a Roman Catholic church! Near, we are further told, “And of course connected with the church, is a fine large college building and a small convent. Both were founded about four years ago by the Eudiste Order in France. Eighteen priests and several sisters were sent over to instruct and help the Acadian girls and boys.” From this the reader would infer that, until four years ago, the poor benighted Acadiens were without any instruction whatever. St Mary’s Convent and school have been in operation here for a good deal more than a quarter of a century. But we imagine that this clever explorer of the Acadien wilds never discovered St Mary’s Convent, but speaks merely of the French ministering Sisters who attend to the cooking and laundry and look after the clothes at the College, and who do not instruct the Acadien girls and boys at all. The compliment paid the “charming old French priest” who showed the visitors around, is quite appropriate : “b=his self-abnegation and interest in the welfare of the Acadians was real and heartfelt”; but if the grammar of the phrase had been good, it would have sounded still better. But the next remark, upon the portraits in the College hall, of the founder and present Superior of the Eudist Order, that “both bad pure, spiritual faces, which I was not a little surprised to see”, beats ail. To expect these highly educated men, undoubtedly devoted to their sacred mission, not to possess pure and spiritual faces, shows surprising ignorance; and such a public expression thereof shows surprising impudence. One more extract must be given in its brilliant entirety : “We were shown upstairs into a very elegantly furnished bedroom, hung with red curtains and draperies. The priest explained to us that the room was being used at present by a French pere, but when the Irish pere came, the red was hidden away and the room draped in green. It struck me as being a very pretty and loyal custom, and the priest informed us of it with such an air of condescension that we were greatly amused.” This statement is an enigma. Did that “French père” say something in jest which was taken in earnest, or did his visitors entirely misunderstand him? In no other way can such a piece of utter nonsense be accounted for. Finally, after “we had been a week in lovely Acadia” our fabulous narrator “took the train and proceeded further along in Digby County, way up to the quaint old Digby itself.” Weymouth fortunately was not discovered by this Boston explorer. Digby and Annapolis get brief but graphic descriptions, due prominence being of course given to the Racquette, where “Indians live in their wigwams all summer long, selling beautiful skin rugs to the visitors.” “But back to Acadia we went to say good-bye and to imbue our minds once more with the peace and charity of the atmosphere. For the last time we put on the quaint black handkerchief, and playfully declared we would always like to wear it.” Let us hope that when the Boston Transcript wants a descriptive article upon “Acadia” (comprising the township of Clare, in the county of Digby!), it will send some one whose mind is imbued with less exaggeration, a good deal more accuracy and some little common sense.