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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/canadianfolklifeOOgree 
 
CANADIAN 
 
 FOLK- LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 FOLK-LORE 
 
 WILLIAA\ PARKER GREENOUGH 
 "G.DE MONTAV/BAN " 
 
 £TC.,£TC. 
 
 '^SW^W 
 
 WITH 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 VV^TER C. GREENOUGH 
 
 GEORGE HRICHAAOND 
 
 I897 
 
,0 0/ 
 
 L9721 
 
 Copyrighted, l897, by 
 William Parker Greenough 
 
 A 
 V 
 
TO 
 
 SIR H. G. JOLY DE LOTBINIERE, 
 
 ONE OF THE TRUEST OF CANADIANS, 
 
 I Dedicate this Book. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 PART 
 
 I. My Friends, the Habitants of Canada 3 
 
 II. Animal Life and Fish 17 
 
 III. Occupations 33 
 
 IV. Amusements— CoNTES and Raconteurs 45 
 
 V. The Church 67 
 
 VI. Marriages and Festivities . 85 
 
 Vli. The Feudal System lot 
 
 Vlil. Changes in Type iiS 
 
 IX. Chansons Canadiennes 129 
 
 X. Language— Education 149 
 
 XI. Conveyances 161 
 
 XII. S0A\E National Characteristics 169 
 
 XIII. A V/inter Excursion 179 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FLAX-BREAKER Frontispiece 
 
 PRESCOTT GATE {inside) Facing page x 
 
 PRESCOTT GATE {outside) " xii 
 
 HOPE GATE " 4 
 
 PALACE HILL " 6 
 
 ST. LOUIS GATE " 8 
 
 THE REAPER " 10 
 
 PLOUGHING " 13 
 
 FLAX-BREAKING " 14 
 
 BEAVERS' HUT " 22 
 
 NAZAIRE " 46 
 
 LOG-DRIVING " 50 
 
 STORY-TELLING " S8 
 
 CALVAIRE " 70 
 
 / 
 
IN THE PROCESSION Facing page 74 
 
 76 
 109 
 112 
 176 
 187 
 190 
 
 J 
 
 BEFORE AN ALTAR . . 
 CANADIAN FARM-HOUSE 
 VERCHERES 
 
 WINTER (Emblematical) 
 
 CROSSING THE LAKE . 
 WINTER SUNRISE . . . 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
< 
 o 
 
 H 
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 O 
 
 o 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Within the last few years travellers, and especially 
 American travellers, have felt that their tours on this con- 
 tinent were incomplete unless they included a visit to the 
 venerable, historic, and picturesque city of Quebec. In 
 antiquity it has few equals in the New World, in pic- 
 turesqueness and beauty of situation it is unequalled, and 
 in historic interest it has no rival. 
 
 Quebec indeed well repays the visitor, whether he 
 be the vacation tourist or the leisurely student of times 
 and manners. For the one a day or a week may be well 
 spent in simple sight-seeing, and for the other a month or a 
 year may be made to yield new pleasures every day. 
 
 Most of the visitors to Quebec, however, come in sum- 
 mer, and the winter aspects and charms of the city were 
 until recently but little known and little appreciated. 
 
 The winter carnivals of 1 894 and 1 896 brought to the 
 city a goodly number of strangers, not one of whom left 
 it without carrying away delightful recollections of strik- 
 ing scenes and unexpected pleasures. The carnivals were 
 general festivals in which every one had a share. The 
 lookers-on were as interesting as the snowshoers or the 
 ice fortress. Universal hilarity prevailed, such as one 
 would expect to find only in climates considered more 
 favorable to out-of-door diversions. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 English and American visitors, accustomed to take 
 their pleasures soberly, could hardly understand how a 
 whole city could be so completely en fete as was Quebec 
 at these times. They, however, quickly fell into the 
 spirit of the occasion, and each gladly contributed his 
 share to the pleasures of the rest. Many then realized 
 how an old habitue of Quebec would love it as well in 
 winter as in summer. 
 
 But in neither summer nor winter would the visitor 
 see much of the country people, the habitants. He might 
 see a few on the markets or elsewhere and be interested 
 in some of their peculiarities, but of their home life, a life 
 diiTering at so many points from his own, he would learn 
 nothing. 
 
 The habitant is simply the farmer. The name was 
 given to those early settlers who remained to inhabit the 
 country, to distinguish them from officials, traders, and 
 others who were not expected to reside in it permanently. 
 
 For many years business relations have brought me 
 much into contact with the habitants, and for some years 
 past have induced me to live almost constantly among 
 them. My friends and acquaintances, finding so many 
 interesting points about the people, asked me many ques- 
 tions about them. As I had at some seasons of the year 
 a good deal of leisure it occurred to me to write out my 
 replies to these questions, and perhaps answer others not 
 yet asked and give some information not yet called for. 
 
 Naturally, the matter grew under my hand, and I 
 found after some time that my manuscript had increased 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 to rather a formidable pile, all the more so that since my 
 readers were expected to be only persons with whom I was 
 acquainted 1 had not taken pains to eliminate the personal 
 element. After the manuscript had passed from hand to 
 hand until it was worn almost to fragments, and after 
 many people had said, " 1 wish you would get this printed 
 and send me a copy," it was decided to put the matter into 
 type and reproduce in other forms some of the photo- 
 graphs and sketches that accompanied it. 
 
 What 1 had written related only to the French Cana- 
 dian people and to life in some country parishes. Nothing 
 was said about people of other races who came into the 
 country later, but now form an important though not very 
 large part of the population. They demand separate con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Nor had I said anything about the city of Quebec. 
 Abler writers have written of it often and well. But when 
 collecting my papers for the printer, 1 found I had some 
 photographs of the old gates of the city, now demolished. 
 As they were among the last to be taken and are becoming 
 somewhat rare, I decided to have them copied in half-tone 
 and inserted in this volume, partly as a means of pres- 
 ervation and partly because they may revive in some 
 people memories of the days before Quebec became mod- 
 ernized. 
 
 Public convenience doubtless required that the gates 
 and some parts of the old fortifications should be removed, 
 but their removal detracted very much from the pictur- 
 esqueness and distinctive character of the city. 
 
iii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The three gates now standing — two of them on the 
 sites of the old ones — are quite modern structures, and 
 harmonize only moderately well with the connecting walls. 
 One of them (Kent Gate) is entirely a recent opening, not 
 belonging to the old system of fortifications. Prescott 
 Gate, formerly standing on Mountain Hill, Palace Gate, 
 about half way up Palace Street, and Hope Gate have 
 entirely disappeared. Their sites may be easily located, 
 although the immediate surroundings have been very 
 much changed. 
 
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part 11 
 
 MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS 
 OF CANADA 
 
MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS 
 OF CANADA 
 
 As one should always eat of the menu of the day and 
 drink of the wine of the country, so he who wishes to note 
 and most enjoy the distinctive features of Canada should 
 visit her in winter, for it is then that she wears her native 
 dress. Her summer habiliments, though beautiful and 
 fascinating, are only the dress of a fete day. She begins 
 to decorate herself in May, but it is not till the days are 
 longest that she appears in her fullest glory. These tran- 
 sient adornments are again laid aside at the first touch of 
 September frosts, to reappear in their perfection only when 
 the June sun begins to run high. Such is the Canadian 
 season,— a short four months, in which Nature seems to 
 do all her out-of-door work. For the long remainder of 
 the year her retarded but no less potent activities are hid- 
 den from sight. 
 
 When 1 speak of Canada I mean the Canada of old ; 
 what in the first half of this century was called Lower 
 Canada, now the Province of Quebec. The other Prov- 
 inces of the eastern part of the Dominion of Canada have 
 their own distinctive features, but, with some exceptions, 
 they are of more ordinary, well known character. There 
 is grand scenery to be found in many other parts of the 
 Dominion also, but the special human interest of Lower 
 Canada is wanting. Lower Canada, the Province of 
 Quebec, has scenery, climate, institutions, people, history, 
 of its own, all peculiar and unlike those of any of the 
 other Provinces. 
 
4 MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 
 
 It is of them and of them only that I propose to write, 
 and mainly, too, of country and winter life, of which the 
 ordinary tourist or visitor sees but very little, 
 \ Some people have an idea that the climate of Canada 
 in winter is that of the Arctic regions. The climate is 
 cold, it is true, hut it is an endurable cold, dry and clear; 
 far less trying- than the damp airs of eastern New Eng- 
 land, even at the difference of 10 or 15 degrees of the 
 thermometer. Still, many may be surprised to learn that 
 Quebec is 150 miles farther south than Paris, 325 miles 
 south of London, 675 miles south of Glasgow, and 1025 
 miles south of St, Petersburg^ Westward from Quebec 
 the same parallel passes not far from Duluth, Minnesota, 
 and the mouth of the Columbia river. Crossing the 
 Pacific we should touch the northern part of Japan and 
 the southernmost points of Siberia, and then away across 
 the whole of China into southern Russia. Going east 
 on the same parallel we should pass near Lyons in France 
 and the line between Switzerland and Italy, and should go 
 far south of all Germany and through the southern part 
 of Hungary. It was said in the old " Peter Parley's Geog- 
 raphy," that I studied when I was a small boy, that Que- 
 bee has the summer of Paris and the winter of St, Peters- 
 burg. 
 
 The greatest cold that I have personally recorded was 
 38 degrees below zero, and that was in the woods. Prob- 
 ably in the city of Quebec or in particularly exposed places 
 it was at that time 42° or 45 '^ below. But this was only 
 for a few hours, and it did not prevent the lumbermen 
 from working as usual. Of course feet and fingers, ears 
 and faces, would soon be frozen if carelessly exposed to 
 such a temperature ; but the workingman, thickly clad in 
 three or four heavy flannel shirts and pairs of trousers, and 
 with numberless pairs of stockings on his feet, experiences 
 
HOPE GATE 
 
MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 5 
 
 no inconvenience. From about 10^ above to 10° below 
 zero, if without wind, is very comfortable winter weather 
 and the Canadian climate burnishes a good deal of it. It 
 is not cold enough to interfere with almost any business 
 or pleasure that the people may have in hand. 
 
 The spring may be considered to come on late, but 
 once started, vegetation advances with wonderful rapidity. 
 Fields will usually be covered with snow till the middle of 
 April and sometimes even later, but in two or three days 
 after it is gone the grass is up fresh and bright. The 
 ground is seldom frozen deep before it is covered with 
 snow, and so as soon as the snow is gone the frost is out, 
 and on dry land ploughing can be commenced at once. 
 
 If the spring comes late, the autumn comes early. 
 Heavy frosts may be expected in September, and by the 
 middle of October everything liable to be damaged by 
 cold weather should be harvested. 
 
 Naturally, growth must be extremely rapid, so rapid in 
 fact that its progress is perceptible from day to day. 
 
 For instance, the writer had occasion to go to a fishing 
 camp which was on the edge of a lake and surrounded by 
 thick woods, on the 18th or 19th of May. In the open 
 country the roads were passable for wheeled vehicles, but 
 once in the woods the way was a succession of mud-holes 
 and snow-banks. The lake was crossed on the ice, and 
 on this occasion on foot, for greater caution, although 
 only two or three days before horses had crossed on it. 
 On the 20th the ice looked dangerous, and bits of open 
 water could be seen ; on the 21st these spaces were much 
 larger, and on the evening of the 22d scarcely any ice 
 was visible. The country people say it does not melt, 
 but becomes saturated with water and sinks nearly all at 
 once. 
 
 On the 2Qth there were few signs of spring noticeable 
 
6 MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 
 
 on the hills that faced to the north, opposite the camp. 
 We could discern a slight freshness in the evergreens and 
 some swelling of buds on birches and maples, but that was 
 all. The 21st showed a decided change, and on the 24th 
 those hills were almost a mass of verdure, growing thicker 
 and richer with each succeeding day. Still we had no 
 difficulty in finding snow in which to pack our fish. 
 
 On the 20th of September following, four months later, 
 the trees began to look decidedly brown, and every now 
 and then some bright crimsons of maples and yellows of 
 birches stood out sharply. The morning of the 21st 
 showed a wonderful change, and two or three days later 
 reds and yellows were the predominant colors, and the 
 evergreens had lost all their freshness. In only four 
 months all this mass of forest growth had budded, blos- 
 somed, ripened, and faded. 
 
 As in the forests so it is in the fields, and the farmer's 
 work on his crops must mainly be done^in this short time. 
 But this time is a time of beauty. So much has been 
 said and written of the winter climate of Canada that 
 people are apt to think that it has no other, which is an 
 entirely erroneous idea. Later May and June are beauti- 
 ful, rich with ever-changing hues of springing grass and 
 bursting vegetation. July and August see them mature 
 and begin to ripen, while September and October are the 
 months of all-completed harvest. There is no dallying. 
 Nature keeps the farmer busy, and every day shows what 
 she is doing for him. It is not here that spring comes 
 slowly with scarcely noticeable steps, as in more southern 
 regions. She comes late but not slowly, opening suddenly 
 on us with a splendid outburst. Winter lingers, loath to 
 go and eager to come again ; but between the going and 
 the coming are some most delightful months, — no scorch- 
 
MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 7 
 
 ing heats, no debilitating- nights, but an ever fresh and 
 invigorating aii". ' 
 
 Oh, no, it is not always winter in Canada. 
 
 As in speaking of Canada 1 mean only the Province of 
 Quebec, and especially that part of it not very far from 
 the city of Quebec, so also in speaking of Canadians I 
 mean only the French people of that Province ; for there 
 the French consider themselves the only true Canadians, 
 all others being, as it were, foreigners and, in a sense, 
 intruders. When not classed in a mass as Irish, from the 
 most numerous of the foreign nationalities, they are men- 
 tioned as either Irish, Scotch, English, or otherwise, but 
 not as Canadians. On the cars a few days ago a man 
 gave the population of his parish as so many " Irlandais" 
 and so many Canadians, meaning by " Irlandais " all those 
 not French. Americans resident in Canada fall into the 
 habit of making the same distinction to some extent. If 
 we speak of a person as a Canadian he is at once assumed 
 to be French. If he is not French we must designate his 
 origin, for among the French people generally to have 
 been born in Canada does not make a man a Canadian. 
 Some leaders of public feeling among the French encour- 
 age this sentiment. So English Canadians very generally 
 designate all citizens of the United States as Yankees, 
 although the French call them Americains. Not long ago 
 an American gentleman, being otTended at the tone in 
 which the word Yankee was applied to his countrymen 
 by an English Canadian, retaliated by designating the 
 French people as Canadians and the others as " Kanucks." 
 Though it answered the speaker's purpose there was no 
 real sense in the distinction. Along the borders of the 
 States, and indeed throughout New England, the word 
 " Kanuck " is applied to Canadians generally. 
 
 The Province can and does claim an enormous extent 
 
8 MV friends, the habitants of CANADA. 
 
 of land yet unexplored. Whether much of it is even 
 worth exploring" is not known ; at all events it is not 
 wanted or likely to be wanted for ages. It is hardly pos- 
 sible that there can be either cultivable land or valuable 
 timber on by far the greater part of it. A veteran sur- 
 veyor who was sent many years ago to explore for timber 
 the country far north of Lake St. John found nothing of 
 value and turned back. Possibly that may have been only 
 a local condition on account of the region having been 
 devastated by fire in some bygone century. A recent ex- 
 plorer is said to have found immense forests of spruce, 
 but the unauthenticated statements imputed to him are 
 not confirmed in his olficial report, and seem to pass the 
 limits of probability. 
 
 It is probable that agents and factors of the Hudson's 
 Bay Company could give much information about that 
 part of Canada if they would ; but the policy of the com- 
 pany has always been that of secrecy. Formerly no 
 explorer could go far into the company's territories with- 
 out help that could only be found at the company's posts. 
 If an unfortunate explorer needed help to get out he could 
 have it, but if one wanted to go in the other direction he 
 would find the obstacles almost insurmountable. Since 
 the Dominion Government has acquired jurisdiction over 
 that region, however, the difficulty has been somewhat 
 lessened, and government explorers at least have been able 
 to go wherever they desired. 
 
 The immediate valley of the St. Lawrence, once doubt- 
 less forming part of the bed of the river, is very narrow, 
 seldom more than one or two miles in width, and broken 
 by numerous points and headlands, on some of which are 
 now perched picturesque Canadian villages with their 
 equally picturesque parish churches. One can easily 
 imagine the delight of the first explorers of the river as 
 
H 
 
MY FRIENDS, The habitants of CANADA. 9 
 
 they passed these lands, then covered with a luxurious 
 growth of elm, ash, and other trees that indicated a won- 
 derful fertility of soil. This magnificent verdure hid from 
 sight the inhospitable hills that were a short distance away. 
 But to the original settler the wood was his enemy, and 
 his first eflforts were directed to cutting it down and clear- 
 ing it away. As there was no market for it, it could only 
 be burned. 
 
 The soil is a rich alluvium, and still yields abundantly. 
 Away from these fertile valleys of the St. Lawrence and 
 the rivers falling into it the land rises sharply in terraces 
 to other levels, with a sandy soil, extending to the base 
 of the hills. Most of this land is now cleared and culti- 
 vated, the lower levels with fair but the upper levels with 
 only very moderate results. 
 
 The main body of improved and cultivated land north 
 of the St. Lawrence is that lying between that river and the 
 Laurentian hills, which seem to come down to the water's 
 edge at Les Eboulements, about one hundred and fifty miles 
 below Quebec, and extend nearly west, losing their distinct- 
 ive name somewhere about north of Montreal, although in 
 fact the range continues to and beyond the head of Lake 
 Superior. As the general course of the river is towards 
 the northeast, the width of this cultivable strip generally 
 increases as one goes west. Near Quebec it does not 
 exceed nine miles, and continues about the same for some 
 sixty or seventy miles westerly, widening only slowly in 
 the main, but with considerable good land along the banks 
 of several tributary streams. 
 
 But when once we have reached the base of the Lauren- 
 tian hills the areas of good farming land are small and 
 scattered. It is only in the neighborhood of Lake St. 
 John that there is any considerable amount of it. Just 
 how much there is, is not really known and is the subject 
 
10 MV FRIENDS, The HABITANTS OF CANADA. 
 
 of much dispute. The most extravagant claims are made 
 on the one hand, and even moderate estimates disal- 
 lowed on the other. This lake is some forty-five miles 
 long, with several large rivers flowing into it. All, or 
 nearly all, have very swift currents and innumerable falls 
 and rapids, so it is safe to assume that the greater part of 
 the land is mountainous. Although the farmers of that 
 region formerly had no considerable market nearer than 
 Quebec, one hundred and eighty miles away, over roads 
 only passable in winter, there have been some parishes 
 near the lake for many years. The Seigneur de Roberval 
 established a settlement there as early as 1650, but per- 
 ished in the wilderness. 
 
 In order to let these people get out and to try to get others 
 to go in, the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway was built 
 a few years ago, and in these respects has been moder- 
 ately successful. A good many settlers have gone there, 
 and some at least are reported to be doing moderately well. 
 The climate, however, is treacherous, and although the 
 winters are claimed to be milder than those of Quebec, 
 late and early frosts are much to be feared. Still, many 
 intelligent and enthusiastic citizens have strong hopes that 
 the region will yet come to be an important section of 
 the Province. 
 
 On the south side of the St. Lawrence, approaching 
 what are known as the " Eastern Townships," the land is 
 very much better, level or gently rolling, with soil fertile 
 and easily worked. There, buildings have something of 
 the appearance of those of a well-to-do New England farm- 
 ing community. North of the St. Lawrence also, going 
 west from the city of Three Rivers (about ninety miles from 
 Quebec), wide, rich, and well cultivated farms, amply pro- 
 vided with substantial buildings of every kind, extend far 
 away from the river's bank. 
 
THE REAPER 
 
MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 
 
 11 
 
 These, however, are not the parts of the country I pro- 
 pose to write about, which are mainly the rougher and 
 less favored regions nearer the city of Quebec. 
 
 From the cabin on the lake already spoken of one 
 might follow the line of longitude to the North Pole with- 
 out seeing a house unless by accident some post of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, isolated in the wilderness, should 
 be stumbled upon. Yet the lake is less than fifteen miles 
 from the thickly settled valley of the St. Lawrence, and 
 only some thirty miles from Quebec. 
 
 In these sections the average farmer would not be con- 
 sidered, in the States, to be a very thriving person. But 
 his wants are few and his tastes of the simplest, so that 
 he manages to feed his numerous children, pay his dues 
 to Church and State, and have a decent suit of clothes for 
 Sundays and holidays. He must be very poor indeed if 
 he cannot make a respectable appearance at church. It is 
 a matter of religion with him. He works less steadily 
 and with less intelligence than the New Englander, but 
 is twice as well satisfied with what he gets, and prob- 
 ably quite as hap- 
 py and contented. 
 He makes but little 
 progress in any di- 
 rection, but feels not 
 the slightest uneasi- 
 ness on that account. 
 He has a great deal 
 of the bliss that goes 
 with ignorance, al- 
 though the last two or three decades have seen much 
 change in this respect, and he no longer insists that what 
 was good enough for the fathers is good enough for him. 
 
 The farmers' principal crops are hay, oats, and potatoes. 
 
12 
 
 MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 
 
 With these are some buckwheat and other articles of 
 minor importance, mainly for the family use. Some 
 tobacco is everywhere raised for home consumption, but 
 almost always of very inferior quality. A few cattle and 
 hogs, a little poultry, and a very few sheep are kept. 
 Canadian cows are small, but hardy and good milkers. 
 
 Since the gen- 
 
 "^t^'Kr^A- ,.-1 ---1 ^ — -—4^- — eral introduc- 
 
 tion of butter 
 and cheese fac- 
 tories the prod- 
 uct of these ar- 
 ticles has great- 
 ly increased 
 and the qual- 
 ity improved, 
 so that cattle 
 raising is a little more profitable than formerly. Some 
 years ago only the dairies of the best English and Scotch 
 farmers produced butter of very high grade, but now the 
 factories fully equal or surpass them. No strictly first-class 
 fat cattle are raised. The best beef on the Quebec market 
 mostly comes from the Province of Ontario or from the 
 " Eastern Townships," the counties along and near the line 
 of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Neither is the 
 raising of horses profitable of late years. The race of 
 Canadian horses that was famous fifty or seventy-five 
 years ago has entirely disappeared, and its equal for speed 
 and hardiness has not been found. It seems a pity that a 
 breed so entirely suited to the general wants of the com- 
 munity should have become extinct. Short legged, heavy 
 bodied, and broad chested, with intelligent eyes and wide 
 nostrils, they could endure more hard work and hard fare 
 than any of the races that have supplanted them. With- 
 

MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 13 
 
 out being extremely swift they were good drivers and 
 could take the traveller over as much road as he could 
 endure driving over in one day. 
 
 Women and girls help a good deal in field work, but not 
 so generally now as formerly. It is not unusual to see a 
 horse and an ox harnessed together with a man holding 
 the plough and the woman driving.^ I saw a case of this 
 kind not long ago, as picturesque to the looker-on as it 
 was devoid of encouragement to the workers. The party was 
 ploughing on the steep side of a broken gully in a sandy 
 soil where there seemed no possible chance of any crop 
 that would pay for an hour's labor. Man, woman, horse, 
 ox, plough, harness, and land looked equally forlorn. A 
 little further on 1 passed a man and boy ploughing, while 
 two women and seven children were planting potatoes in 
 the furrows. One might think the family could almost eat 
 the expected harvest at a meal, so poor was the prospect of 
 a crop. In more favorable localities the women work only 
 at lighter tasks, making hay, harvesting grain, and the 
 like. Women at work in a hay field in the pleasant sum- 
 mer weather are always a pretty sight, and they seem to 
 enjoy the occupation. In the old times, when all the grain 
 was cut with the sickle, there was much hard work for 
 women, and the rounded backs and shoulders of many of 
 the old farmers' wives still tell of the labors they endured. 
 Modern mowing and reaping machines have done much 
 for the women here. 
 
 Formerly a good deal of flax was raised, and home- 
 spun linen was the rule. Linen is now cheaper to buy 
 than to weave, and except by a few families where there 
 are many women for whom there is little employment 
 flax is not much cultivated. 
 
 The breaking of the flax affords one of the most pict- 
 uresque sights to |3e found. It is almost always done in 
 3 
 
14 MY FRIENDS, THE HABITANTS OF CANADA. 
 
 some pretty little nook, where there is plenty of shade, and 
 where fire can be made without danger. Heat is necessary 
 to separate the fibre from the woody portions of the stalk, 
 and as flax is exceedingly inflammable there must be no 
 buildings near, it is dusty work, but as there are always 
 a number of women at it, and chatting can be kept up 
 almost without intermission, they like it. 
 
 Pleasant weather in the month of October adds the 
 charm of brilliant autumn foliage and bright sunshine. 
 
 But with all his labor and all his simplicity of life, on 
 the unfertile soils near the foot of the Laurentians, the 
 habitant cannot always succeed in making both ends meet, 
 and many uncultivated fields and deserted dwellings may 
 be seen, the owners of which have gone to seek kinder 
 fortunes elsewhere. The land yields well when first 
 cleared and while the ashes of the burned wood serve to 
 fertilize it, but when these are exhausted there is not much 
 good in the soil. 
 
 To some men of the younger generations of these hab- 
 itants abandoned farms of New England have seemed to 
 offer greater temptations than their native country could 
 show them. The number of these farmers is not very 
 great, but 1 understand that such as have taken such farms 
 have almost invariably been successful. Patient and 
 frugal, they are content with results that did not satisfy 
 the more restless and ambitious Americans. 
 
r- 
 > 
 X 
 
 CD 
 
 m 
 > 
 
 o 
 
part nil 
 ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH 
 
ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH 
 
 The stranger in Canadian forests, whetlier in sum- 
 mer or winter, will be surprised at the small amount 
 of animal life to be seen. In winter he will scarcely 
 see a bird unless it be an occasional partridge, now and 
 then a raven, and about his camp a few " whiskey jacks " 
 or crossbills. But if he roams much in the woods he 
 will find plenty of evidence of a life that does not show 
 itself openly. Tracks of rabbits, foxes, martens, and squir- 
 rels will be found everywhere. Looking carefully along 
 by the banks of streams he may find tracks of otter, mink, 
 or muskrat. If the stranger is a hunter and has a good 
 rifle under his arm, he will be on the lookout for caribou, 
 almost the only large game now to be found here in 
 winter, for the moose is scarce in this region, and the red 
 deer finds the snow too deep for his small feet and keeps 
 to places where there is less of it. 
 
 Caribou, however, are reasonably plenty, and the skilled 
 hunter need not pass many days during the proper season 
 without finding them. If they have not been disturbed 
 there will very likely be three or four, and perhaps ten or 
 a dozen together. Although timid they are curious. They 
 sometimes wander into villages, and have even been found 
 in fields, and driven to barns with cattle. Quite recently 
 one was seen one evening within a hundred yards of a 
 paper mill that was lighted up and running, and another 
 stood for some time where a man might have shot him 
 from his bedroom window. Such instances are somewhat 
 rare, although not extremely so. If the hunter who is for- 
 
l8 ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 tunate enough to get on a fresh trail will follow it up care- 
 fully, making as little noise as possible, he has a fair 
 chance of success. If the snow should be three feet or so 
 deep the caribou will not go far without stopping, unless he 
 is frightened. If he is, he can get away at a tremendous 
 pace, for his feet spread tolerably wide and the under part 
 of the hoof is somewhat concaved, causing the snow to 
 become solid under it instead of being merely thrust aside, 
 so that unless the snow is extremely light and soft his feet 
 do not sink deep. The caribou has also a way quite peculiar 
 to himself of putting his feet to the ground, by which he 
 brings the " dew-claws " or " accessory hoofs," as they are 
 sometimes called, to bear, which has the effect of making 
 a track twice or three times the size of the hoof alone. 
 
 The caribou seems to have no idea whatever of per- 
 sonal comfort. He will lie down to rest in a bed of slush, 
 half snow and half icy water, or on a hillock of grass 
 scarcely above the water's edge. He has no fixed home, 
 but wanders about wherever his fancies lead him, although 
 if he happens to hit on good feeding ground he may stay 
 for some time in its neighborhood. His senses of hearing 
 and smell are very acute. I think, however, that loud 
 noises for which his instincts cannot account, confuse him. 
 The breaking of a twig may start a whole herd on the 
 run, but if a rifle shot kills one of them the others may 
 circle about as if uncertain what direction to take. On 
 the Quebec & Lake St. John Railway, some years ago, 
 some friends of mine saw a herd of five from the car win- 
 dows. They stopped the train, got off, and "went for" 
 them. 
 
 The caribou has increased rapidly since the enactment 
 and partial enforcement of suitable game laws. Thorough 
 enforcement would be difficult. The open season is now 
 from September first to February first, five months, but 
 
ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 19 
 
 in effect these are practically almost reduced to two, for 
 there can be no g:reat amount of successful hunting until 
 the ground is well covered with snow, usually about the 
 1st of December. The caribou shed their horns usually 
 in November, and the man who buys a fine panage to 
 ornament his dining room has some ground to suspect 
 that the animal was killed when he ought not to have 
 been. What becomes of all the horns dropped in the 
 woods } The writer 
 has never found but 
 one, and that a small 
 one. They are proba- 
 bly quickly found and 
 eaten by insects and 
 small rodents. 
 
 Mr. Caspar Whitney 
 in " On Snowshoes to 
 the Barren Grounds " 
 complains bitterly of 
 the absurd ways of his 
 Indians in hunting the 
 caribou, rushing, shout- 
 ing, and tiring guns at 
 random instead of quietly stalking them. A gentleman 
 who has hunted caribou on the Barren Grounds east of 
 Hudson's Bay tells me that this is precisely the method of 
 the Indians in that region. They depend on getting them 
 confused so that they are uncertain where to gd, and can 
 be cut down at will, for the caribou is, in the main, a very 
 stupid creature. The trouble with Mr. Whitney was that 
 he had not Indians enough. 
 
 As an example of the number of caribou on the edge of 
 the Barren Grounds, a factor of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany told an acquaintance of mine that he laid in a stock of 
 
 Chasseur. 
 
20 ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 nine hundred carcasses for the winter's supply of his post. 
 Another man tells me he has seen in Labrador herds of 
 three or four hundred. In the swamps of the interior of 
 Newfoundland similar herds are often seen. 
 
 The Barren Grounds extend, as doubtless most of my 
 readers know, nearly or quite across the Continent, from 
 the interior of Labrador on the east to Alaska on the west, 
 and from the limit of timber on the south away into the 
 Arctic Circle. In the depths of this region of desolation 
 Mr. Whitney says no living creature exists in winter 
 except the musk-ox. No vegetation .xcept mosses and 
 lichens can be found there. Even the caribou merely 
 skirts its borders. 
 
 Moose are now seldom seen in this region. Hunting, 
 lumbering, settlements, and in some places railroads, have 
 either destroyed or driven them away. Not that they are 
 extinct by any means, for a few are found every year 
 within reach of hunters; but if they are plenty anywhere 
 it is in places that the sportsman would find it hard to 
 get at. Only the Indian, who makes very little account of 
 distances and can exist almost anywhere, and to whom the 
 meat is valuable, would find it worth his while to follow 
 them to their haunts. For sporting purposes they appear 
 to be far more plentiful in Maine and Nova Scotia than 
 north of the St. Lawrence. Powerful as they are, they do 
 not like too deep snow, and a crust is their abomination, 
 for they break through it and cut their legs. The writer 
 has never happened to meet one in the woods, although 
 in his early experience, thirty or thirty-five years ago, 
 he very often came across their tracks and sometimes their 
 " yards." These " yards " are more exactly a net- work 
 of paths beaten in the deep snow on some good feeding 
 ground. There the animals remain, browsing within a 
 limited area for days or weeks at a time. They are likely 
 
ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 21 
 
 also to return to the same neighborhood year after year, 
 finding a larger supply of fresh and tender twigs and 
 branches than in localities not previously cropped. If the 
 hunter finds one of these yards he is tolerably sure of his 
 game, for it cannot easily get far away. Whether shoot- 
 ing the creatures under such circumstances comes within 
 the limits of " sport " is another question. 1 have heard 
 that in the times when there was a garrison at Quebec, 
 including many English officers who wanted amusement 
 and cared nothing for the cost, whenever Indians or others 
 in roaming about" the woods found one of these yards 
 they would hasten to town and inform their clients, who 
 would return with their guides and shoot every moose to 
 be found. 
 
 Moose, although scarce, as already stated, seem to be 
 slowly increasing in number under the operation of judi- 
 cious game laws. 
 
 Fur-bearing animals have been driven away by civiliza- 
 tion, but hunters and trappers who will go far enough for 
 them still get a good supply. Necessarily, aside from the 
 numbers killed, they become more scarce as their habitats 
 are encroached upon. It is not merely that they are com- 
 pelled to migrate, but the natural balance is disturbed and 
 the struggle for life becomes too tierce for them. 
 
 The beaver, once so plentiful that their skins formed 
 the principal article of commerce of the country, ship- 
 ments of tens of thousands of them being made yearly, 
 are now almost as rare as the moose. They are not ex- 
 tinct or alarmingly near extinction, but persistent hunting 
 for three centuries and the advance of civilization have 
 not only reduced their numbers but driven most of the 
 remainder into other regions. 1 can still tind new-made 
 dams and lately built cabanes, but they are scarce. Hunt- 
 ing them in this Province is now forbidden until the year 
 
22 ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 1900, which will give them a respite. They will perhaps 
 not return to their old homes, but build new ones a few 
 miles away, for they are accustomed to migrate to some 
 extent. After inhabiting a certain neighborhood for a few 
 years they may suddenly desert it for no known reason 
 and establish themselves on other water courses, going 
 considerable distances over land or even directly over some 
 mountain in order to reach them. 
 
 Accounts of the wonderful sagacity of these little crea- 
 tures may be found in almost any work on natural history, 
 but I have heard of one point that I do not remember 
 to have seen noted. Almost any woodsman felling trees 
 will occasionally let one fall so that it will lodge on other 
 trees and not come to the ground. The beaver never 
 does this. When he fells a tree it comes quite down, and 
 always falls towards the water. Then with those sharp 
 little teeth of his he cuts it up into lengths that he can 
 handle and stacks them up for his winter's provision, 
 quite near to his cahane. His food is mainly the inner 
 bark and part of the sap-wood of birch, alder, mountain 
 ash, and some other deciduous trees. Unlike his neigh- 
 bor, the otter, he does not eat fish. 
 
 It is a little curious to note that in the history of the 
 early trade of the country little or no mention is made of 
 any skins except those of the beaver, and this at a time 
 when furs were the only export of Canada and when 
 other furs now accounted valuable were proportionately 
 plentiful. 
 
 A friend has given me a sectional sketch of a beaver's 
 cabane and many items of information about their habits, 
 some of which, perhaps, may not be generally known. I 
 can only give a few of his statements, as many of them 
 belong more properly to the realm of the naturalist. His 
 information was derived partly from much hunting of the 
 
CN 
 \ 
 
ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 23 
 
 animals during years of service with the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, and in part from Indians, with whom his duties 
 brought him into constant intercourse, and whose language 
 he speaks with perfect fluency. The Indians have num- 
 berless myths and superstitions concerning the beaver, but 
 as my friend is a close observer he was able to reject what- 
 ever of their histories he did not find in accord with his 
 own conclusions. 
 
 The construction of the beaver's hut and his method of 
 building dams are very generally understood, but may be 
 new to some. Both are built of sticks somewhat inter- 
 laced, and plastered and held together with clay. The 
 huts, in general size and shape, much resemble an ordinary 
 hay-cock. They are built close to the water's edge on 
 the banks of lakes whose outlets can be dammed. When 
 the water is low the beaver commences his hut, and at the 
 same time begins to dam the stream. The hut is com- 
 pletely circular except for a space of about eighteen inches 
 in width, which he leaves for the purpose of ingress and 
 egress. As the hut progresses he raises the height of his 
 dam, and when the water is high enough he arches over 
 this aperture also, so that the opening is at last entirely 
 under water. Then he goes on and completes his house. 
 The outside he leaves rough, but if any sticks or bunches 
 of clay protrude on the inside, he gnaws them off, leaving 
 the inner wall quite smooth. Then he proceeds to build 
 inside the hut a table or shelf, occupying the whole space 
 except that left for his doorway. This table he makes 
 slightly concave, filling up the hollow with chips, not of 
 short cuttings but of long strips, much like those thrown 
 off by a carpenter's plane. On this the beavers live and 
 sleep. The huts are high enough to allow them to sit 
 up on their haunches and play and amuse themselves 
 together, which they do a great deal. They are great 
 
24 ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 chatterers, and act as if they had a speech of their own* 
 As the otter will slide down a slippery bank into the water 
 and come out and slide again in pure play, precisely like 
 a parcel of school boys coasting-, so the beaver disports 
 himself by jumping off a bank into the lake, using his 
 broad, flat tail to give himself a spring. 
 
 The shelf or table in the hut is from three to five inches 
 above the level of the water when the dam is finished, if 
 the water afterward rises so that his house is in danger of 
 being flooded he goes to the dam and pulls out sticks 
 enough to let oflf the surplus. If the water goes down he 
 builds his dam higher. 
 
 The beaver does not usually eat in his cabin but goes 
 outside for his meals. The inside is always perfectly 
 clean and dry. Although he comes in from the water he 
 is not wet, for the water runs oflf him as from a duck's 
 back. He gives his feet, which may be slightly wet, a 
 little shake to throw the water oflf, so that he carries none 
 of it to his bed. 
 
 The female usually has two young at a birth, sometimes 
 four, and very rarely six, always equally divided as to sex. 
 If the hut becomes too small for the family, it is en- 
 larged by gnawing away from the inside and building up 
 on the outside, always keeping the walls about eighteen 
 inches in thickness. A family or a part of the same fam- 
 ily may continue to occupy the same hut for successive 
 years, although they breed so rapidly that if unmolested 
 some must necessarily colonize. My friend does not men- 
 tion the fact, but 1 have heard it said that they never 
 mate in the same family. If the colonists can find an old 
 and partly dilapidated hut they will set themselves to re- 
 pairing it rather than build a new one, for which no one 
 who observes the amount of labor required can in any 
 way blame them. 
 
ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 25 
 
 If any one reproaches me for having been led away to 
 tell about beavers instead of sticking to " my friends, the 
 habitants," 1 can only ask him to be a little indulgent, and 
 to try to look on the beavers themselves as habitants, 
 predecessors of all the others, and without whom the 
 others would not have existed. Perhaps, too, there are 
 some people to whom the habits of one class are as inter- 
 esting as those of the other. 
 
 The comparative scarcity of birds in the woods is easily 
 accounted for. There is but little for them to eat ; few 
 nuts, worms or insects, grains or grasses. Nut-bearing 
 trees are few, and of insects the only ones that seem to be 
 superabundant are black tlies and mosquitoes. Of these 
 in their season there seem to be far too many, but per- 
 haps if there were less something else would go wrong, 
 and we may be better off with them. Doubtless they 
 serve some useful purpose, although it would be hard to 
 convince the summer fisherman that such was the case. 
 Of birds of prey there 
 are only owls and 
 some hawks. Nearly 
 all the birds native to 
 the northern states exist 
 also in this part of Can- 
 ada, but not generally in 
 great numbers. Ducks 
 breed in suitable locali- 
 ties, but migrate early. 
 The wild goose is not 
 rare. Loons are plenty ; 
 being fish eaters they 
 do not depend on the 
 
 same conditions as most ^ w.^.v 
 
 pther species. Chasseuse 
 
26 ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 Along" the banks of the St. Lawrence a good many 
 ducks of various kinds, snipe, plover, and other small shore 
 birds, are to be found at the proper season, and are eagerly 
 hunted. Partridges abound, and an occasional woodcock 
 may be " raised," though they are scarce. 1 know of one 
 family of which the young ladies formerly joined their 
 brothers in their hunting expeditions and were almost 
 equally as successful as they. As these ladies, however, are 
 now all married and gone to other quarters of the globe, 
 I imagine that strolling photographers are not likely to 
 meet them on the shores of the St. Lawrence any more. 
 
 Within a few years the inland fisheries of Canada have 
 become important. The building' of the Quebec & Lake 
 St, John Railway opened up a region full of lakes and 
 streams that teemed with trout. It was known before, 
 but was dil^icult of access. The lands and waters belong 
 almost entirely to the Provincial Government, which has 
 now leased to individuals or clubs fishing privileges on 
 nearly all that can be reached without extreme difficulty. 
 Of clubs there is a considerable number, the majority com- 
 posed of Americans. Some of them control waters within 
 very large areas, including twenty, fifty, or one hundred 
 lakes, many of which the members of the clubs never have 
 seen and probably never will see. Of course not all of them 
 are good fishing waters, but enough are good to aflford as 
 fine trout tlshing as is known. The whole range of the 
 Laurentian hills is full of lakes and streams. In almost 
 every stream are trout, sometimes large in proportion to 
 its size, but depending also on various other conditions. 
 The best trout fishing in the lakes is likely to be in those 
 highest up among the hills. Where, as very often happens, 
 there is a succession or chain of lakes, it is probable that 
 only one or two will alTord good fishing for fontinalis. 
 The others may be more or less stocked with " namaycush " 
 
ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 27 
 
 or lake trout (known under various names in different 
 places), but they are rarely fished for sport. I have not 
 heard of any fontinalis being taken quite as large as the 
 largest from the Rangeleys and some other Maine lakes, 
 but fish of three, four, or five pounds are not scarce. 
 
 Those large ones will seldom rise to the fly, except 
 during a few days in late May, or early June and a few 
 days in the autumn. At other times they must be fished 
 for either by trolling or with bait in deep water, a kind of 
 fishing that the real sportsman is not likely to care for very 
 much. He will ordinarily prefer a two-pound trout taken 
 with the fly to one of five or six pounds caught with bait. 
 Nor even in fly fishing is the quality of the sport alto- 
 gether dependent on the size of the fish, although the fish- 
 erman is naturally ambitious to take the largest that is to 
 be had. A trout of a pound and a half weight in an eddy 
 of some swirling rapid will give the sportsman more satis- 
 faction than one of three pounds in quiet waters, or one of 
 two pounds in a clear, cool lake more than one of five 
 pounds in richer waters where food is plentiful and the 
 fish are " logy." Really the nicest trout for the table are 
 those weighing about a pound or a little more or less. 
 
 The Quebec & Lake St. John Railway has also opened 
 access to the haunts of the ouananiche, considered by those 
 who know it well to be second only to the salmon as a 
 game fish. It is in fact a smaller salmon, and differs little, 
 if at all, from the true salmon (salmo salar) except in size, 
 and in the fact that it does not go to the salt water. The 
 name is Indian and the termination " iche " means only 
 " little," so that " little salmon " is the translation of the 
 word ouananiche. The numerous rivers flowing into Lake 
 St. John are well stocked with them, and its outlets, the 
 Grande and Petite Decharges, which join to make that 
 wonderful river, the Saguenay, afford some of the finest 
 
28 AN1A\AL LIFE AND FISH. 
 
 fishing on the Continent. These fish love the wildest 
 rapids, and no waters seem too swift or broken for them. 
 Their strength and gaminess are wonderful. The novice 
 will in all probability lose many tish and much tackle 
 before he learns their ways. They were formerly thought 
 to be indigenous only to the waters of Grand Lake, on 
 the borders of Maine and New Brunswick, and to Lake St. 
 John and its tributaries, but it is now known that some of 
 the rivers of Labrador are teeming with them. 
 
 The salmon fisheries of the streams flowing into the St. 
 Lawrence are too well known to need special reference. 
 They are all under lease, largely to Americans. The rentals 
 range all the way from twenty -five dollars to six thou- 
 sand dollars per annum. 
 
 The fisheries of the lower St. Lawrence are varied and 
 valuable. Those of the upper St. Lawrence, above Que- 
 bec and below Montreal, are of small individual but con- 
 siderable aggregate importance to the local consumers. 
 The fish are mostly taken in nets or traps. . The only 
 kinds that give the people any amusement in the catch- 
 ing are the smelt and the " tommy cod." The former do 
 not go much above Quebec, where they are caught with 
 rod and bait, as in thousands of other places. But the 
 " tommy cod," the petite morue of the French people, 
 goes up to the head of tide-water, some ninety miles above 
 Quebec, to spawn, about Christmas, and continues about 
 three weeks — not longer. They are caught in different 
 ways, sometimes with traps and scoop nets, but more gen- 
 erally with hand lines through holes cut in the ice, from 
 little cabins set just along the line of rocks that borde^ 
 the channel on the north side. They do not frequent the 
 south side any more than do the shad (of which a few are 
 taken in their season) cross to the north. Nor do they 
 wander far onto the flats or out into the strong current. 
 When the tide runs strong they disappear. One may sit 
 
ANIMAL LIFE AND FISH. 29 
 
 and bob for hours without a bite, but at about high or low- 
 water they take hold well. The night tides are best, and 
 not seldom a couple of men or boys may take four, five 
 or six hundred in a night. They usually are sold frozen, 
 at about fifty cents the bushel. A bushel would be prob- 
 ably about 250 fish. They are fairly good eating and go 
 far to help the villagers through Lent. 
 
 By about the fifth of January they first begin to go 
 down the river again, ravenously hungry, but so thin and 
 poor as to be almost uneatable. The value of the season's 
 catch at one village not more important than several others 
 along the river, was not long ago estimated at ^2,000. 
 
IPart Him 
 OCCUPATIONS 
 
OCCUPATIONS 
 
 The principal winter industry of the men in this region, 
 except those who have farms important enough to demand 
 their whole attention, and except those occupied in ordi- 
 nary mechanical work, such as shoe makers, carriage mak- 
 ers and the like, is lumbering. The larger farmers them- 
 selves have no small amount of work to do in the woods, 
 for the firewood for the year in a climate like that of 
 Canada is a heavy item, and it is also they who are 
 called on to supply all the material for building and mis- 
 cellaneous purposes, except that produced by mill owners. 
 This is produced in the larger mills in only a limited num- 
 ber of shapes, for the logs cut for the purpose of com- 
 merce are intended to be made chiefly into deals for the 
 English market. The standard dimensions of a deal are 12 
 feet long, 9 inches wide and 3 inches thick. Other di- 
 mensions are made in order that no timber may be wasted, 
 but the chief effort of the saw mill owner is to produce 
 deals, either 12 or 14 feet long. Only that which cannot 
 be made into deals is sawn into boards, to be sold in 
 American markets. I refer now mainly to the region 
 referred to above. In some other sections other ends are 
 aimed at, but of those 1 do not now speak. 
 
 The larger farmers being occupied with routine and 
 occasional business, the smaller ones, some unemployed 
 mechanics, and many day laborers, whose ordinary occu- 
 pations are suspended during the winter, go into the woods 
 when the lumbering season comes round. 
 
 Lumbering- works are not now generally conducted as 
 
34 OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 they were in former times, and as they are still in other 
 parts of the country. Where timber is plenty, large camps, 
 accommodating 30, 40 or 50 men, are built ; but where it 
 is scattering the logs are made by jobbers, who cut and 
 draw them to the water's edge at an agreed price per 
 hundred. 
 
 The jobbers are usually two or three neighbors, or 
 sometimes a man with one or two sons, who work to- 
 gether and divide their earnings. The plan suits both em- 
 ployer and employe. The former is rid of a good deal of 
 care and superintendence and the latter is independent of 
 any foreman. He can work when he pleases, and if it suits 
 him to leave the woods and go home he is at liberty to do 
 so, and generally does. The amount of time lost in this 
 way is very great. The jobber is pretty sure to go home 
 for the holidays and he starts a day or two before Christ- 
 mas, so as to be sure. New Years Day is a more import- 
 ant fete even than Christmas, and the Jour des l^ois 
 (Epiphany) comes so soon after that he thinks it not 
 worth while to go back until it is over. Then it takes 
 him one or two days more to get ready, so that very often 
 he will use up three full weeks out of the best of the sea- 
 son. He has promised to make a certain number of logs 
 during the winter and perhaps will do it, but if he does not 
 he is not likely to be sued for damages, and is not much 
 concerned. He can make the logs cheaper than the em- 
 ployer could do it by hiring men, for he can support him- 
 self alone for less than it would cost to feed him in a large 
 camp. He would grumble fearfully if he were fed no 
 better than he feeds himself. 
 
 For a large number of men the employer would be 
 obliged to build a camp with separate stables for the 
 horses, which might cost him two or three hundred dollars, 
 whereas the jobbers pan put up a camp in a couple of days 
 
OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 35 
 
 Losjgers' Camp. 
 
 that will accommodate both them and their horses as 
 well. They all live together, perhaps with a dog; and a 
 variety of insects. 
 A jobber's camp is 
 not always a pleas- 
 ant place to sleep in 
 for the stranger 
 whose prejudices 
 are infavor of clean- 
 liness. The fare is 
 simple and cheap, 
 consisting mainly of 
 bread, pork and pea 
 soup. The soup ket- 
 tle is always on the 
 fire, never exhausted — and never washed. Pork, peas and 
 water are put into it as required, and the soup goes on 
 continuously until the winter's work is done. Once in a 
 while a man will have a pot of tea, and if the jobber is a 
 farmer he may perhaps bring some potatoes to the camp, 
 but such luxuries are not usual. 
 
 The men get out to their work early and work as long 
 as they can see, but in the short winter days this is not 
 too long, and the work does not usually demand long con- 
 tinued strenuous exertions, so the men are likely to come 
 out of the woods in the spring fat and hearty, while the 
 poor horses look thin and discouraged. It is the horses 
 who have the hardest time, for although the main road 
 from where the logs are made is usually kept in excellent 
 order, and almost always either level or down-hill, yet all 
 that is done for the numerous branch roads is to make it 
 possible to get over them. If a horse can go he must go, 
 and that is all there is about it. To reach the logs he may 
 have to flounder through snow nearly to his belly, up hills 
 
36 
 
 OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 and over rocks, but the logs must come out and he must get 
 to them, though it strains every muscle. And if it is hard 
 to get up the hills with the empty log-sled it is not easier 
 to get down with a load, for the way is steep and crooked 
 in places, and he sometimes has to hold back hard, and 
 gets sadly knocked about. A very simple and admirably 
 effective way of arranging the shafts of the sled, however, 
 reduces his trials immensely and he soon learns how to 
 handle himself. 
 
 
 
 Loggers' Sled. 
 
 
 The drawing of logs in this country is all done by single 
 horses and the powerful ox teams used in other regions 
 are never seen here. A habitant jobber may occasionally 
 have an ox, but he is always harnessed like a horse and 
 driven with reins. The oxen are so small and slow that 
 it seems impossible for them to accomplish much, but it 
 costs less to keep them, they are less liable to accidents 
 and diseases than horses, and if anything happens to them 
 they may be killed and eaten, which is no small consider- 
 ation to the poor habitant. 
 
 The net earnings of the jobber probably amount to less 
 
OCCUPATIONS. 37 
 
 than he might have had in a large camp, where he would 
 be hired by the month, fed, and furnished with tools, etc., 
 but he has the satisfaction of not working so hard and of 
 being, in the main, his own master. He can always make 
 use of his horses, and of his boys if he has any of suitable 
 age, to drive them. 
 
 The wanderer in the woods will often hear the loud 
 shout of ''viens done," '' marche done," or '^arrete 
 done," with the last syllable long drawn out, as the first 
 evidence that he is near a lumberman's road. A Canadian 
 in the woods could not drive without yelling at the top of 
 his voice ; but the horse soon learns to pay very little at- 
 tention to the cries. 
 
 1 have been very much amused on some of my jour- 
 neys at a certain old veteran beast of the shanties which, 
 when the ground is bare, draws my luggage over a cer- 
 tain piece of wood on a sled with wooden runners. The 
 load is never heavy, but there are many mud -holes and 
 rocky places. When the road suits the old horse he will 
 go in it, but when he tlnds what seems to him a better 
 place to pass he will take to that, and not all the ear- 
 splitting yells of his driver, who is generally walking along 
 some distance in the rear, can stop him. He will drag 
 his load over rocks or fallen trees at any conceivable 
 angle, but if it actually upsets, or the sled strikes against 
 a root or a stump, he wastes no strength in useless exer- 
 tions but quietly stops and crops the twigs within his reach 
 until his driver comes up. Then when a lift or a push 
 releases him, he responds to a mildly spoken "^-/-o-c" 
 and goes on. Cries of " arrete done," with a dozen dif- 
 ferent inflections, in a voice that could easily be heard 
 half a mile, make no impression on him, but the quiet 
 order is obeyed. 
 
 The boys get into the woods at an early age. Where 
 
38 OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 the hauling- is not difficult, a boy of fourteen or fifteen 
 years can be made very useful. The jobber's work is t7n- 
 ished when he gets the logs to the water's edge. He has 
 nothing to do with the " drive," though he may be em- 
 ployed on it, but that is altogether another story. 
 
 Driving logs has been described scores of times. The 
 work is often exciting, sometimes dangerous, and always 
 attended with hardships. It must be carried on in all 
 weathers, sleep and food must be taken when they can be 
 had, and wet clothing is the rule. Only the young and 
 vigorous are fit for it. 
 
 The writer recently had an opportunity to witness part 
 of a drive, that while on a very small scale, showed thor- 
 oughly characteristic features. 
 
 My duties required me to go into the woods and among 
 the loggers' camps. Tired of sharing the scanty quarters 
 of the jobbers, where sometimes a bench, a table or a pile 
 of wood was the only available bed, or even of claiming 
 the hospitality of the larger camps, 1 had built for myself 
 a comfortable cabin at a convenient point for all my jour- 
 neys, and on the border of one of the most charming of 
 all Canadian lakes. Not that 1 was ever unkindly received 
 in the camps, and many a time has a jobber slept on the 
 floor or a foreman shared the bunks of his men in order 
 to give me the best accommodation possible. 
 
 The outlet of this lake falls something over four hun- 
 dred feet in half a mile, and is wild, rocky and picturesque, 
 as may well be imagined. 
 
 Much money and labor and a dam at the head of the 
 discharge had made it available for driving logs, of which 
 about 7,000 were ready at this time to be sent down. As 
 they were lying quietly in the lake, I remarked to the 
 friend with me how nice and clean and handsome they 
 looked, to which my woodranger, who was with us, ans- 
 
OCCUPATIONS. 39 
 
 wered, " Il-y-en a qui vont se cogiier la tcte bieii vite." 
 It was only saying that some of them were going to get 
 their heads bumped very soon, but somehow the expres- 
 sion seemed to sound much more picturesque in French 
 than in English. 
 
 The dam was opened and we ran along the bank, 
 watching the logs go down. They were tossed from one 
 side of the stream to the other, knocking against rocks, 
 rolled over a thousand times, and once in a while turned 
 quite end over end. The thundering of their striking the 
 rocks and of the rushing water was so great that we could 
 hardly hear each other's voices. In ten minutes from the 
 time we had seen them lying peaceably at the outlet of the 
 lake some of them began to collect in a pool below, their 
 ends all battered and splintered, the bark rubbed off or 
 torn and hanging in long strips. 
 
 A " jam " occurred just when we were in a capital 
 position to see it and we looked on and applauded the 
 skill and daring with which the men broke it up. When 
 the one log that formed the key to the whole was removed 
 and the great pile melted away as it were in a few seconds, 
 we could not resist the inclination to shake the hand of 
 the foreman of the gang of drivers and congratulate him 
 on a difficult and dangerous work well done. We liked 
 him for the care he took that if a man was compelled to 
 go to a place of special danger, every precaution should 
 be taken for his escape or rescue. 
 
 The lake of which 1 have spoken is separated by a strip 
 of land about 150 yards wide from another lake which 
 lies some 250 feet below it. Before it was found possible 
 to make the outlet of our lake available for driving logs it 
 was customary to send the logs made around that lake 
 into the other by means of a " slide," which was simply 
 two parallel lines of timber laid not quite so far apart as 
 
40 OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 the diameter of a \og. The logs were sent down endwise, 
 and of course the velocity was tremendous, the slide being 
 laid at an angle of about 3 5 ''. The story is that although 
 the water at the foot of the slide was over 200 feet deep 
 the logs falling into it went quite to the bottom and came 
 up bringing sand and pebbles with them. Also, that if a 
 log going down struck on another log already in the water 
 it would break it sharp in two. 
 
 This was mainly correct enough except as to the depth 
 of water, which can hardly be more than 50 or 60 feet at 
 that point. Also, one log dropping from such a height on- 
 to another would almost certainly splinter it, but it would 
 require a most extraordinary concatenation of circum- 
 stances to break one quite in two. But the best part of 
 the story was that if a small log coming down endwise 
 struck quite squarely on a large one floating below it 
 would go through it clean " just like a cannon ball." 
 
 The cliflf down which the slide was laid extends for 
 about three miles on one side of a river and lake and is 
 considered by many to be finer than the palisades of the 
 Hudson. Its average height is not far from 250 feet, and 
 except in two or three places where there are breaks it is 
 almost or quite perpendicular. The opposite bank, only 
 200 or 300 yards away, is low and rises only gently for a 
 long distance back. It must have been a wonderful con- 
 vulsion of nature that resulted in such a formation. 
 
 Looking up at the cliflf from below one is surprised to 
 see how little soil is necessary to the growth of a tree. 
 From very trifling crevices in the rock, where only a mere 
 handful of earth could be lodged, we find trees and large 
 bushes springing. Their roots find a way into the cracks 
 somehow and hold on most wonderfully. I know espe- 
 cially of one considerable cedar that appears to have 
 crawled out of a hole where there is no sign of earth. 
 
OCCUPATIONS. 4i 
 
 Indeed, it is wonderful that the masses of stone that com- 
 pose these Laurentian hills can support such a dense forest 
 as they do. There is scarcely any earth at all visible; 
 nothing but rocks covered with decayed leaves and rotten 
 wood. It will all burn like tinder when once the fire gets 
 into it. That is why the forest fires are so terribly de- 
 structive in this country. I once left a camp fire not 
 thoroughly extinguished, and when 1 came back to the 
 place after two or three days smoke and steam were coming 
 out of the ground several feet away in every direction, and 
 a great rocky cavity was where my fire had been. Rain 
 had moistened the surface and extinguished any blaze, but 
 the fire was working underneath and might have broken 
 out again after days or even weeks, devastating many 
 miles of timber land. Very many fires are caused in this 
 way, through the carelessness of hunters and fishermen. 
 1 have not been blameworthy in that respect since that 
 time. 
 
 Lumber merchants claim that many times more timber 
 is destroyed by fire than by the axe. We are constantly 
 meeting with the evidences of fires, some recent and some 
 of many years ago. A friend once told me that away up 
 beyond Lake St. John he had found what he thought 
 were signs of three distinct fires that had passed over the 
 same land at long intervals. The tires may have been 
 caused by savages, who once roamed in those dreary and 
 inhospitable regions in large numbers, though my friend 
 thought not. 
 
Ipart 1FD 
 
 AMUSEMENTS 
 CONTES AND RACONTEURS 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND 
 RACONTEURS 
 
 For amusement in winter there is endless visiting of 
 course, with chatter accordingly. Three or four Canadian 
 women together can keep up a clatter that would put a 
 shopful of sewing machines to the blush. Since social 
 dancing has been disapproved the principal amusements 
 are talking, singing and card playing. Sometimes when 
 a lot of young people get together simple games are in- 
 dulged in. " Kissing games " are of course tabooed ; but 
 other games involving forfeits, such as are known almost 
 everywhere under various names, are played. These may 
 be boisterous but are almost never rude. 
 
 Athletic sports are almost unknown in the country 
 parishes. The young men seem to think they can get all 
 the exercise they need in their ordinary occupations. 
 Such games as foot ball, base ball, cricket, hockey, la- 
 crosse, tennis and the like are never seen, and even skating 
 and sliding are almost entirely confined to the small boys. 
 
 For amusement for the men in the woods there is not 
 much. In jobbers' camps there is almost none at all ex- 
 cept when some stranger or visitor happens to come in. 
 The jobbers get their suppers, smoke their pipes and go 
 to bed. They are up again at four or half past four in 
 the morning to feed their horses, breakfast, and be at 
 their work as soon as it is light enough to see. 
 
 In the large camps where many men are together some 
 of them will want to do something to pass away the time. 
 5 
 
46 AMUSEMENTS — CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 A few will play cards, some may play draughts, and there 
 will surely be some who sing. Very likely there will be 
 a fiddler in the party and some may dance jigs. These 
 amusements, however, are mostly kept for Sunday after- 
 noons and evenings. Sunday mornings are devoted to 
 loafing and chat. Perhaps the foreman may wash and 
 shave, but the men do not often give themselves that 
 trouble. 
 
 When the usual hour for church service arrives all will 
 be quiet; and during the time that the mass is being cele- 
 brated in the churches the men will kneel and repeat their 
 prayers. Sometimes there will be a leader and the others 
 will only give responses, and sometimes each will say his 
 prayers for himself. Some will g'et through a little sooner 
 than the others, but until the last man is done there is no 
 disturbance. For the rest of the day the men are at lib- 
 erty to amuse themselves as they like. As a fact they do 
 little except sleep or go hunting or fishing, and only a few 
 have guns or lines. They must also get their own suppers 
 for Sunday afternoon is the cook's holiday and he is not 
 obliged to cook for them. 
 
 After supper is the time for general amusements, — sing- 
 ing, dancing, card playing, or whatever is allowable. But 
 the greatest entertainer of all is the " raconteur" or story- 
 teller. 
 
 I should never be able to tell of contes and raconteurs 
 without referring at once to our faithful ranger Nazaire, 
 as we call him, in his early and middle life a prince among 
 story-tellers. And if 1 begin to speak of him 1 shall be 
 liable to bring in also my own experience with him, for 
 we have been in the woods together for 'many a year, 
 through sunshine and storm, pleasure and hardship. As 
 much the entertaining companion and devoted friend as 
 the honored and trusted employe', he has been my guide 
 and associate in numberless wanderings. 
 
,.^-(;-^'^ 
 
 -'«t) 
 
 Nazaire 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 47 
 
 Having him with me 1 was sure of a welcome in any 
 camp, for if the men cared nothing for me they all knew 
 and Hked Nazaire and were sure of an evening's enter- 
 tainment. Many a conte have 1 heard from him that I 
 sincerely wish 1 could write down. 1 remember distinctly 
 only two, and one of those 1 have never been able to 
 translate in such a manner as to give any idea whatever 
 of the spirit of the story. 1 shall give it in French and 
 whoever likes to try his hand at it is welcome to do so. 
 
 Nazaire's soirees in camp usually began with about half 
 an hour's talk about woods, logs, the depth of the snow, 
 what this man, that, and the other was doing, and similar 
 matters of general interest. Then someone who knew 
 how to lead the good man on would probably tell some 
 improbable or impossible story. Nazaire had one to give 
 back at the shortest notice. I remember one occasion 
 (which will serve as a sample of many others) when he 
 told the following along with many other similar stories, 
 but i cannot hope or attempt to give any idea of the spirit 
 and variety of his narration : 
 
 There was once a very famous hunter named Dalbec, who lived in 
 the village of Ste. Anne. He had been hunting all day and was re- 
 turning home when he came to a little round lake, on the opposite 
 side of which he saw a fox. Just as he raised his gun to fire six 
 ducks came sailing from under the bushes nearer to him. He hesi- 
 tated at which to shoot, and decided to try his chances at both. 
 Placing the barrel of his long gun between two trees, he bent it into 
 a quarter of a circle, fired at the ducks, killed them all, killed the fox 
 also, and the bullet came back and broke the leg of his dog that was 
 standing by him. 
 
 Someone else then told a story of seeing from a barn 
 window two bears standing on their hind legs and wrest- 
 ling like two men. This anecdote he declared was abso- 
 lutely true. 
 
 This reminded Nazaire of another story about Dalbec : 
 
48 AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 Dalbec was in the woods making; maple sugar, when he saw a bear 
 coming round as if bent on mischief. Having no gun Dalbec crawled 
 under an empty hogshead (such as are often used to hold the sap as 
 it is collected). The bear came smelling up, trying to find a way to 
 get in. At the right moment Dalbec reached his hand through the 
 bung-hole and seized him by the tail. The bear started off on a 
 run down the hill, dragging the hogshead after him with Dalbec in- 
 side of it. They came to a lot of fallen timber, where the hogshead 
 stuck, but Dalbec held on till the tail came out and the bear escaped. 
 
 The fact that the bear has no tail of which a person 
 could take hold does not affect the truth of this story. 
 
 What on this special occasion interested me more than 
 the stories themselves, was Nazaire's account of how Dal- 
 bec, who was a real personage and a great hunter, and an- 
 other hunter, equally celebrated and his special rival, 
 would get a crowd of people about them on Sundays 
 after vespers were over and tell their wonderful yarns 
 with perfect sobriety, neither of them questioning a word 
 of anything that the other might say, but occasionally 
 putting in a word of assent, such as " c'etait Men fait" 
 (that was well done) or " c'est hien vrai " (that is quite 
 true), and then going on to tell something still more sur- 
 prising himself. 
 
 Such a picture can readily be imagined by those famil- 
 iar with the scenes abotit the church doors on a pleasant 
 Sunday after the services of the day are finished. The 
 rest of the day is given up to social entertainments of a 
 quiet character and to moderate recreations — music, card- 
 playing, and the like. 
 
 Dancing on Sundays was never allowed in Canada, nor 
 are loud and boisterous assemblies permitted. Political 
 meetings, however, are usually held on Sundays. Trot- 
 ting horses is not particularly objected to, nor is driving 
 about on any business errand ; but all labor is generally 
 suspended quite as much as in any New England village. 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 49 
 
 1 was very much amused not very long ago when I was 
 speaking of this story of Dallec to some people at a 
 place where we were calling. One of the women about 
 the house overheard it and remarked, " That story about 
 Dalbec is not true. I knew those Dalbecs and 1 should 
 have heard of it." She thought the stories had been told 
 as facts. 
 
 On the occasion 1 have mentioned our surveyor was not 
 to be outdone by any story-teller, and told with a solem- 
 nity worthy of Dalbec himself an incident that he said 
 happened to himself : 
 
 He was walking in the woods, he said, on a narrow 
 path, when he met a bear face to face. Every one knows 
 how quickly a bear can turn around. The bear rose on 
 his hind feet just at the instant the surveyor tired at him, 
 and so quickly did he turn that the course of the ball go- 
 ing through his body was changed and it came out and 
 struck the surveyor on the shin. 
 
 Then came another story about Dalbec : 
 
 He had been ploughing one day and at night just as he was going 
 to put his iiorse in the barn he heard a tlocic of wild geese in the air 
 over his head. He went into the house and got his gun, but it was 
 so dark he could see nothing. Still hearing the noise he fired in the 
 direction from which it came. As no birds fell he concluded he had 
 missed them, so he went into the house, ate his supper and went to 
 bed. In the morning he was going for his horse again when just as 
 he was stepping out of doors a goose fell at his feet. It was one of 
 those he had shot at and it had been so high up it had been all night 
 in falling. 
 
 And still another : 
 
 It was the morning of the " Tonssaint " (All Saints' Day) that Dal- 
 bec had gone out early, shooting. He had expended all his ammu- 
 nition and was returning home when he saw a flock of wild ducks 
 swimming about among the timbers of a raft that had gone ashore 
 at the mouth of the river. The water was cold, but Dalbec went 
 into it up to his neck and waded round until he could reach under 
 
^0 AMUSEMENTS — CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 the logs and get hold of the legs of a duck. When he caught one he 
 pulled it quickly under the water and fastened it to his belt. In this 
 way he secured about a dozen. All of a sudden he felt a commo- 
 tion, and before he knew what was happening he found himself 
 raised into the air and carried off. A strong northeasterly gale was 
 blowing and away he went up the St. Lawrence. Just as he passed 
 the church at St. Anne he heard the first bell of the mass sound, and 
 he wished he had stayed at home instead of going shooting. At the 
 rate at which he was going he had not much time to think; but 
 presently he realized that something had got to be done. He reached 
 down and twisted the neck of one of the ducks. That let him down 
 a little and he twisted another. So he kept on until, when he had 
 done with them all, he found himself dropped on the ground in 
 front of the church at Sorel, and heard the second bell of the mass. 
 He had been carried seventy-five miles up the river in just half an 
 hour. 
 
 After a round of stories like tliese there would be a call 
 for a " conte,'' started by one and echoed by all the rest. 
 The men would gather round, forming groups that I have 
 many times vainly wished and quite as vainly tried to 
 sketch, and after a proper show of reluctance and the cor- 
 responding amount of persuasion, Nazaire would begin 
 with the '' Tiens-bon-ld," following it up with " L'bistoire 
 de mon petit difunt frere Lotiiion." 
 
 A good story-teller like Nazaire is always a welcome 
 visitor at a lumberman's camp. As few of the men can 
 read they are glad of someone who can entertain them. 
 They talk incessantly, but the range of conversation is 
 limited, and they no doubt get tired of hearing each 
 other's personal achievements and adventures, which are 
 their principal subjects. 
 
 I have heard a good raconteur go on two hours with 
 one of his stories, and there are some stories that occupy 
 two evenings in the telling. They are mostly fairy stories 
 in which there is almost always a '' jeuiie prince" and a 
 "jeiine princesse" Where they come from in general 
 
52 AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 I do not know, but a few are from the " Thousand and 
 One Nights." A great many probably have never been 
 printed, but handed down in traditions. Some, such as 
 the flight of Dalbec, seem like localized versions of old, 
 widely distributed tales. 
 
 1 will try to give from my recollection a rude transla- 
 tion of " The Tiens-bon-la " as a specimen : 
 
 There was once a cure who was in love with a baker's wife. He 
 tried in various ways to g:et rid of the baker, but without success. 
 
 They lived in the capital of the kingdom, where the king resided. 
 Now in front of the king's palace was a great lake of more than 
 twelve thousand acres. One morning the cure went to the palace 
 and knocked at the door. When the king came out he said to him, 
 " Sire, mon Roi, there is a man in the city who boasts that in less 
 than twice twenty-four hours he can change this lake into a beautiful 
 meadow, covered with grass that would give hay enough for all your 
 majesty's horses, and would be for the great advantage of the 
 crown." Then the king said " Who is this man .? " The cure' ans- 
 wered, " He is no less than the baker who furnishes your majesty 
 with bread," so the king said " I will send for him." 
 
 The cure went away and the king sent a letter to the baker saying 
 that he wanted to see him. The baker thought he was to get his 
 pay for the bread he had provided for the king and all his servants 
 and soldiers. So he was very glad and went quickly to the palace 
 and knocked at the door. When the king came out he asked what 
 was wanted of him. The king answered that he had heard that he 
 had boasted that in less than twice twenty-four hours he could 
 change all that lake into a beautiful meadow, covered with grass and 
 clover that would feed all the king's horses, and would be a great 
 advantage to the crown. Now, unless within twice twenty-four 
 hours the lake was changed into a meadow the baker should be hung 
 before the door of the palace. 
 
 Then the king turned away and the baker went out discouraged 
 for he did not know what to do. He walked otT into the woods 
 and sat down on a log to weep. After a long time an old woman 
 came and asked what was the matter. He said he was very miser- 
 able for he was going to be hanged in twice twenty -four hours. The 
 king had commanded him to change all that lake into a meadow, 
 covered with grass and clover, and he was not able to do it. Now 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 53 
 
 tliis old woman was a fairy [Il-r-avait dc^ Firs dcvis cc temps la) and 
 when he had done speaking she told him not to be troubled but to go 
 to sleep. So he went to sleep, and when he had slept an hour he was 
 awakened by the smell of hay, and when he looked about him he 
 saw that the lake was all gone and that there was only a river that 
 ran through the middle of a beautiful meadow. Then the fairy told 
 him to go to the king and show him what he had done. He went to 
 the palace and when he came near he saw the king looking out of 
 the window at the meadow, and all the men and horses at work 
 making hay. He knocked at the door, and when the king came 
 down stairs he asked him if he was satisfied. The king said he was 
 not satisfied, because the river had been left running through the 
 middle of the meadow. The baker told the king that the river had 
 been left for the convenience of the animals and to help in making 
 hay, because there was so much of it that all the horses in the king- 
 dom could not draw it, and it would have to be brought in boats. 
 Then the king was satisfied, and sent the baker away. 
 
 Soon the cure came again and the king showed him the meadow 
 and the men and women and horses making hay. The cure' was 
 much surprised to see all this, but he did not say so, and went on to 
 tell the king that he had no doubt the baker could do a great deal 
 more than that, for he had boasted that he could make a " tiens-bon- 
 la '■ for the king that would be worth a great deal more than the 
 meadow and would be a great advantage to the crown. " Wiiat is a 
 ' tiens-bon-I;\ ? ' " asked the king. '• 1 do not know," answered the 
 priest ; " but the baker said he could make one." " 1 will send for 
 him," said the king. So he wrote to the baker, who was just mak- 
 ing his bread. When he had put it into the oven he went to the 
 palace and knocked again and the king came to the door. The king 
 said "I have heard that you boasted that you can make a 'tiens-bon- 
 li' that would be worth more than the meadow, and a great advan- 
 tage to the crown. Now you shall go home and make it, and unless 
 you bring it to me in twice twenty-four hours you shall be hanged 
 before the palace gate." The baker asked "What is a' tiens-bon-la ?' " 
 The king replied that he did not know, but that he must have one 
 within twice twenty-four hours. Then he went into his palace 
 again. The poor baker went away more disconsolate than before. 
 He had no idea what a " tiens-bon-la" was; but yet he would be 
 hanged unless he made one within twice twenty-four hours. He went 
 out into the forest again and sat down on the same log that he sat on 
 
54 AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 before. He cried as hard us lie could. When he had cried himself to 
 sleep the fairy came again and waked him up and asked him what was 
 the matter. He told her that he should certainly be hanged this time 
 for he had been ordered to make a " tiens-bon-la'' for the king and he 
 did not know what it was. Then the fairy said, " It is only that 
 wicked priest who is in love with your wife and wants to get rid of 
 you. You must do what I tell you and the priest shall be punished, 
 and we will make a " tiens-bon-iJl " that will satisfy the king. Go 
 to your house and tell your wife that you are commanded to make 
 a " tiens-bon-h\ " for the king and you have nothing to make it of. 
 So you must tell her that you must go away for two days to buy 
 some iron, leather, wood and cloth to make it of. Tell her to put 
 two days' provisions in a bag for you, and when she has them all 
 ready you will go to your room and take the latch ofi" the window. 
 Then you will say good-bye to yoifr wife and walk about the city 
 until it is dark. As soon as you are gone your wife will send for 
 the cure' and invite him to supper. After it is dark you will come 
 back to your house and get in at the window and hide yourself 
 under the bed. Now a priest will not eat without first washing his 
 hands. When he comes your wife will send him into the room to 
 wash, and when he takes hold of the wash-basin ynu will cry out 
 "tiens-bon-la." Take this wand that I will give you and wave it 
 over anything and when you cry '• tiens-bon-h\ " it will hold fast 
 whatever it touches." 
 
 The baker did as the fairy had told him, and his wife was very 
 glad to learn that he was going away ; and she packed up a large bag 
 of provisions and sent him off. 
 
 When he was gone she sent a note to the cuitf and told him Ihat 
 her husband was gone away for two days and she would like to 
 have him come to supper. The baker walked around the city until 
 it was dark, and then came back and hid himself under the bed. 
 His wife told the servant to set the table and prepare a nice supper, 
 and then she went to get ready to receive the priest. But the priest 
 came before she was ready, and she had to make excuses to 
 him and say " Oh M. le Cure, I did not expect you so soon. I am 
 not dressed for supper." So she showed him into another room 
 and said she would be ready almost as soon as he had washed his 
 hands. There was some water that was not very clean in the wash- 
 basin and when the priest took hold of the basin to throw the water 
 out the baker, who was under the bed, cried ont " tiens-bon-h\," and 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 55 
 
 the priest's Iiands stuck to the Ixisin so that lie could not let jjo. He 
 called out to the servant to come and help him, but she was busy 
 about the supper and did not hear him. So then he cried out as 
 loud as he could, "Madame, Madame ! " When the baker's wife 
 heard him she was dreadfully frightened and ran in, half dressed as 
 she was, to see what was the matter. When she found tiie curt? 
 stuck to the wash-stand, which was very large and heavy, she took 
 hold of him with both hands to pull him away. Then her luisband 
 cried out from under the bed " tiens-bon-l^," and the wife could not 
 let go of the priest. Then the baker went out and called some of 
 his friends and they ate the supper and drank the wine that had been 
 prepared for the cur^, who was stuck to the wash-stand, and the 
 wife, who could not let go of the priest. 
 
 When morning came the baker took the wand that the fairy had 
 given him and told his wife and the priest that if they wanted to get 
 loose they must do as he told them. He made them gt) out into the 
 street and started them towards the king's palace. 
 
 As soon as they all came out into the light the baker saw that 
 there was a hole in his wife's petticoat, so he pulled some grass and 
 twisted it into a wisp and filled up the hole. Presently they came to 
 a cow that was feeding by the side of the road. There was not 
 much grass there and the cow was hungry, so when she saw the 
 wisp of grass she started to eat it; but the baker waved his wand 
 and cried " tiens-bon-l;\ '' and the cow's teeth stuck in the grass. 
 They all went along till they came to a held where there was a bull. 
 When the bull saw the cow he jumped over the fence to see where 
 she was going. The cow gave him a switch with her tail across his 
 eyes, the baker cried " tiens-bon-li\," and the bull went along with 
 the rest. When the old woman who owned the cow saw her going 
 off in this manner she was very angry and ran out with the wooden 
 shovel that she was using to put bread into the oven with to beat 
 the bull and drive him away ; but the baker cried out " tiens-bon-lil " 
 again and so the shovel stuck to the bull's rump and the old woman 
 could not let go of the shovel. The farmer to whom the bull be- 
 longed was quite lame, and limped along with a stick. He could not 
 go very fast, but he went as well as he could to see what the old 
 woman was beating his bull for. When he came up he took hold of 
 the woman's dress to pull her away, but the baker cried out again 
 and the lame farmer had to go with the others. 
 
 So they all went to the king's palace, — the cure with the wash- 
 
56 AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 b;isiii, tlie woniun lioldiiis^' on to the ourtf, tlie cow Irving' to e;it ttie 
 wisp of liiiy. the bull ;uid the oW\ woman with her shovel, and the 
 lame farmer with his stici<. The baker icnocked at the door, and 
 when tlie king- opened it he said " 0, my king;, you commanded a 
 ' tiens-bon-i-^ ' and 1 have brought you one, the best that was ever 
 made. If your majesty will be pleased to try it 1 hope your majesty 
 will be content." The king' took hold of the basin to take it away 
 from the priest, the baker cried " tiens-bon-h\ " again, and the king 
 was held as fast as the others. He tried hard to get away but the 
 " tiens-bon-l;\ " was good and would not let go. 
 
 Then the king asked the baker what he should give to be let oft". 
 After a long time the baker said he W(.>uld let him go if the king 
 would give him forty thousand pounds a year to himself and each 
 of his fifteen children. The king consented, but the baker said he 
 must have a deed made by a notary. So lhe\' sent for the notary 
 and the deed was made, and the king signed it on the wash-basin. 
 The baker waved his wand backwards, the " tiens-bon-l:\ " was 
 broken and they all went aw.iy. 
 
 To me, one of the charnis of Nazaire's story-telling" is 
 the way in which he mixes up the modern with the myth- 
 ical, the possible with the absurd. In this he excels any 
 story-teller 1 have ever heard. Thackery himself was 
 hardly more delightful in this respect, in the apparent un- 
 consciousness of any inconsistency. 
 
 For instance, in one of Nazaire's stories of an enchanted 
 princess, of which there are in Frenth as in other lang- 
 uages a great many, the princess's deliverer, Petit Jean, finds 
 in the enchanted palace a table spread with smoking hot 
 viands among which were boiled pork, sausages and other 
 delicacies dear to the Canadians. The liquors were whis- 
 key and rum, the latter being the best real Old Jamacia. 
 In a larger and grander hall was a still superior table which 
 furnished not only these but pates and black puddings, 
 with wines and brandies, the latter being the best French 
 brandy, the real article, premiere qualitc, la niei lie lire 
 importation. 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTFS AND RACONTEURS. 57 
 
 In the stable were horses and carriages in gieat luinibers, 
 a " lh\iii petit hiigi^v " being among the vehicles. 
 
 The giants that were besieging the castle tell Petit Jean 
 that the only vulnerable place in the eagle that guards it is 
 only ''gros lomnie iin dix cents,'' or no bigger than a ten 
 cent piece. When Petit Jean has shot oft" the giant's nose 
 he sticks it on again with a piece of s-t-i-c-k-i-n-g-p-1-a-s- 
 t-e-r. To hear Nazaire say s-t-i-c-k-i-n-g-p-1-a-s-t-e-r 
 is enough to set any company in a roar. 
 
 When Petit Jean is asked to take a drink, he replies 
 " Je preihiiiii bien iiii petit coup, en effet,'' precisely the 
 words that the Canadian habitant might use under similar 
 ciicumstances, and about equivalent to the " 1 don't care if 
 1 do " of one to whom such an invitation is not at all un- 
 welcome. 
 
 The game of cards that the giants are playing is a pop- 
 ular Canadian game, something like " old sledge." 
 
 If one doubts whether ten cent pieces were common in 
 fairy times, whether giants used sticking-plaster for their 
 wounds, and whether real old Jamaica rum and the best 
 quality of French brandy were imported for the use of 
 deliverers of enchanted princesses, all we need say is that 
 this history of Petit Jean furnishes the most authentic ev- 
 idence possible on these points. 
 
 Conte de " Mon petit de'funt frere Louizon." 
 
 Si vous voulez que je vous conte une histoire de mon petit de'funt 
 fi^re Louizon. je vous en conter.ii une. 
 
 Cliez mon pauvre p^re nous e'tions sept sai\-ons. Nous n'avions 
 rien de quoi manner, c'e'tait bien de valeur. 
 
 Un jour mon petit defunt fr^re Louizon se mit d nous dire que si 
 nous avions cliacun un beau petit canot, avec lignage il proportion, 
 peut-etre que I'on pendrait quelques s'ros poissons qui soulageraient 
 bien la maison. 
 
 Si dit si fait. On s'enfuit ciiez notre pauvre p^re pour faire une 
 composition. 
 
58 AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 Notre pauvre p^re par I'eflfet de sa bonte nous sacrifiait la moitie 
 de ses biens pour nous avoir chacun un beau petit canot avec iignag'e 
 a proportion, pour aller prendre le plus beau poisson qu'ii y avait 
 dans la mer. II les sacrifiait bien, il n'avait rien en tout. 
 
 Quand nous avions nos charmants petits canots nous alliens sur 
 la mer. Qa aliait pas vite, cependant qi allait toujours un petit brin. 
 On voyait venir une grosse barbue. Qa venait pas vite, cependant 
 qx venait toujours un peu. Qa commencait a mordre. Qa mordait 
 pas vite, cependant ga mordait toujours un petit brin. 
 
 Quand on la voyait un peu prise c'etait. " Halle gargon. Tire gar- 
 gon, gargon tire." Mes chers amis nous avions pris une belle barbue 
 quatorze pieds entre les deux yeux. Mesdames, de la peau mon pauvre 
 p^re, qui etait un homme robuste, s'est fait un capot avec capuchon, 
 tabiier, cordes de Soulier, cordes de couette— on ne parle pas de ga a 
 pre'sent, mais dans ce temps la, c'e'tait la grande fagon — corde de fleau, 
 cliope de fleau ; parce que mon p^re etait un pauvre homme qui n'avait 
 rien de quoi battre, ga nous a bien passe I'liiver. 
 
 Mon pauvre p^re gardait les cornees des yeux pour se faire des 
 raquettes. 
 
 C'est alors que mon pauvre p^re nous a defendu la p^clie. II a dit '- 
 " Mes chers petit enfants, yous ne p^cherez plus. Vous pourriez 
 prendre quelques gros esturgeons qui vous enmenerait tons aufond. 
 0-u-i." 
 
 Mais quand nous avions fini de manger notre grosse barbue nous 
 n'avions plus rien toujours. 
 
 Un jour mon petit defunt fr^re Louizon se met h nous dire que si 
 nous avions chacun un charmant beau petit fusil avec ammunitions 
 k proportion, peut etre que Ton tuerait quelques perdrix ou quelques 
 li^vres, qui soulageraient bien la maison. Si dit si fait. On s'enfuit 
 chez mon pauvre p^re pour faire une composition. Notre pauvre 
 p^re par I'effet de sa bonte sacrifiait le reste de son bien pour nous 
 ach^ter chacun un beau petit fusil avec ammunition a proportion 
 pour tuer le plus beau gibier qu'il y avait dans la for^t. 
 
 II le sacrifiait bien par ce qu'il n'avait rien eu de sa vie. 
 
 Quand nous avions nos charmants beaux petits fusils par malheur 
 nous Mions trop jeunes pour les bander. Notre pauvre p^re s'est 
 mis a les bander. II les bandait pas vite, cependant il les bandait 
 toujours un peu. II les bandait tous les sept, chacun pour huit 
 jours. 
 
 Quand nous avions nos charmants beaux petits fusils nous allions 
 
AMUSFMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 59 
 
 dans les foiets. Imajiinez vous done le carnaval que nous avons 
 fait. Nous avons fait rencontre d'une vieille sorciere. 
 
 Mes chers amis, elle avait quatorze pieds entre les deux e'paules. Eile 
 nous a pris tons les sept sous les bras et nous a pronienes luiit jours 
 dans les fore'ts. On voyait venir en beau clievreuil. II ne venait pas 
 vita, cependant il venait touiours un peu. Mon petit de'funt fr^re 
 Louizon, si souple et si manigance de son corps, iaclie son coup. 
 Nous n'avions pas encore eu le temps de nous de'livrer de notre vieille 
 sorciere. 
 
 Mes chers amis, nous avions tue' le plus beau clievreuil, quatorze 
 pieds de panage. Nous prenions un gros morceau dans la tete, ga ne 
 paraissait pas beaucoup dans le cote'. Quand nous avions pris notre 
 charge on s'enfuit au bord du bois. Le bord du bois n'etait pas 
 loin, c'etait tout autour de la maison. 
 
 Nous avons trouv^ notre pauvre p^re bien malade. Nous I'avons 
 pris bras dessus bras dessous, nous I'avons liche tout autour. C'est 
 Ik que mon petit defunt frere Louizon a attrappe' une echauttaison, a 
 licher notre pauvre pere. II en est mort. 
 C'est bien triste. 
 
 In Canadian story-telling" there is a universal tendency 
 to exaggeration that the listener soon learns to take into 
 account. It is not the picturesque extravagance of expres- 
 sion that often lends such vigorous flavor to the tales of 
 western frontiersmen, but simply exaggeration pure and 
 simple. I do not look on it as deliberate falsification, but 
 only as coming from the habitual inclination of a narrator 
 to make the most he can out of his story. 
 
 Nazaire is fond of comparing our appetites in camp to 
 that of the man (whose name and residence he gives) who 
 was in the habit of eating a six-pound loaf of bread at 
 noon while waiting for his dinner. He lived to be 105 
 years old, but is supposed to have died from having eaten 
 at one meal three pan-cakes of the full size of a large fry- 
 ing- pan and an inch thick, with an immense piece of fat 
 pork imbedded in each. 
 
 Reading an account of a western cyclone, I mentioned 
 
60 AMUSEMENTS—CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 to Nazaire its effects. He immediately told me of one that 
 passed over the parish of St. Stanislas some years ago. it 
 blew all the water out of the Batiscan river and scattered 
 the fishes over the country for a distance of two miles. It 
 rolled a pine log up a steep hill, tore the skin off a sheep 
 and lodged it in a spruce tree some miles away. Worse 
 than that, it blew off, turned wrong side out and twisted 
 up the tire of a cart-wheel that had been left at the black- 
 smith's shop to be repaired. He mentioned several other 
 exploits that 1 have forgotten. When 1 had incautiously 
 questioned the accuracy of the report about the cart-wheel 
 he grew quite indignant, and declared that a certain cure' was 
 still living who could vouch for the truth of the story. I 
 thought that if I were going to believe it at all I would 
 as soon believe it on Nazaire's word as on the cure's, so 
 1 decided not to ask for this confirmation. 
 
 I consider Nazaire as truthful a Canadian as I ever knew, 
 but I notice that his recollections of the size and number 
 of the fish we have caught, the mountains we have climbed, 
 the hardships we have endured and the hair-breadth 
 escapes we have had, are not only more precise than mine, 
 but differ from them in many other respects. He can give 
 a thousand details that 1 have quite forgotten. When 
 he tells these stories 1 merely compliment him on his 
 good memory. I would not be so impolite as to question 
 his exactness. 
 
 The reader will by this time have learned that Nazaire 
 is much more to me and my family than an ordinary 
 employe. He is an excellent specimen of a medium class 
 of farmers and woodsmen, for, like many others, he com- 
 bines the two occupations. 
 
 in the early fifties, in the vigor of youth and strength, 
 he went to California via Panama, remaining there about 
 three years. His experience on the voyage and while 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 6l 
 
 there would be, even with frills and embroidery trimmed 
 off, well worth printing. Had he been able to read and 
 write, with his intelligence, sobriety and readiness to work 
 at anything that was honest he might, in those times, soon 
 have grown rich. He worked little at gold-digging, but 
 took jobs and wages from others, and what was more, he 
 saved most of his earnings. Toward the end of three 
 years, although he was gaining more than he ever had 
 done before, he got homesick, which is not surprising, 
 seeing that he had left his young wife behind him. He 
 brought home enough to pay what he had borrowed for 
 his outfit and have three thousand dollars left with which 
 to buy a farm and stock. Having got the farm into run- 
 ning order he went to work in the woods, exploring in the 
 summer and fall, making logs in the winter and driving 
 them in the spring. I had occasion on^ce to employ him, 
 and he has stood by me ever since. He loves the woods 
 as a sailor loves the sea. A common expression between 
 us is " /^ hois est beau" (the woods are beautiful), and 
 this no matter what the weather may be. In summer or 
 winter, sunshine or storm, rain or snow, le bois est 
 toiijours beau. Of late years, when our duties have led 
 us to where there were no comfortable camps near at hand, 
 we have taken a tent and a small sheet-iron stove and 
 camped wherever we liked. These, with our blankets and 
 the few provisions necessary, could easily be drawn on a 
 toboggan. Camping in a tent in mid-winter in a Cana- 
 dian forest does not sound like anything very attractive, 
 but it is one of the joys of life to Nazaire and me. When 
 our day's work is done, the tent set up, wood all in, and 
 our little stove glowing, supper eaten, pipes lighted, and 
 we lie down on our luxurious bed of branches, our invari- 
 able remark h''Il-j'-en a bieii qui sont plus mat que 
 nous autres " (there are a great many people worse off 
 than we are). 
 6 
 
62 AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 It is not only to Nazal re and nie that the woods are 
 beautiful. The following lines were written for insertion 
 in our Camp Register : 
 
 LE BOIS EST TOUJOURS BEAU. 
 (The woods are iihciirs hcautifiil.) 
 
 'Tis Spriiii;", the earth in all its veins 
 
 Feels quickened currents flow, 
 Like tracery on storied panes, 
 
 The boughs are all a-blow ; 
 
 Then come, let's go, 
 " Le bois est toujours beau." 
 
 Midsummer comes with scorching heat, 
 
 The deepest thickets glow, 
 The earth is parched beneath our feet, 
 
 The dry brooks cease to flow ; 
 
 But come, let's go, 
 " Le bois est toujours beau." 
 
 'Tis Autumn, ripening' red and gold 
 
 In all the tree-tops show, 
 With rain is soaked the spongy mold, 
 
 Keen blasts the dead leaves strow ; 
 
 Yet come, let's go, 
 "Le bois est toujours beau." 
 
 'Tis Winter, thicker on the lakes 
 
 Their frozen fetters grow, 
 The myriad life that summer wakes 
 
 Is buried deep in snow ; 
 
 Still come, let's go, 
 " Le bois est toujours beau." 
 
 J. B. Greenough. 
 
 One especially tempestuous afternoon we greath' sur- 
 prised an old habitant by declining the shelter of his house 
 and setting up our tent a mile away in the woods. He 
 came to see us the next morning, half expecting to find us 
 
AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 63 
 
 dead, instead of which we were just eating an unusually 
 good breakfast, and were as happy as lords. 
 
 Much as 1 like Nazaire myself, my family outdoes me. 
 On the rare occasions when he comes to our house my 
 two girls, who were little things in short dresses when 
 lie first began to tie their snowshoes, bait their hooks, take 
 otT their fish, and generally make their paths smooth 
 when they went on little excursions to our camp with me, 
 still rush to the door to be the first to greet him, and gener- 
 ally make much of him till he beams all over with delight. 
 My wife, who, thanks to the delicious air of Canada, is no 
 longer an invalid, seeing him coming, cries out, " Why, 
 here is dear old Nazaire ! " and is not far behind the girls. 
 She has of late been able to go sometimes to the camp, 
 where he is always her constant and devoted attendant. 
 
 Nazaire's friend and crony, Damase (twelve or tifteen 
 years younger than he), is another good typical specimen, 
 although much more woodsman and hunter than farmer. 
 It is pleasant to see the two together. Nazaire uses the 
 familiar " tii " in their conversation, but Damase always 
 says "vons" to Nazaire. 
 
 1 think there must be a strain of Indian blood in Damase, 
 perhaps very remote, but still there. His cheek bones sug- 
 gest it and there are other indications as well. Distances 
 on foot are nothing to him, or if he counts them at all it 
 is by time and not by miles. He can omit several meals 
 without inconvenience, making up for them afterwards. 
 He is not like Nazaire, always wishing to be occupied, 
 but is quite willing to wait or sleep till the time comes 
 when something is to be done. He knows the habitat and 
 habits of every beast in the forest and every tlsh in the 
 streams. Besides being a most expert woodsman, almost 
 always employed at good wages, he usually manages to 
 add a hundred dollars or so to his winter's earnings by 
 
64 AMUSEMENTS— CONTES AND RACONTEURS. 
 
 hunting and trapping. He is ordinarily as taciturn as Na- 
 zaire is loquacious. If any ugly bit of work is to be done 
 Nazaire is careful and prudent, taking all necessary pre- 
 cautions against accidents, but Damase goes at it headlong, 
 trusting to his bravery and his unequaled nerve to carry 
 him through. He is a splendid canoeman in some re- 
 spects, but somewhat reckless, often shooting rapids that 
 greater experts than he would shrink from. Consequently 
 he meets many mishaps, though rarely serious ones. 
 
 But it is on the " drive " that he is greatest, and many 
 are the stories told of his daring exploits. Unlike most 
 Canadians, he leaves the telling of his adventures to 
 others, rarely speaking of them himself. 
 
 On the very edge of the perpendicular cliff that 1 have 
 already mentioned, which is there about three hundred feet 
 high, and where, some fifty years ago, fire consumed almost 
 everything near it, stands a lofty dead pine tree without a 
 branch until near the very top. The men tell how Damase 
 once climbed to the highest branch where he could look 
 far up the lake and see if his logs were coming all right. 
 Very few men would wish to attempt such a feat. 
 
IPart ID 
 THE CHURCH 
 
THE CHURCH 
 
 Tui; parish cluircli is naturally the ccMitre of parish 
 activities. Most of the iiuiiistries of the people ^roiip them- 
 selves closely around it. 11 is built by a tax levied on the 
 real property of all Roman (>atholics in the parish, collect- 
 able by the usual processes of law. Those who wish a 
 church lo be built petition the Bishop, and the decision 
 whether one shall be built rests entirely with him. 
 
 Dsu.illy the i^randeur and costliness of a church bear 
 reasonable relation to the wealth of the parish. Occa- 
 sionally, however, the necessary tax l">ecomes so heavy as 
 seriously to alTect the value of all real estate subject to 
 it and to lay heavy burdens on the people. 
 
 The revenues of the Church are administered by the 
 " Fabrique," which consists of the church wardens, of 
 whom three have direction of ordinary atTairs. The senior 
 in service of these three retires at the end of a year, the next 
 in service takint; his place, and one new warden is chosen 
 annually. The retirinji oHicer does not cease to Ite a warden 
 but is still a part of the " Fabrique," and in important mat- 
 ters has a voice and a vote. The cure is ex-ollicio presi- 
 dent of the " Fabrique." in some parishes only the active 
 and past wardens are entitled to vote in the election of a 
 new warden, but in most parishes all householdint; parish- 
 ioners may vote. Some parishes have no wardens, all 
 alTairs beini; conducted l"»y the Bishop, either directly or 
 through the cure'. Similar powers of administration are 
 also sometimes exercised by a religious community. 
 
 The revenues of priests are derived from a tithe of the 
 grain raised, the payment by those who raise no grain of 
 
68 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 a small sum, say 50c per annum, by or for each commu- 
 nicant (including" children after they have made their first 
 communion), masses said for the dead or in behalf of the 
 living', marriage fees, funeral services, and the like. 
 
 For these services a regular scale of prices is fixed. The 
 usual fee for a simple marriage is one dollar. Such mar- 
 riages also ordinarily take place in the morning, for the 
 convenience of the priest and his daily mass. 
 
 Marriages between relatives are a source of considerable 
 revenue to the Church, although not to the parish priest. 
 
 For these, special dis- 
 pensations must be had, 
 the cost depending on 
 the degree of consan- 
 guinity and perhaps in 
 part on the standing and 
 wealth of the parties. 
 Entirely unsuspected 
 relationships suddenly 
 discovered on the eve 
 of a marriage ceremony 
 have been known to 
 cause considerable em- 
 barrassment and hur- 
 ried visits to the Bishop. 
 In a case where rela- 
 tionship was discovered 
 after the marriage the 
 priest demanded that a dispensation should be obtained 
 and that the parties should be married over again. The 
 man refused, saying that if the first ceremony was not 
 valid the woman might go back to her father. Of course 
 he was soon compelled to submit. In another case, where 
 a widower had been several years married to a widow, it 
 
TIIF. CHURCH. 
 
 69 
 
 was discovered lliat the man liad Iven i^odfatlier to one of 
 the children by the lirst marriage. It was claimed that this 
 fact invalidated the subsequent marriage, and that a dis- 
 pensation must be obtained and a new marriage performed. 
 (This contention, I believe, was not maintained.) 
 
 The numerous way-side crosses always interest travelers 
 from countries where such things are not common. They 
 
 are found on all country roads, and are more or less elab- 
 orate, according to the devotion and wealth of those who 
 erect them, — perhaps a single person, a family, or a num- 
 ber of neighbors. A full-si/ed figure carved in wood of 
 Christ on the cross is not rare. This is called a " cnhhure " 
 and is usually neatly enclosed by a fence and roofed over. 
 Occasionally more pretentious emblems may l^e met, as of 
 Christ and the two thieves. Permission to photograph one 
 of these, asked from the family near whose house it stood, 
 
70 THE CHURCH. 
 
 was not only given readily, but the women of the family 
 volunteered to go out and pose themselves before it, to suit 
 the photographer. The utter nonchalance of the offer and 
 absence of any devotional sentiment about it was striking. 
 
 Funerals add much to the revenue of the church, and 
 are costly on a rapidly rising scale in proportion to the 
 amount of ceremonial. The fees for a very simple ser- 
 vice may be from ten to twenty dollars, and for a more 
 elaborate one may easily be carried up to hundreds. These 
 expensive ceremonies, however, are rare in country par- 
 ishes, although common in cities. The habitant's fimeral 
 is usually of an humble character, and takes place at an early 
 hour in the morning, for the same reason as marriages. 
 
 Apart from tithes and those sources of income which 
 belong to the cure personally, the revenues are mainly 
 devoted to the embellishment of the church and similar 
 objects when once the church is built and paid for. 
 
 The priests are not all bound to poverty. The cure 
 of a prosperous parish may become a very wealthy man. 
 He will probably leave part of his property for religious 
 objects, but his relatives will expect to share in it. 
 
 It is claimed that the requirements of the Church are 
 much more onerous and its regulations more stringent than 
 formerly. It has recently been ordered that women shall 
 not sing in church choirs. One cure tries to prevent 
 young people of different sexes from walking to church 
 together. Another is especially severe on dancing, but it 
 has been found when they get out of his sight his parish- 
 ioners are disposed to dance quite as long as a tiddler will 
 play. Dancing is permitted at weddings and on ceremo- 
 nious occasions, but is looked upon with strong disfavor 
 by most of the clergy. In other respects the demands of 
 the Church are said to have become heavier. There is 
 much difference between priests in all such matters as these, 
 
THE CHURCH. 71 
 
 some being extremely rigid while others are moderately 
 liberal. The general tendency appears to me to be towards 
 greater strictness, but I can only judge from what 1 hear 
 spoken of among the people. 
 
 Mixed marriages are strongly objected to, and are not 
 considered as sacraments, like those between Roman Cath- 
 olics. They are legal marriages, but the Church " neither 
 blesses nor curses them " ; they are allowed to be treated 
 as civil contracts only. Formerly children of such mar- 
 riages were allowed to be brought up in the faith of the 
 parent of the same sex ; now it must be agreed that all 
 the children shall be brought up Roman Catholics. 
 
 Pope Pius IX was once reported to have said that the 
 French Canadians were the most submissive in matters of 
 faith of any catholics in the world ; but that on some other 
 matters they brought more questions before him than oth- 
 ers. These disputes probably related to jurisdiction and 
 the like between the higher clergy, or to quarrels of a more 
 or less secular character between priests and people. 
 
 No fee is paid to the priest for christenings, but if the 
 bell is rung the beadle is paid for ringing it. The ringing 
 of the bell is an act of worship, and is seldom omitted. 
 
 Some of the names given to boys seem strange to us, 
 and we often wonder where the parents found them, for 
 these uncommon names are not usually hereditary in fam- 
 ilies. Often such a name is that of the saint whose festival 
 occurs on the birthday of the child, as shown on the calen- 
 dar for the year, issued on a large sheet under the super- 
 vision of the ecclesiastical authorities. We have near us 
 such names as Adjutor, Clovis, Gaudiase, Hermenegilde, 
 Hermidas, etc. The names of girls are ordinarily less 
 striking than those of boys, although some of them are 
 rather peculiar. 
 
 The clergy tell me that the common idea that every boy 
 
72 THE CHURCH. 
 
 is christened " Josepli " and every girl " Marie " is not 
 correct. It is enough if the child has the name of some 
 patron saint. As these two are the most venerated names 
 they are the ones most frequently given. But the people, 
 my friends the habitants, still insist that they are right, 
 and that even if the name does not always go into the 
 priest's register (as it certainly does not), the child has it 
 all the same. The only way in which I can reconcile these 
 difl'erent ideas is on the principle that, as St. Joseph is the 
 religious patron of all French Canadians, the boy is as- 
 sumed to have his name whether it is specially mentioned 
 or not. And similarly every girl has the name " Marie." 
 
 In 1624 St. Joseph was solemnly chosen and installed, 
 with all the ceremony possible at that time, religious pat- 
 ron of all Canada. The choice of St. Jean Baptiste as the 
 national patron was only made in the present century. 
 
 The founders of the Ursuline Communitie consecrated 
 themselves and all the results of their labors in Canada to 
 the Holy Family before their departure from France. 
 
 All churches are dedicated to some saint : to St. Anne, 
 to St. Joseph, and many to the Virgin in some one of her 
 manifestations, as "of the Incarnation," " of the Assump- 
 tion," " of Sorrows," etc. 
 
 The word dit (called) so often seen in connection with 
 proper names, as The'ophile Langlois dit Bernard, may 
 happen to be used for a variety of reasons. When a 
 family name follows the dit it is often because of a sec- 
 ond marriage of the mother when her child is known and 
 brought up under the name of its stepfather. When a 
 baptismal name follows dit it is merely to distinguish one 
 person from another. In this case Theophile Langlois 
 was always called by us Theophile Bernard, because his 
 father's Christian name was Bernard, In notarial docu- 
 ments the name would most probably be written " Theo- 
 
THE CHURCH. 73 
 
 phile Langlois dit Bernard," for his more certain identifi- 
 cation. Notaries are habitually very careful in respect to 
 identifying their clients. We have also here Isidore Noel 
 and Aini(S Noel, brothers, sons of Noel Frenette, there 
 being several families of Frenettes in this and neighboring 
 parishes. If, in conversation, a person should speak of 
 Isidore Frenette he might be asked what Isidore was re- 
 ferred to and might reply " Isidore a Noel," although in 
 familiar speech the a would be omitted. In some places 
 the method of identitication is carried still further. Thus 
 we have Felix a (son of) Samuel ^7 (son of) Joseph-lgnace 
 Gignac (the a between Joseph and Ignase omitted for 
 euphony), and Hilare a Joseph a Henri a Pierre Vachon. 
 
 Sobriquets are very common, not altogether as nick- 
 names, although they often mark some personal peculiar- 
 ity, but merely to distinguish one person from another. 
 
 The priests that 1 have met 1 have found generally to 
 be educated and cultivated men, some of course much 
 more so than others. I judge that the extremes of culture 
 and education would be hardly as great as among the 
 clergy of New England. The facilities for education for 
 the priesthood are good, and easily and cheaply obtained. 
 A certain amount of education is absolutely requisite, and 
 a man cannot preach and exhort merely because he feels 
 moved to do so, as he might in some sects in the States. 
 He must be duly authorized. But neither on the other 
 hand can the priest attain to the vigor and independence 
 
 NOTE.— In many families cf some distinction ancestral names are 
 carefully preserved here as elsewhere, and the whole name becomes 
 a long one, as in the case of an old acquaintance of mine (Peace to his 
 ashes !) whose name was Charles Joseph Louis Alexander Fleury 
 de la Gorgendiere. In the course of time, however, the capital G 
 had been dropped and the name as used became Lagorgendiere. 
 The family name of Fleury was retained. Similarly La Chevi(_)tiere 
 became Lacheviotiere, d'Eschambault, Deschambault, etc. 
 
74 THE CHURCH. 
 
 of thought of the less fettered minister ; nor indeed are 
 tliese qiKihties called for in the ordinary parish priest. 
 When a course of preaching' is desired the services of a 
 priest of an order that makes preaching its specialty are 
 secured. 
 
 The priests come from and are of the people. Any 
 young man may aspire to the priesthood ; and if he aspires 
 to it he is encouraged and aided to reach it. His parents 
 will be proud to have one of their sons become a priest, 
 and if poor will often deprive themselves of luxuries and 
 even of comforts in order to help him. He is assured of 
 position and support, and credit is likewise reflected on 
 themselves, for unless the young man shows a clean family 
 record he will not be admitted to the order. A whole parish 
 sometimes takes an interest in having one of its children 
 received. 1 remember once when passing through a vil- 
 lage 1 found it decorated with (lags and evergreens, inquir- 
 ing the reason 1 was informed that it was because a young 
 man of the parish was that day to be made a priest. 
 
 All the cures are removable at the discretion of their 
 Bishop, except one in Montreal and one in Quebec. This 
 power of removal was one for which Laval, the first 
 Bishop, fought long and hard. 
 
 The Canadian is strongly attached to his religion and 
 gives attention to its observances whether he abides by its 
 moral precepts or not. In the elegance of his parish 
 church the habitant takes great pride. The feast days of 
 the Church are the dates from which he reckons. He 
 mav not be able to tell you the month in which anything 
 occurred, but he will say whether it happened before or 
 after L's Fcfes (Christmas holidays), Pdqiies (Easter), /,<? 
 Toitssiiiiit (All Saints' Day), or other festivaC There 
 are not very many of these festivals whose observance is 
 positively obligatory, but there are many others that are 
 
^ 
 
 m'^;( 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 75 
 
 more or less strictly observed, sometimes much to the 
 annoyance of the people who pay no attention to them 
 and find their business or pleasures interrupted by them. 
 
 One may sometimes tind himself in a- parish where a 
 " retraite " (retreat) is in order. This lasts nine days, dur- 
 ing which nearly the whole time is given up to religious 
 exercises. Retreats are, however, rare. 1 remember only 
 two in our parish in the last nine years. The devotions 
 known as"/f^.s" qiiainii/e beiires" (the forty houis) are 
 
 held annually. Very little except strictly necessary work is 
 done during this time, and attendance at church is general, 
 in this Province there are now no general religious cere- 
 monies held out of doors except that of Corpus Christi, 
 which is celebrated here as in all Roman Catholic countries 
 by open air processions when the weather will permit. 
 In the cities the processions are larger and more gorgeous, 
 but they lack the simple picturesqueness of those of 
 country parishes. In these the route of the procession is 
 thickly bordered with " baliies," on which are hung 
 
76 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 showy decorations of all descriptions,— strips of cloth of 
 various colors, quilts, carpeting, curtains, table-cloths and 
 the like. Arches of evergreens are built and ornamented 
 with pictures, mottoes, and flags. At intervals small pri- 
 vate altars, called ''Reposoirs," are erected under structures 
 of evergreens and decorated with flowers (usually of paper), 
 crosses and religious emblems, pictures, etc. The road is 
 swept clean and sprinkled with fresh sawdust. In the vicin- 
 ity of ''Reposoirs " at least, lines of carpeting are laid down. 
 Issuing from the church the procession takes up its 
 route, the priest in his most showy robes bearing the Host, 
 walking under a gorgeous canopy carried by four men, 
 preceded by the choir in their surplices singing canticles, 
 others bearing banners, and by two boys swinging censers 
 of burning incense ; then follow the little girls and the 
 maidens, dressed in white, and the boys in dark clothes, 
 all carrying flags. The women on one side of the road 
 and the men on the other, in double tiles, complete the 
 procession. Arrived before one of these " Reposoirs," all 
 devoutly kneel while the priest recites the appropriate 
 prayers. The procession re-forms and proceeds to another 
 altar, returning to the chinxh in the same order. The 
 
 whole ceremony lasts 
 from half to three-quar- 
 ters of an hour. As soon 
 as the procession's back 
 is turned the women 
 who have remained at 
 home make haste to 
 remove their portable 
 property from the altars 
 and road, and in tlve 
 minutes there is little be- 
 sides the " bailees" ^nd 
 
THE CHURCH. 77 
 
 the unusually clean street to tell of the ceremonies per- 
 formed. 
 
 The condition of the priest has changed very much 
 more than his character. With the exception of a few 
 missionaries the priests are not now obliged to make long 
 and arduous journeys, to endure the extremest hardships 
 and even to suffer martyrdom for their Church, as in 
 former times. We have no reason to think, however, 
 that the priest of today would shrink from these if they 
 were necessary any more than did his predecessors. The 
 fervor of Jesuit zeal has perhaps in a measure subsided, 
 but the early Fathers of that order impressed their prin- 
 ciples so deeply and strongly on the Canadian Church 
 and clergy that their influence is felt to this day. 
 Their power and activity were always very great at Quebec. 
 Quarrels between them and the Governors of the colony 
 were almost incessant, each accusing the other of trickery 
 and double dealing. Doubtless both were correct. Some 
 of the governors and other officials were far from being 
 models of punctilious honesty, while the ambition of the 
 Jesuits was as unbounded as their zeal and devotion, and 
 their scruples as to methods were few. Their disputes 
 with the Sulpitians of Montreal were scarcely less bitter. 
 The Sulpitians, however, were less inclined to meddle 
 with public affairs, confining themselves more to their 
 purely religious functions and the developement of their 
 estates. 
 
 The parish priest of today holds his parishioners to as 
 strict an observance of their obligations to the Church and 
 is no more tolerant of heresy among them than was the 
 priest of the 17th century. He cannot say now, as was 
 said then, " There are no heretics in New France;" for 
 some religious toleration had become necessary before the 
 Conquest and full toleration was required after it ; but in 
 7 
 
78 THE CHURCH. 
 
 his own flock he combats heresy as strongly as did Laval 
 or St. Valier, Catholics and protestants now live as a 
 rule in entire harmony, a harmony creditable to both 
 parties. There are very few conversions on the one side 
 or the other, and little attempt at proselytizing. 
 
 The minimum salary for a priest sent to a parish or 
 mission permanently is ^400, although some will volun- 
 teer to take a place where that amount cannot be raised. 
 1 heard of one a few days ago who had gone to try a 
 place where not even $200 could be promised. By hav- 
 ing his sister to keep his house and his brother to cultivate 
 some land, both without pay, he hoped to exist. 
 
 The priest who was formerly paid by a tithe (1-26) on 
 the grain raised in his parish now sometimes finds it hard 
 to get anything else in its place. In a neighboring parish 
 a few Sundays ago the cure gave his parishioners a tre- 
 mendous scolding for raising other articles instead of 
 grain on purpose to save his tithes. The habitants laughed 
 at him. They have the greatest regard for their cure in 
 his spiritual capacity, but when it comes to paying out 
 cash or its equivalent they would as soon get the better of 
 him as of anyone else. 1 remember when, in the time of 
 the Reciprocity Treaty with the States, there were buyers 
 of oats for shipment, the first man the purchasers went to 
 was the miller, whose tolls were sure to be good, and the 
 last one was the priest, who would have the poorest grain 
 of anyone. 
 
 1 know of another priest any one of whose people would 
 be most delighted if he could get the better of him in a 
 horse trade. 1 have been given to understand that this is 
 a hard thing to do. 
 
 The priest of our parish has preached and talked faith- 
 fully on the importance of cleanliness, drainage and disin- 
 fection as precautions against diphtheria, but the people 
 
THE CHURCH. 79 
 
 pay not the slightest attention to anything of that sort 
 that he says. Consequently this dreaded disease creates 
 fearful ravages among the children every year. 
 
 This is rather a common, though not by any means the 
 universal, feeling towards the priest, — a thorough reliance 
 on his dicta in spiritual matters combined with some awe 
 of him, "on general principles" as we might say, and an 
 entire disregard of his views on other points. 
 
 A religious exercise that includes what some consider a 
 pleasure excursion is a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Ste. 
 Anne de Beaupre or " La bonne Ste. Anne," some 20 
 miles below Quebec on the St. Lawrence. For many years 
 this shrine has been celebrated for miraculous virtues. 
 During the summer season parties from most of the 
 parishes within fairly easy reach, and latterly even from 
 considerable distances, are made up to visit it. Within a 
 few years a railroad has been built from Quebec, and the 
 journey from that point may be quickly and easily made.' 
 But a more favored way is to go by a special trip of one 
 of the small steamers that make more or less regular voy- 
 ages from the river points to Quebec for the market days. 
 The business part of the excursion is managed much like 
 that of Sunday school picnics, the priest of the parish and 
 one or two others usually making preliminary arrange- 
 ments of dates, rates of fare and the like. Sometimes 
 one man may charter a steamer and make a little specu- 
 lation out of the business. Fares are low and the people 
 mostly carry their own provisions so that the trip is not 
 an expensive one and the boats are almost always uncom- 
 fortably crowded. 
 
 Take a trip from an up-river parish 50 or 60 miles 
 from Quebec. The boat must start at an early hour, say 
 5, 6 or 7 o'clock — depending on the tide — and the people 
 at a distance must leave their homes often at 2 or 3 o'clock 
 
80 THE CHURCH. 
 
 in the morning. They reach Ste. Anne perhaps about 
 noon, spend an hour or two in religious exercises and in 
 looking about, and then start for home, which they will 
 not reach till very late at night. They have had a hard 
 day and admit being fatigued, but not one will allow the 
 trip to have been unprofitable, for prayers said at the 
 shrine are supposed to have very great eificacy. One 
 woman perhaps expressed the general feeling. She 
 had come from some point in the States and was disposed 
 to comment on the hardships and expenses of her journey. 
 " Why," said she, " for the same money we might have 
 gone to Saratoga and enjoyed ourselves. But then (re- 
 signedly) only think how much good it has done to our 
 souls." 
 
 The Church of Ste. Anne is very fine and the decora- 
 tion of a high order. Most of it was done by Italian 
 artists, brought over for the purpose. American tourists 
 to Quebec who have the time to spare now try to include 
 a visit to Ste. Anne with their other sight-seeing. The 
 church is claimed to possess a genuine relic of Ste. Anne, 
 and some miracles are reported to be performed there 
 every year. 
 
 The priests receive confessions on board the steamers 
 en route. Mass is said shortly after arrival, at which 
 those who have confessed receive communion, and all are 
 then at liberty to occupy themselves as they like until 
 called to start for home. 
 
 The people seem to have considerable confidence in 
 possible benefits to be derived from a pilgrimage and there 
 is always a number of invalids in a party. They certainly 
 ought to be benefitted in some way to offset the discom- 
 forts and sufferings of the journey. 
 
 Some priests, however, do not look with much favor on 
 these pilgrimages and quietly abstain from helping to ar- 
 
THE Church. 8l 
 
 range them, although not opposing them. But that is usu- 
 ally sut^lcient. If the priest is cold or lukewarm in the 
 matter the people are not likely to be very enthusiastic. 
 We need not say they lack faith in the virtues of the shrine ; 
 they may think that the evil results of a pilgrimage over- 
 balance the good. Order is generally well kept, but it 
 would not be strange if among so many people there 
 should be occasional excesses and irregularities. 
 
Ipart UH 
 MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES 
 
MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES 
 
 Marriages are contracted among the poorer Canadians 
 in the same reckless, improvident manner as among the 
 very poor all over the world. There is not much calcu- 
 lation as to how the future family is to be supported. If 
 a man can get enough to eat for himself he seems to think 
 it will suffice for two ; and the women appear to be of 
 the same opinion. A man was earning four dollars and a 
 half a week on which to support a wife and three young 
 children. His son by a former marriage was earning only 
 five dollars a month when he took it into his head to 
 marry and go to live with his father. The house, of one 
 room twenty feet square, was, with the aid of some calico 
 curtains, made the home of both families. The two 
 women cooked their separate meals on the same stove, 
 each man providing his portion of the wood. 
 
 Another couple was to be married as soon as the man 
 could get money enough ahead to pay the priest's fee. 
 He got near enough to if one week to induce him to set 
 the wedding for the next Monday morning, but he cele- 
 brated the ceremony in advance rather too much and 
 Saturday night found him short of the requisite dollar, 
 Sunday afternoon, however, he went fishing and caught 
 and sold " tommy cods " enough to realize the amount 
 that was lacking. 
 
 I have heard another man say that when he had paid 
 the priest's fee for marrying him he had just fifty cents 
 left. The woman had not even that. 1 imagine their 
 
86 MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 
 
 balance in hand has oftener been less than fifty cents than 
 over it ever since. 
 
 A rather amusing instance of proclivity to matrimony 
 came under our notice. A very poor woman, middle 
 aged, (and I think the strongest woman I ever saw,) was 
 doing scrubbing for us when she met with a trifling acci- 
 dent which kept her away for a few days. When we 
 asked when she could come back to work we were in- 
 formed that she was going to get married and would not 
 work any more for anybody. As she had been a widow 
 less than two months we were a little surprised, and in- 
 quired into the particulars. It appears that while she was 
 in attendance on her late aged and infirm husband the 
 people in whose house the couple occupied a room gave 
 lodging one night to a one-armed beggar. He was so 
 much pleased with the manner in which she took care of 
 the old man that he expressed his intention of coming 
 back after her husband was dead and marrying her. in 
 the course of time the old man died and the beggar came 
 for her. When asked why such a strong, healthy woman 
 as she was should want to marry a crippled beggar she 
 replied that she was tired of work and wanted to live at 
 ease. That the beggar was very well ofT, had a thousand 
 dollars in the bank, his board cost him nothing and he 
 could beg enough for both of them. Besides, she was 
 nothing but a beggar herself, for she could not get work 
 enough to support herself, her child and her dogs. As he 
 was just her age, forty-four, she thought it was a good 
 match, and no matter what other people might say she 
 was going to marry him and not do any more work. 
 
 The course of true love does not always run smooth 
 here more than elsewhere. A man who had been some 
 years a widower engaged to marry a maiden of some 
 forty -tive or fifty years. It seems that she was so much 
 
MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 8? 
 
 pleased at the prospect that she went about telling every- 
 one of it, which for some reason or other displeased him 
 and he broke off the engagement. They settled matters 
 up again after a while and were being " called " in the 
 church ; but the priest made a mistake and " called " her 
 to the wrong man. It happened to be a dead man so one 
 would think no great harm had been done, as indeed there 
 had not, for the mistake was promptly rectified. How- 
 ever, the bridegroom was so vexed with the priest that he 
 went off and got drunk, at which she was angry and 
 broke the engagement in her turn. Shortly afterward 
 her brother was taken ill and died, and this man went to 
 the funeral, which was in another parish. There her 
 father was taken ill, carried home and placed on the bed 
 from which his son had just been removed. The man 
 gave so much assistance, showed so much sympathy, and 
 altogether behaved so well, that she forgave his delin- 
 quencies. They came back to their own parish Saturday 
 night, and at six o'clock Monday morning went to the 
 church by themselves and were married. It looks as if 
 neither party was inclined to risk more ruptures of the 
 engagement. 
 
 There is a well-authenticated story of a man of wealth 
 who was engaged to be married to a woman of something 
 near his own age, and who bought and elegantly furnished 
 a house for their occupancy. For some reason unknown 
 they decided not to marry, but they went together to the 
 house, packed up with the greatest care all the beautiful 
 furniture and there left it. She remained in her own 
 rooms and he took small rooms elsewhere. Every after- 
 noon for thirty years and more he called at a certain hour 
 and they walked out together ; and once a week she 
 dressed in state and dined with him at his rooms or 
 he with her at hers, she always inviting some young girl 
 
88 MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 
 
 to act as chaperon. One day he was taken sick and did 
 not call. She, being herself ill with a slight cold, wrote 
 him a note. He died the next day with her note in his 
 hand. Less than a month later she died, the doctors said 
 from grief, as she had no disease. The great house with 
 all its furnishings remained unoccupied and unused until 
 within a very few years. 
 
 It is told of a hunter and woodsman, who still lives in 
 a neighboring parish, that he made arrangements to be 
 married on Monday (which seems to be a favorite time) 
 and on Saturday went to Quebec to purchase his outfit. 
 He met so many friends whom it was necessary to treat, 
 and who treated him so much, that he found himself, or 
 rather was found, late in the afternoon very drunk and 
 without a cent. A neighbor took him home in a sleigh ; 
 but the neighbor had a bottle, and Jean had to be put to 
 bed more drunk than ever. He went to sleep and did not 
 wake up enough to know what he was about until Sunday 
 afternoon. Then he realized that something must be 
 done or his marriage would be a failure for that time 
 sure. He took his gun and some traps and went away to 
 the woods. Before daylight he returned with two otter 
 skins on his back, routed up a village shopkeeper and 
 sold the skins, went to the church and was on hand to be 
 married according to the programme. 1 believe Jean has 
 lived on very much the same happy-go-lucky plan ever 
 since. 
 
 Not all weddings here in Canada are so simple and un- 
 ceremonious as those 1 have mentioned. Here, as else- 
 where, some people want a good deal of parade and others 
 either do not care for or cannot afford it. 
 
 Years ago weddings among well-to-do habitants were, 
 and occasionally are now, made scenes of festivity last- 
 ing several days. Practically open house was kept, 
 
MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 89 
 
 sometimes for nearly a week. The amount of eating, 
 drinking and dancing done was prodigious. Drinking, 
 in former days, was more general and heavier than now 
 and fights sometimes occurred, but rarely resulted seri- 
 ously. The Canadians do not like stand-up pugilistic 
 encounters like the English, or rows with shillaly like 
 the Irish. Two or three good solid blows are enough to 
 settle almost any of their little difficulties. 
 
 My family was once unintentionally the means of turn- 
 ing what was intended to be a very quiet wedding into a 
 genuine f^te. The bride was an amiable and estimable 
 girl, sister to our manof-all-work, who has been with us 
 for several years, and to our housemaid, to whom my wife 
 and daughters are much attached. The whole family is 
 greatly respected in the village. To please our little maid 
 and the rest, my people added some small articles to the 
 bride's trosseau and then prompted me to oifer something 
 more. They decided that nothing would give everybody 
 so much pleasure as a chance to dance, and proposed that 
 I should provide fiddlers and that they should give an 
 afternoon tea. We secured a vacant house near by and 
 decorated the rooms with red and white cotton cloth. 
 The decorations were extremely simple but turned out to 
 be effective and were greatly admired. 
 
 The marriage was to be on Tuesday, and the two mu- 
 sicians, who came from another parish, arrived on Monday 
 afternoon. After refreshments they tuned up and dancing 
 began, at the house of the bride's father. It was kept up 
 until eleven P. m., stopping only for supper. At seven 
 the next morning the wedding took place, and immedi- 
 ately after breakfast dancing was resumed, which contin- 
 ued till noon. 
 
 We had not ourselves intended to take any part in the 
 festivities, but found that the bride would feel really grat- 
 
90 MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 
 
 ified if we would attend the dinner, which took the place 
 of the usual wedding breakfast. We feared we should be 
 an embarrassment, but so much was said and the invita- 
 tion so cordial, that we consented and finally decided that 
 we would go in for all the fun there was going. We were 
 given the most distinguished places at the table, next the 
 dame d'honneur, who was no other than our little house- 
 maid. I must say that she was the life of the occasion 
 and carried affairs along with a spirit and vigor that we 
 had often suspected was in her but had never seen before. 
 At our house she is extremely quiet and demure, but at 
 the wedding she evidently let herself loose and things had 
 to go the way she wanted them. 
 
 The dinner was set in the kitchen of the farm-house and 
 was not very different from the usual farmer's fare, but 
 was good and abundant. There were no liquors — the 
 whole family being temperance people— but we drank the 
 bride's health in tea so strong it almost made my head 
 swim. She was pleased and everybody was merry. 
 
 When the first party had finished their repast — for the 
 tables had to be set twice more before all were satisfied — 
 the doctor of the village got up and made a neat speech 
 that must have cost him some trouble to prepare. 
 There was no regular reply for the bridegroom evidently 
 had no taste for speech-making and no one else thought 
 it his duty, so we contented ourselves with vigorously 
 applauding the doctor's sentiments. 
 
 By two o'clock all had been fed, and adjournment was 
 made to the rooms we had prepared. After a few min- 
 utes spent in commenting on our decorations all hands 
 speedily settled to business. My wife and daughters 
 hunted me up and insisted that it was my duty to open 
 the dance with the bride, which 1 did. And more than 
 that, I kept on till I think I must have danced with nearly 
 
MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 91 
 
 all her family. I had n't danced so much in twenty years. 
 My family said they had no idea there was so much dance 
 left in me. It was lots of fun. 
 
 The dances were quadrilles and cotillions, with an occa- 
 sional jig, round dances being forbidden. Men did not 
 take their partners round the waist, but by their elbow?. 
 1 made two or three mistakes about that, but was gently 
 reminded that the Canadian fashion was considered more 
 proper. Those cotillions made me perspire. There was 
 one girl of fifteen or sixteen years who weighed 1 think 
 about as much as 1 did who always seemed to want to 
 turn round twice to my once. One dance with her was 
 enough. I think there was not a dry thread on me when 
 it was over. 
 
 The two fiddlers did not play together, but when one 
 stopped the other commenced, and the intervals between 
 dances were very short. It was a case of " one down 
 another come on " all the afternoon. The dancing was 
 lively and vigorous but not rude nor rough in the least. 
 There was not much formality, but perfect propriety. 
 Only one man appeared to have taken privately a little 
 more drink than was good for him, and he was only silly. 
 He was induced to go home for something and did not 
 get back. 
 
 A little incident at one time promised to disturb the 
 harmony, but it was soon over and few persons knew any- 
 thing about it. A rejected suitor appeared outside the 
 house in an excited condition vowing vengeance on the 
 bride and threatening bodily injury to the groom. Two 
 of the lady's brothers went out and administered some 
 very forcible language to the young man and one of them 
 emphasized his remarks with a good claque on the side of 
 the head, whereon he got into his cariole and drove away. 
 
 Dancing and refreshments continued until six without 
 
92 MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 
 
 interruption. I was smoking a quiet pipe in one of tlie 
 rooms when somebody called me out. 1 found the guests 
 assembled in the dancing-room, and the schoolmaster 
 stepped out and read a very neatly written address which 
 should have been made to my wife and daughters instead 
 of me, for 1 had had very little to do with the affair ex- 
 cept to pay the fiddlers. I was a good deal nonplussed at 
 first, but managed to say that we were very much obliged 
 to the people for their compliments and glad they had en- 
 joyed themselves. I got out of that function in short 
 metre, and on the whole, very easily. 
 
 Then everybody went to supper and afterwards danced 
 till five the next morning. 1 dropped into the house for 
 a few minutes in the evening and found everything in full 
 blast. Two rooms were made available, with a fiddler in 
 each. While a set was dancing in one room another was 
 being made up in the other one, so that there were abso- 
 lutely no waits at all. The non- dancers played cards and 
 sang in another room without disturbing the others in 
 the least. I went home and to bed, but when I went back 
 to the village about ten o'clock next morning I heard the 
 fiddles going again and they did not stop till dinner time. 
 
 At two o'clock the young couple started for their new 
 home, 30 miles away, escorted by several sleigh-loads of 
 relatives and friends. Arrived there, they found fresh 
 fiddlers on hand and fifty or more neighbors assembled, so 
 there was almost continuous dancing again till noon of the 
 following day. Our little maid, who was of the escorting 
 party, came back at about sunset with feet so swollen that 
 she could get no shoes on and was obliged to shuffle round 
 the house for three or four days in a pair of old over- 
 stockings. When she told her story I wished I had a copy 
 of the well-known picture entitled " Enfin Seuls " to send 
 to the nouveaux maries. I am sure they would have 
 appreciated it. 
 
MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 93 
 
 We were quite satisfied with our success. At small ex- 
 pense to ourselves we had given pleasure to a good many 
 people and had assisted at a genuinely Canadian wedding. 
 It was frankly and honestly simple, dignified and decorous 
 and had been enjoyed with true Canadian lighthearted- 
 ness. 
 
 It added greatly to our pleasure that our faithful Na- 
 zaire was present and was made much of, to his mingled 
 delight and embarrassment. He had come to see me on 
 business and to resign on the twentieth anniversary of his 
 engagement in our service and on account of advancing 
 years, the position he had so long and honorably tilled. 
 As soon as it was known that he was in the village the 
 bride's family insisted that he should be of the wedding 
 party. He was known to most of the people and it did 
 not take long for the others to make his acquaintance. 
 Whenever 1 caught sight of him he was surrounded by a 
 group of attentive listeners. Added years have subtracted 
 nothing from his loquacity, and 1 suspect our adventures 
 and experience together in the woods formed the basis of 
 much of his conversation. 1 am glad I was not called on 
 to vouch for his stories, for 1 am rather afraid his memory 
 has grown astigmatic of late. He was greatly distressed 
 because he was not dressed for a wedding. I assured him 
 that it was not of the slightest consequence and that he 
 looked as well as any of us. Privately I was glad of it, 
 for to me his honest, rugged features show better out of 
 homespun than out of store clothes. But no one, not 
 even the bride nor my daughters, could induce him to 
 dance. I was awfully sorry, for 1 think he would have 
 shown us some steps that are not taught by dancing 
 masters now-a-days. 
 
 Good old Nazaire ! He went home by the midnight 
 
94 
 
 MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 
 
 train, assuring me that he should never forget or regret 
 his visit. 
 
 The habitant is extremely fond of everything that has the 
 air of a fete, and one other little lark which we have had 
 with our habitant neighbors is as characteristic as the wed- 
 ding just described. It was no longer ago than last summer. 
 Our neighbors could never understand why we liked 
 so much to go to Lake Clair. They thought there was 
 nothing we could do there but catch and eat fish. We 
 wanted to give some of them an entertainment, so we in- 
 vited twenty-five or thirty to make a picnic at the lake, 
 stopping there over one night. A goodly number came, 
 fathers and mothers, young men and maidens. 1 think a 
 merrier lot of people was never brought together. They 
 were like a lot of children let out of school. They ran, 
 raced, sang, shouted and played tricks on each other with 
 as much glee and zest as if they had never had a care in 
 
MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 95 
 
 their lives ; and all without a particle of objectionable 
 rudeness. 
 
 Their greatest delight, however, was in the boating. 
 All our water craft of course were at their service, and as 
 they were quite safe 1 had no anxiety except to be a little 
 careful as to who went out in the smaller canoes. As it 
 was there was not the slightest mishap except that the 
 only expert canoeman in the party managed to tip him- 
 self over without the least excuse. One more laugh, a 
 little more uproarious than the others, was the only notice- 
 able result. 
 
 In the evening we had a procession of boats and canoes 
 with torches, and afterwards fireworks, and tableaux with 
 colored lights, which were very pretty, being arranged so 
 as to appear as if on the water. The weather was perfect 
 and the lake like a mirror. There was one tableau that 
 was quite striking. After a brilliant illumination and 
 while eyes were still a little dazzled a figure in white ap- 
 peared, gliding gently over the water without any visible 
 means of propulsion. She was poised high on the bow 
 of a canoe large enough to be steady, and with red, 
 white or blue lights burning behind her she appeared in 
 a kind of halo, and the canoe, paddled noiselessly along, 
 was not seen. Some exclaimed " Le d-i-a-b-l-e-est de- 
 dans!" (the devil is in it) with the peculiar intonation 
 often given to the expression. It was only an indication 
 of wonder and delight and not of opinion that his satanic 
 majesty had anything to do with it. 
 
 When all these things were done and a lot of songs had 
 been sung 1 thought it was time for folks to go to bed, 
 but my friends apparently had no such views. When the 
 assembly broke up they nearly all went otT by twos, 
 threes and tours in boats and canoes and in a few minutes 
 
96 MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 
 
 were scattered all over the lake, some singing and some 
 only chaffing the rest. 
 
 There was one quite old man, much bent up with rheu- 
 matism and so generally feeble that I wondered how he 
 ever reached the lake, whom I thought ought to be looked 
 after. 1 told one of his sons that he ought to get the old 
 man in and put him nicely to bed. He went to look for 
 him and found he had gone away to the other side of the 
 lake with a boat-load of young folks, and apparently had 
 no thought of going to bed at all. 
 
 We had provided comfortable beds for all the women 
 and set up two tents with plenty of branches for the men 
 whom we could not accommodate otherwise ; but a few 
 of the young women were determined that they would 
 sleep in a tent for once in their lives now that they had 
 the chance, so they took possession of one, got their fathers 
 to occupy the other to chaperon them, and told the other 
 men they might go and sleep wherever they could. I 
 heard it intimated next morning that not much sleeping 
 was done in either tent that night ; but as everybody was 
 happy and jolly over it that did not much matter. 
 
 Everybody was out bright and early and after a fore- 
 noon spent in boating and visiting points of interest, 
 started for home, a five hours' drive, in great spirits. For 
 a week afterwards there was not much talked about in 
 our village but the Canadian picnic at Lake Clair. 
 
 The fun of it all for us was in seeing the pleasure the 
 people took in everything they saw or did and their hearty 
 abandon. It is great sport to get up such things for 
 people to whom they are all n,ew and strange ; but who, 
 while not critical, have intelligence to appreciate them 
 fairly well. 
 
 We were quite struck with the good looks of most of 
 our party, of the men particularly. Nearly all had good 
 
MARRIAGES AND FESTIVITIES. 97 
 
 features and very good figures. Possibly this lot happened 
 to be a little above the average, but we consider the 
 Canadians in general to be rather a handsome race. We 
 see a good many children, little girls especially, that are 
 very lovely. As women, with their large families and 
 hard work, they are apt to fade early. 
 
Ipart Dlllf 
 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 
 
 Until quite recent times the whole of the settled, and 
 much of the unsettled, part of Canada was held under feudal 
 tenure. The seigneurs held grants of land from the Crown 
 on the simple condition of faith and homage. These grants, 
 however, were liable to be changed or revoked or new con- 
 ditions imposed at the will of the sovereign. " For such 
 is our pleasure " was the only reason necessary to be given 
 by the king. These tracts were divided by the seigneurs 
 into farms of convenient size, usually four arpents of 192 
 English feet each in front by forty arpents in depth, which 
 were conceded (leased) at a perpetual rental, besides other 
 obligations, of which more hereafter. 
 
 As the river was the great highway in summer, and 
 sometimes offered the most available roadway in winter, 
 and as the best land lay along its banks, the seigneuries 
 bordering on it were made narrow in front and extending 
 back to a considerable depth. The farm-lands being laid 
 out on the same plan gave to each tenant the privilege of 
 fishing in the St. Lawrence and cultivating a certain 
 amount of excellent land on its banks with sufficient 
 pasture and wood-land farther back. 
 
 Sub-divisions of these farms were, and still are, made on 
 the same system, so that we may often hear a man say 
 that he has an arpent or two arpents of land, meaning that 
 he has one or two arpents of front by forty arpents in 
 depth. This method of dividing lots accounts for the 
 
102 The feudal system. 
 
 long, narrow strips of land with their apparently intermi- 
 nable fences that so constantly meet the eye of the trav- 
 eller. 
 
 This plan offered several advantages to the settlers, such 
 as the making of roads, social intercourse, and, most of all, 
 prompt mutual help against the attacks of the savages. 
 The same system extended to the lands in the rear when 
 those on the river bank had all been conceded. It is only 
 in comparatively modern times, since the Conquest in 
 fact, that lands far from the St. Lawrence have been con- 
 sidered of any great value ; and only as the growth of the 
 population has forced the younger generations to occupy 
 them have they been brought under cultivation. 
 
 This system also has made the main road from Quebec 
 to Montreal almost a continuous village, more densely 
 peopled in the vicinity of the churches, but still closely 
 settled nearly all the way. 
 
 Towards the end of the seventeenth century the rental 
 of these farms, in the neighborhood of Quebec, may be 
 reckoned at about " twenty sous and a good live capon" 
 for each arpent of front, or eighty sous and four capons 
 for a farm of not far from one hundred and thirty Eng- 
 lish acres. The amount seems absurdly small, although 
 money was worth nearly, or quite, five times as much as 
 now. 
 
 Aside from the rent the other obligations of the tenant 
 do not appear to have been burdensome, and were doubt- 
 less cheerfully met. The seigneurs as a rule lived among 
 their tenants, and shared both good and evil fortunes with 
 them. Until the latter part of the century it would seem 
 that there was little good and much hard fortune for both. 
 
 M. de Gaspe, in the " Canadians of Old," gives us an 
 excellent idea of the relations of the tenants to the seign- 
 eurs. It is a pity we have not more of the same kind of 
 
tHE FtUbAL SYSTEM. 103 
 
 history and from an earlier date. That there was great 
 mutual attachment and good will between them is certain, 
 and we have no reason to think M. de Gaspe at all exag- 
 gerates them. The planting of the May pole, which he 
 describes, however, 1 am sorry to tind was not the spon- 
 taneous offering of the people. 1 had supposed it was all 
 done of their own free will ; but 1 find it was obligatory, 
 imposed by their deeds of concession of lands. 
 
 A book published in London in 1818 by Joseph Bou- 
 chette, formerly Surveyor-General of Canada, gives a 
 resume of the conditions of the concessions or perpetual 
 leases, which I cannot do better than quote for those who 
 would like to know more of this peculiar tenure. This 
 book, now out of print, gives the dates of grants, names 
 of grantees, and some remarks about each seigneury. It 
 is interesting to notice how little was then known, even 
 by its general surveyor, of the interior of the country, as 
 well as the progress Canada has made " within the mem- 
 ory of men still living." The writer of it was apparently 
 born about the time of the Conquest and wrote toward 
 the end of the second war between the United States and 
 Great Britain. His confidence in the future of Canada is 
 unbounded, and his loyalty to British institutions fully as 
 great as that of his countrymen of today. His disparage- 
 ment of the United States and all that belongs to them is 
 mildly amusing. 
 
 Mr. Bouchette says : 
 
 At tlie time this country fell under the EngHsh government the 
 feudal system universally prevailed in the tenure of lands, and 
 still continues with respect to such as were then granted ; but the 
 townships and tracts disposed of by the British administration have 
 been granted in free and common socage, only two or three in- 
 stances to the contrary being known. 
 
 By the ancient custom of Canada lands were held immediately 
 from the king en fief, or en roture, on condition of rendering fealty 
 
404 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 and homage on accession to the seigniorial property, and in the 
 event of a transfer thereof by sale or otherwise, except in liereditary 
 succession, it was subject to the payment of a quint, or the fifth of 
 the whole purchase money, and which if paid by the purchaser im- 
 mediately entitled him to the rehat, or a reduction of two-thirds of 
 the quint. This custom still prevails. 
 
 The tenanciers, or holders of lands en roture, are subject to some 
 particular conditions, but they are not at all burdensome. For in- 
 stance, they pay a small annual rent, usually between 2s. 6d. and 5s., 
 (though in many seigniories the rents of the new concessions have 
 been considerably increased,) to this is added some article of pro- 
 vision, such as a couple of fowls, a goose, or a bushel of wheat, or 
 something else of domestic consumption, and they are also bound 
 to grind their corn at iht^moulin banal," or the seigneur's mill, 
 where one-fourteenth part of it is taken for his use as moulure (or 
 toll for grinding), to repair the highways and by-roads through 
 their lands, and to make new ones, which when opened must be 
 surveyed and approved by the grand voyeur of the district, and es- 
 tablished by proces verbal. 
 
 Lands are sometimes held by bail amphiteotique, or a long lease 
 of 20, 30, 50, or any number of years, subject to a very small rent 
 only. Franc alleu is a freehold, under which lands are exempt from 
 all rights or duties to seigneurs, acknowledging no lord but the king. 
 Cenctve is a feudal tenure, subject to an annual rent paid either in 
 money or produce. 
 
 The seigneurs, by the old laws that have not been repealed, are 
 entitled to constitute courts and preside as judges therein, in what 
 is denominated haute et basse justice, which takes cognizance of all 
 crimes committed within their jurisdiction except murder and 
 treason. This privilege has lain dormant ever since the Conquest 
 nor is it probable that it will be revived as such ample provision is 
 now made for the regular administration of the laws. 
 
 The lods et ventes constitute a part of the seigneur's revenue. It 
 is the right to a twelfth part of the purchase money of every estate 
 within his seigniory that changes the owner by sale or other means 
 equivalent to a sale. This twelfth is to be paid by the purchaser, 
 and is exclusive of the sum agreed upon between him and the seller. 
 For prompt payment of it a reduction of a fourth part is usually 
 made. In cases of a sale of this nature the lord possesses the droit 
 de retrait, which is the privilege of pre-emption at the highest bidden 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 105 
 
 price within forty days after tiie sale lias tai<en place. It is, how- 
 ever, a privilege but seldom exercised. 
 
 All the fisheries within a seigniory contribute to increase the 
 proprietor's revenue as he receives tithes of all the fish caught or an 
 equivalent sum. Besides these rights he is privileged to fell timber 
 anywhere within his seigniory for erecting mills, repairing roads or 
 constructing new ones, or other works of public or general utility. 
 Many proprietors of seigniories have become very wealthy from 
 their revenues, as the sales and exchanges of estates have been of 
 late years very numerous. 
 
 Lands held by Roman Catholics under any of the aforementioned 
 tenures are further subject to the payment to their curates of one- 
 twenty-sixth part of all grain produced upon them, and to occa- 
 sional assessments for building and repairing churches, parsonage 
 houses, or other works belonging to the church. The remainder of 
 the granted lands within the Province not held under any of these 
 tenures are in free and common socage, from which a reservation of 
 two-sevenths is made; one thereof is appropriated to the crown, 
 and the other set apart for the maintenance and support of the prot- 
 estant clergy. 
 
 All these rights of the seigneurs, together with many 
 other so-called rights that were unwritten, existing only 
 through customs originating in the Middle Ages, or in the 
 times when subjects were merely serfs, continued in force 
 up to 1854, although few of their objectionable claims ever 
 obtained much footing in this country. The rights of the 
 seigneurs were so unfavorable to the prosperity of the 
 Province that a commission was appointed in 1853 ^o Pre- 
 pare a plan for their commutation. This commission was 
 probably the most talented and distinguished body of men 
 ever brought together in Canada, and the work done by it 
 was a great one. The seigneurs were shorn of any unjust 
 pretentions and recompensed for those legal rights of which 
 it was thought best to deprive them. The tenant was al- 
 lowed to commute his rental on reasonable terms and be- 
 come actual proprietor, in fee simple, of his 'holdings. 
 
106 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 The arrangement was generally satisfactory to all. The 
 far greater part of the conceded properties have been thus 
 commuted ; but there are some that still pay the old rent 
 — money, fowls, etc. Very few seigneuries now remain 
 in the families of the original grantees ; perhaps not more 
 than five or six in the Province. 
 
 French kings had long endeavored to limit the powers 
 of the nobles, and in New France all things conspired to 
 prevent the exercise of unjust practices. In fact it does 
 not appear that many Canadian seigneurs were disposed 
 to make much use of such, although there were no doubt 
 great differences among them in this respect. I have 
 heard of one who, even in modern times, claimed that he 
 had the first right to everything within the limits of his 
 seigneury. 
 
 Learning that 1 wished to know something more of the 
 relations of seigneur and tenant, a friend placed in my 
 hands a " Traite des Fiefs" in seven large volumes. It 
 was published in Paris in 1749, and is a complete digest 
 of all the laws, edicts and decisions concerning the matter 
 down to that time. 
 
 I found this treatise extremely curious and interesting, 
 although bearing but slightly on feudalism in Canada. 
 Scores of points that now seem to us utterly trifling and 
 unimportant are treated in the most serious and minute 
 manner. The long discussions and arguments help to 
 show how poorly defined were the powers of the nobles 
 in ancient times, in some parts of France written laws 
 prevailed and in other parts ancient customs, some of them 
 dating from the 10th century, formed the only law. On 
 one point the author cites no less than seventy-five differ- 
 ent customs. The "droit de corvee'' which in Canada 
 was limited to the right of the seigneur to compel his ten- 
 ants to work on roads or other works of public utility, 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 107 
 
 and the right of "banalite," which in Canada was reduced 
 to the obligation to bring all grain to the seigneurial mill 
 to be ground, are carefully and exhaustively discussed. 
 
 In France, a renewal of faith and homage which, as 
 this author says " is the essence of a fief," was due from 
 the seigneur to the sovereign at every change in the suc- 
 cession on the one side or the other ; the noble must ac- 
 knowledge allegiance to the monarch on his accession to 
 the throne, as well as on his own succession to new rank. 
 The tenant, always called " vassal " by this author, must 
 olTer faith and homage to his seigneur upon every newly- 
 acquired title on his own part, whether by purchase, in- 
 heritance or otherwise. In Canada the seigneurs tendered 
 faith and homage to the representative of the king on his 
 arrival in the country, presenting at the same time decla- 
 rations of titles. 
 
 In Canada, the tenant was under no obligation to mill- 
 tary service towards his seigneur, while in France he might 
 be obliged, under one form of allegiance, to serve his 
 master personally, at his own expense, as long as the war 
 might last ; under another he would be bound to serve in 
 the same manner for forty days. After that he might 
 send a horseman in his place. 
 
 The best short account of feudal customs in Canada 
 that 1 know of is that given by Parkman in chap, xv of 
 "The Old Regime in Canada." 
 
 1 have in my possession a deed dated June 19th, 1694, 
 conceding a lot of land of three arpents in front by forty 
 in depth in consideration of twenty sous and one good 
 live capon, or twenty sous for the value thereof at the 
 pleasure of the seigneur, for each arpent of front, and one 
 sous of ceiis, payable at the principal manor-house of the 
 seigneury on St. Martin's day in each year so long as the 
 grantee shall occupy the land. 
 
108 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 The tenant is to help to maintain such roads as may be 
 deemed necessary for public use, " tenir feu et lieu " (live 
 on the premises), bring his grain to the seigneur's mill 
 to be ground, aid the other habitants to plant on the 
 first day of May in each year a May pole in front of 
 the principal door of the manor-house, and to pay to the 
 seigneur one-fifteenth of all fish caught in the St. Law- 
 rence in front of the land (he having the right to hunt and 
 fish over and in front of it), * * * and to be " subject 
 to cens et rentes carrying with them the lods et ventes 
 according to the custom of Paris." 
 
 The giving of this deed would seem to have been a vol- 
 untary act on the part of the seigneur, for the grantee was 
 not present when it was made, and the notary only ac- 
 cepts it in his name " in case it should be agreeable to 
 him." 
 
 The rent and other charges were doubtless commuted 
 under the act of 1854, and the owner now holds in fee 
 simple, free from cens et rentes, lots et ventes, and all the 
 rest of it. He can now get his grain ground where he 
 likes and is free to eat all the fish he can catch. 
 
 The front line of the lot described extended three ar- 
 pents along the shore of the River St. Lawrence and its 
 side lines were those that separated it from its neighbors, 
 but its rear boundary was probably still in the primeval 
 forest. 
 
 When this deed was made, Quebec, although the seat 
 of civil, military and religious government for the whole 
 of Canada, was only a small station, and the entire popu- 
 lation of the colony could not have exceeded 12,000 souls. 
 (A census taken in 1681 made it 9,78L) 
 
 Sturdy old Count Frontenac was Governor, Louis XIV 
 was King of France, and William of Orange King of Eng- 
 land, 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 109 
 
 In that same year bands of treacherous savages and no 
 less savage Canadians were murdering settlers all along 
 the New England frontier. Parkman tells us all about 
 it, and how at Durham, near Portsmouth, N. H., a hun- 
 dred and four persons, mostly women and children, were 
 tomahawked and scalped, and how a French officer says 
 that his Indian allies intended to " divide up into par- 
 ties of four or five and knock people on the head by sur- 
 prise, which can not fail to have a good effect." 
 
 This was the character of the warfare carried on by the 
 French and Indians, aided, excited and continually encour- 
 aged by priests and missionaries. 
 
 Although many seigneuries had been granted along the 
 River St. Lawrence and a considerable number of farms 
 conceded, yet the number of habitants actually occupying 
 their lands must have been very small. Many of them 
 had been drafted into the militia and were serving on mil- 
 itary expeditions, largely under the command of their 
 seigneurs. Others, reckless, venturesome and impatient of 
 all restraint, had taken to the woods in company with con- 
 genial spirits from the ranks of the noblesse and became 
 conreurs de hois, hunting, trading and fighting on their 
 own account, defying control either of Church or State, 
 
 The seigneurs were not as a rule men of wealth and 
 their manor-houses were usually unpretentious, probably 
 much of the character of a Canadian farm-house of good 
 class of the present day, having one or two large rooms, 
 while the chambers were small and low. In many cases 
 the house, as well as stables, storehouses and workshops, 
 was surrounded with palisades, and the whole arranged to 
 serve as a place of refuge and defense from savages. A 
 chapel was sometimes also within the enclosure when not 
 included in the house itself. 
 
 Some establishments, however, were of greater preten- 
 
110 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 tions, as for instance, that of the Seigneury of Longueil, 
 which was built of stone, the whole enclosure covering a 
 space of 170 by 270 feet. It was doubtless modelled after 
 an old French chateau and by its extent and imposing ap- 
 pearance gained for the seigneur the title of Baron. It 
 was destroyed by fire before 1699, and a church was built 
 on its site, and in part of the same materials, at about that 
 date.* 
 
 Some of the seigneuries were of great extent. That of 
 Beaupre, granted in I636, contained 695,704 arpents, or 
 about 900 square miles. 
 
 The most valuable was that of the island of Montreal, 
 a greater part of which was first granted in 1640 to two 
 persons named Cherrier and Le Royer. Whether they 
 disposed of it, or whether it was for some reason forfeited 
 to the crown, there is no record to show. . It passed in 
 1664 from the Sulpitians of Paris to the Seminary of St. 
 Sulpice in Montreal, to which the titles were confirmed by 
 the king in 1714, so that the Seminary became sole pro- 
 prietor of that immensely valuable property. 
 
 By the seigneurial act of 1854 the Society was obliged 
 to accept commutation from such of its tenants as then 
 demanded it. As regarded new concessions it was of 
 course at liberty to make its own terms and conceded 
 many lots of land subject to perpetual ground rents, but 
 rarely sold any. Its property in the city and district of 
 Montreal is therefore at the present time of almost un- 
 known value. 
 
 In and immediately around Quebec the policy of grant- 
 
 *It is to be hoped that it was not alone the appearance of the 
 mansion that brought its owner this distinction. The family well 
 deserved the title by varied and valuable services. Mr. Parkman 
 speaks of it as the most truly eminent in Canada. A brother of the 
 baron was the founder of New Orleans. 
 
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. Ill 
 
 ing small fiefs or dependencies was instituted by the 
 " Company of New France," and continued by successive 
 governors — Montmagny, Frontenac and others. Its object 
 was to favor compact settlement in times when the colony 
 was weak and threatened by powerful enemies, i have 
 been told that some of these fiefs were scarcely larger than 
 good-sized house lots. 
 
 The palisaded or otherwise fortified manor-houses 
 served not infrequently as places of refuge and defense. 
 The most notable incident of this kind was that of the 
 holding of the fort of Vercheres (about 20 miles below 
 Montreal on the south side of the St. Lawrence) by the 
 young daughter of the seigneur. 
 
 Outside the fort was a block -house, connected with it 
 by a covered way. One morning late in October, 1692, 
 the inhabitants were at work in the fields and some of the 
 soldiers were out hunting at considerable distance. The 
 seigneur and his wife were away. Only two soldiers, two 
 boys, an old man of eighty years, and a number of women 
 and children were left in the place. 
 
 The seigneur's young daughter, Madeleine, aged fourteen 
 years, was by the landing-place at the river with a hired 
 man named Laviolette. Suddenly she heard firing from 
 the direction of the workers in the fields, and directly after 
 Laviolette cried out, " Run, madamoiselle, run ; here come 
 the Iroquois ! " Turning, she saw forty or fifty of them 
 at the distance of a pistol-shot, and ran as fast as she 
 could towards the fort. The Indians, finding that they 
 could not take her alive before she reached the gate, stop- 
 ped and fired at her, but she ran on, with the bullets 
 whistling about her. As soon as she was near enough to 
 be heard she cried, ''To arms, to arms! " but the two sol- 
 diers were so frightened that they hid themselves. She 
 shut the gate and tried to think what she could do to save 
 
112 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 herself and the others. She found some of the palisades 
 down and immediately ordered them to be replaced, she 
 herself helping at the work. In the block -house she 
 found the two soldiers, one of whom was just about to set 
 a lighted match to the magazine to blow them all up. 
 She sent him out of the place and by her spirit and reso- 
 lution compelled obedience to her commands. 
 
 With the help of the two soldiers, whose panic soon 
 subsided, and of her two brothers, ten and twelve years 
 old, she opened fire on the Indians, who, deceived as to 
 the strength of the garrison, and reluctant as usual to 
 attack a fortified place, turned to killing or making pris- 
 oners of the people in the fields. 
 
 During the day Madeleine continued to show a semblance 
 of strength and at night kept up such a constant walch on 
 the bastions that the Indians never suspected the weakness 
 of the defense. For forty-eight hours the girl neither ate 
 nor slept, but kept encouraging her little force with hopes 
 of speedy relief. This state of alarm and anxiety contin- 
 ued until at the end of a week a lieutenant, sent by M. de 
 Callieres, arrived with forty men, and the brave girl sur- 
 rendered her charge to him. He inspected the fort, found 
 everything in order and a sentinel on each bastion. Then 
 she told him that it was quite time to relieve them for 
 they had not been off their posts for a week. 
 
 In recognition of the bravery of this young heroine a 
 pension for life was afterward granted her. A portion of 
 the old fort is still standing. 
 
part D1[inr 
 
 CHANGES IN TYPE 
 
CHANGES IN TYPE 
 
 I HAVE often wished that 1 could see in print a full 
 description of some of the interesting forms of civiliza- 
 tion that were peculiar to Canada during the fifty years 
 before and fifty years after the Conquest. There may be 
 such accounts in existence, but 1 do not know where to 
 find them in any collected form. It was a period of 
 growth and transition, whose like could not exist under 
 other conditions than those of the climate, races, and modes 
 of life of the people of Canada, and the change from 
 feudal to alien monarchical institutions. 
 
 Some types that existed in the eighteenth century have 
 become nearly, or quite, extinct in the nineteenth. There 
 should be much of interest concerning them that exists 
 only in obscure archives or survives only in tradition. 
 
 All of the high military, and some of the highest civil, 
 officials were of course immediately supplanted at the time 
 of the Conquest by those of the new regime. All the 
 remaining classes, the judges, lawyers, notaries, habitants, 
 and others, have since undergone great changes. We can 
 only note a few of them. 
 
 Of the sturdy and adventurous canoeman and the hardy 
 and resourceful carter the vocations have almost passed 
 away. Steamboats have superseded the one and rail- 
 roads the other on all the main lines of travel. 
 
 In the seventeenth century canoeing was almost the 
 only mode of travel. Soldiers, priests, traders, coureurs 
 lie hois, and the noted explorers of that time were accus- 
 tomed to start from Quebec, for the regions of the Great 
 
il6 
 
 Changes In type. 
 
 Lakes and far be}'ond, in bark canoes, carrying little pro- 
 vision and relying mainly on game and fish for subsistence. 
 We can form little idea of the dangers and hardships which 
 they experienced. 
 
 In later times (and there are a few old residents still liv- 
 ing who can tell of them), companies of twenty, thirty, or 
 forty loaded canoes would often start together for the 
 lumbering regions of the Upper Ottawa or St. Maurice 
 rivers, the crews all singing " En Roulant Ma Boule," or 
 some similar refrain, keeping time with the strokes of 
 their paddles. The canoemen were portageurs, too, in 
 those days, such as we seldom see now. Their merchan- 
 dise and provisions were ordinarily packed in bales of one 
 hundred pounds each, of which each man took two as his 
 regular load on the portages and a third when necessary. 
 A not very unusual load was a barrel of pork, to be carried 
 over roads that were only rocky foot-paths, obstructed 
 by fallen timber and traversed by streams that had to be 
 crossed on logs or fallen trees. There are plenty of men 
 strong enough, but men inured to such work are scarce 
 in our day. In the north, away up in the Hudson 
 
Changes in type. 
 
 il; 
 
 A Huron Chief. 
 
 Bay Company's territory, canoeing" and portaging are 
 still done, but the friend to whom 1 have referred on page 
 19 says that the Indians and half- 
 breeds of that region carry no such 
 loads. 
 
 If you meet with one of these old 
 residents you will not find it dil^icult 
 to arouse his enthusiasm and start 
 him on a flood of reminiscences that 
 will interest you as much as they do 
 him. 
 
 Those of my readers who have 
 crossed the St. Lawrence in canoes 
 amongst floating ice still have vivid recollections of the 
 perils of the passage, although the canoes were made of 
 wood and not of the frail bark used by summer voya- 
 geurs on inland waters. If accidents were rare, exemp- 
 tion from them was due not to lack of danger, but to the 
 skill of the boatmen. Not many will regret that steam 
 has generally supplanted humanity in that particular direc- 
 tion, however much delight we may take in seeing human 
 brain and muscle overcome obstacles. 
 
 The carter of old, like the canoeman, has nearly dis- 
 appeared. Railroads have so penetrated the country that 
 winter drives of two, three, or more days are no longer 
 common incidents. A journey that 1 have often made 
 in winter, sometimes in four hours when the roads were 
 good and my veteran carter, Trudel, drove his slashing 
 tandem, or that occupied two or three days if a heavy 
 snow-storm came up, or if the roads were bad and 1 had a 
 country carter, 1 now do by rail in little over an hour. But 
 the old journey was interesting. If there were fatigue and 
 hardship, there was also pleasure. The new conveyance is 
 safe and comfortable, but dull and commonplace. That it 
 
118 
 
 CHANGES IN TYPE. 
 
 is preferable we all admit, but there are, some of 'us yet 
 left who occasionally meet and talk over the evenings we 
 have spent storm -bound at certain places en route, and 
 speak of the many who have gone over to the majority, 
 with something of regret for the old days, like old people 
 everywhere. 
 
 The canoeman and the carter of old have almost dis- 
 appeared ; but the seigneur of old is more completely 
 gone than either. He was a picturesque and conspicuous 
 figure in Canadian life. 
 
 Although the first seigneurs were nobles, yet attempts 
 to establish a permanent Canadian nobility failed. The 
 country was too poor. While a few of the seigneurs 
 attempted for a time to maintain style and dignity corres- 
 ponding to their rank, their revenues were insufficient, ow- 
 ing to the sparseness of the population.* Others, lower in 
 the social scale, of whom there was a considerable number, 
 could not make much effort in that direction. Although 
 landlords with large estates, their poverty obliged them to 
 become in some measure habitants, sometimes traders. 
 Some of the first and many of 
 the second generation of these 
 yielded to the fascinations of the 
 wild, free, and adventurous life of 
 the cotireur de bois. Others be- 
 came explorers, and helped to dis- 
 cover and make known the great 
 rivers of the west, and to found 
 trading-posts that have since be- 
 come great cities. But almost ev- 
 p^re Marquette. ery seigneur was a soldier, or ready 
 
 *In 1712 ninety-one seigneuries had been granted in a population 
 not exceeding fifty thousand souls. 
 
Changes in type. 
 
 119 
 
 to become one ; his tastes and traditions led him to a 
 soldier's life. 
 
 When the Governor of the colony called out Canadian 
 militia, the seigneurs took the field at the head of their 
 tenants. Both officers and men had become skilled in 
 Indian modes of warfare, which were more to surprise and 
 murder their enemy than to fight him. 
 
 1 think we may suppose that those of the habitants who 
 had settled on and begun to cultivate some land served 
 only under the officers regularly appointed over them and 
 on regularly organized expeditions ; and that only adven- 
 turers and outlaws formed the nucleus of the savage hordes 
 that devastated the borders of New England, although led 
 by younger members of the Cana- 
 dian noblesse of no less savage 
 disposition. 
 
 In the intervals of comparative 
 peace the seigneurs devoted them- 
 selves to the cultivation of their 
 lands, and carried on more or less 
 trading without materially better- 
 ing their condition, until again 
 called out en masse to defend their 
 La Corne de St. Luce. country 
 against the English, half a cen- 
 tury later. After the Conquest 
 many of them returned to France, 
 while others settled down on their 
 estates and became simple coun- 
 try gentlemen, prospering greatly 
 with the improved condition of 
 the country and the rapidly in- 
 creasing population. 
 
 From some of these families 
 have sprung men who have dis- M. Chartier de Lotbini^re. 
 
120 
 
 CHANGES In Type. 
 
 One of the last of the Old 
 School. 
 
 tinguished themselves in various lines of life in the later 
 history of Canada ; but many families have become ex- 
 tiKct, or have merged into the mass of the people. 
 
 As other classes have changed, so have judges, lawyers, 
 and notaries. Of the first two 1 know little except through 
 tradition and anecdote, but of 
 some of the notaries of the old 
 school my recollection is so clear 
 that I cannot help noticing the 
 difference. 1 distinctly remember 
 one of the last of these, a man 
 of the same pattern as those we 
 read of as the depositary of fam- 
 ily secrets, the one without whose 
 knowledge and assistance no busi- 
 ness of any consequence could be 
 properly transacted. In looks, 
 dress, manners, and habits, he was the real old French 
 notary. 
 
 The notaries of Canada are a large and respectable class. 
 That they form a useful class in a community where so 
 many can neither read nor write it is needless to say, and 
 to business men in general they are a great convenience. 
 A considerable knowledge of legal forms is necessary to 
 the profession, and a notarial document is not easy to dis- 
 pute in courts of law. Wills, contracts, deeds, settlements, 
 and agreements of all kinds are made by them, and, as a 
 rule, well made. 1 have sometimes thought that the nature 
 of the notaries' profession tended to encourage personal 
 truth and honesty. Breaches of trust and unfair dealings 
 of any kind are rare among them, and secrets or private 
 matters are generally safe in their hands. 
 
 The younger notaries of the present time have a less re- 
 gard for their profession, than their ancestors and are more 
 
CHANGES IN TYPE. 121 
 
 ready to abandon it for office, or the chances of political life. 
 
 The priest, by education and training inclined to be 
 most conservative, is not altogether what he was. It was 
 not that he wanted to change, but he found that he must 
 adapt himself more or less to the forces that would move 
 the world whether he liked it or no. In some things he 
 has given way and gone forward ; in others he still refuses 
 to move. 1 can see changes that 1 cannot describe. 
 
 The habitant has changed with the others. He has 
 been slow to move, but has lost something of his conserv- 
 atism. He does not now invariably wear gray homespun, 
 although 1 would not say that he does not prefer it. I am 
 inclined to think that his wearing of factory -made goods 
 comes about not through any vanity of his own, but be- 
 cause his wife and daughters find more profitable employ- 
 ment than the slow and tedious processes of spinning 
 and weaving by hand. The daughters may have been 
 obliged — some of them — to go to the States for this em- 
 ployment, but they have found it nevertheless, and too 
 few are left at home to turn spinning wheels enough for 
 all their needs. In many other ways also the demand for 
 female labor has increased. Thirty years ago a seamstress 
 was glad to work for twenty cents a day, whereas now 
 she wants fifty. This instances only one of the many 
 forces that compelled the habitant to abandon some of his 
 inherited customs. Giving them up has been a slow and 
 painful process to men with little or no education or ambi- 
 tion and strongly bound by tradition, but they have not 
 entirely withstood the advance of civilization. 
 
 Emigration of the habitant class within the last twenty- 
 five years has been enormous, and still goes on, although 
 fluctuating from year to year according to the condition of 
 business. There is scarcely a family in our vicinity from 
 which some immediate member has not " monte dans les 
 
122 CHANGES IN TYPE. 
 
 Etats " (gone up into the States). Whole families have 
 been accustomed to go and return almost annually. A 
 good many of them find their way back and remain at 
 home ; for even if they obtain constant and remunerative 
 employment the civilization of "the States" does not 
 always suit them, and they long for their own rivers and 
 forests, their familiar speech, their churches, and their 
 inherited customs. Then, although they earn much more 
 in the States, they are obliged to work much harder and 
 more steadily than at home ; and it is not every one that 
 likes hard work, even if well paid. A man who lately 
 returned, when asked why he came back when he was 
 doing so well, replied, '' Je m'ennuyais du pays" (I was 
 tired of the country). He had nothing to complain of, 
 but he was homesick. The busy, earnest life of the States 
 does not please the majority of French Canadians. 
 
 Within a few years, however, so many have decided to 
 remain and make the States their home that there are now 
 about two-thirds as many Canadians in the States as in 
 Canada, and the regularly migrating contingent has pro- 
 portionately diminished. 
 
 Although the most of these Canadians make very good 
 American citizens, and some have risen to posts of honor 
 and responsibility, yet I cannot say that my Canadian 
 friends in their own country show much of the public 
 spirit of New Englanders and the people of the Northern 
 States generally. In all such matters as roads, bridges, 
 drainage, sidewalks, and similar works for the public good 
 they are far behind their American neighbors. This, I 
 imagine, is largely attributable to the inherited habit of 
 depending entirely on the Government for all matters of 
 the kind. In the old times the people had no voice what- 
 ever in public affairs, and since they have had control of 
 their local concerns they have not risen to any wide con- 
 
CHANGES IN TYPE. 123 
 
 sideration of the general welfare. Another reason is the 
 comparative poverty of the people. The habitant has as 
 a rule but little ready money, and it goes terribly against 
 the grain to pay out anything for taxes, although he 
 knows he will receive an almost immediate advantage 
 from them. He has very little notion of doing or sacri- 
 ficing anything for the general good, even while he shares 
 in it. For example, the law requires every land-owner to 
 keep the road in front of his property in order. In the 
 villages where the houses are close together, the roads may 
 be quite good, but outside of these they are liable to be as 
 bad as they can be without being dangerous. They must 
 inconvenience him very seriously before he will repair 
 them. 
 
 Still another reason, and one that is especially demor- 
 alizing, is that the Government has been in the habit 
 of making grants for roads, bridges, etc., for the purpose 
 of political effect. Such practices are not at all unknown 
 on the other side of the line, but they are more effectual 
 in a small country than in a large one, and it is easier to 
 see their workings. The supposed ability of a candidate 
 for office to obtain grants for local purposes is a prime, 
 and often the chief, factor in his popularity. 
 
 The average habitant voter has no political opinions 
 worth the name. His vote depends on personal prejudices 
 or private interests more than anything else. His talk on 
 political matters mainly consists of abuse of the men of 
 the opposite party. He has no principles as to public 
 policy behind it, nor is he very sensitive to the wrong- 
 doings or short-comings of his own party leaders. He 
 will tell you that he has no great confidence in any of the 
 leaders, but that there are some that he considers a little 
 worse than the others. A priest from a back country 
 parish I think expressed the feelings of the habitants quite 
 
124 CHANGES IN TYPE. 
 
 well when he said recently to a person supposed to have 
 some influence with the Government, " My people don't 
 care anything about the school question or the tariff or 
 reciprocity or any of those things. What we want is 
 three mails a week, and if we don't get them your party 
 will not have a single vote in my parish at the next 
 elections." 
 
 I heard that the man that I employed to work in the 
 garden and do chores about the house, although not a 
 voter, was a great political worker, and one day I thought 
 I would chaff him a little. He admitted that he was accus- 
 tomed to work for one of the parties, but that if 1 pre- 
 ferred that he should work for the other or not work at 
 all he would do as I wished. 1 told him I did not care 
 which party he worked for, which relieved his mind, for 
 he said he was a poor man and wanted to earn what he 
 could ; and as he had worked for a long time for one 
 party and always been well paid, he would like to con- 
 tinue to do so. 
 
 A certain amount of real property or its equivalent in 
 the payment of rental or in the possession of fixed revenue 
 is a necessary qualification for voters in this Province. 
 The amount is small, but sufficient to exclude the votes of 
 the utterly irresponsible. 
 
 Elections are conducted much more peaceably now than 
 they were thirty years ago. 1 remember the time when 
 gangs of roughs were engaged to go from place to place 
 to see that votes for their employers were protected, and 
 that others were not. 
 
 A man, now a carter, whom I occasionally employ, 
 frankly regrets the time when his 185 pounds avoirdu- 
 pois, his activity and considerable knowledge of "the 
 manly art," were potent factors in election contests. In 
 those days his services were sure to be retained by some- 
 
CHANGES IN TYPE. i2S 
 
 body. Money seems to have taken the place of force, for 
 1 remember that out of 72 members returned as elected to 
 Parliament at an election not very long ago, some 30 were 
 unseated for bribery or " corrupt practices." 
 
 Great hopes are entertained of benefit from laws re- 
 cently enacted regarding the purity of elections, and it is 
 believed that some improvement has already taken place. 
 Cases of contested elections in this country are tried by 
 the courts, which is perhaps an improvement on the Amer- 
 ican plan. 
 
 Speaking of election or other tights, there are few French 
 Canadians who have much pugilistic science. Their strong 
 point is the rough-and-tumble scrimmage, where strength 
 is of more account than science, in this kind of fighting 
 the Canadian is no mean adversary. His power lies in 
 his back, legs, and shoulders, and this he is always ready to 
 exert. Indeed 1 very often get out of patience with the 
 men because when they have a very heavy load to move 
 they will not use the simplest mechanical contrivances, 
 such as skids, levers, or rollers. They merely take hold 
 and lift. It is harder, and in the end usually takes more 
 time ; but that is their fashion, and they will not bother 
 with any other if they can avoid it. At the same time 
 they arrange things with a good deal of ingenuity when it 
 is really necessary. 
 
 10 
 
part 1If 
 CHANSONS CANADIENNES 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES 
 
 Or loIk-loiL' as licMUMally iiiulcistoiKl, in the wayot local 
 leiic'iuls, I have found little, but the cotilcs and the popular 
 souiis, ot" which there is a very larjie number, propeiix' be- 
 louii to this catciiory. (Comparatively) Hew ot them have 
 ever been printed in this country, but both words and music 
 have come down by tradition. All ot them (possibly 
 with very rare exceptions) come tiom France, and few 
 seem to have oriijinated later than the \^\\\ or l()ih cen- 
 turies. The airs are generally on a scale not now in use, 
 and some of them are impossible to harmonize on correct 
 musical principles without material chansie in the melody. 
 
 Partly from personal notation and partly throuijh the 
 courtesy of Mr. tfrnest Ciaiiuon oi (^Hiebec, who has made 
 in his " Chansons Populaires " the largest collection that 
 has yet been published, and to whom 1 acknowledge my 
 indebtedness, I am able to give a few songs merely as 
 specimens of hundreds of others. 1 have not attempted to 
 select the best, but rather the most popular, or at all events 
 those most familiar to me. On the same principle I give 
 the words of some not always precisely as they may have 
 been printed, but as 1 have been accustomed to hear them. 
 Dillerent persons rarely sing them precisely alike. Mr. 
 Gagnon, in a note to me, puts this truly and concisely 
 by saying that " in the matter of popular songs there are 
 as many variations as there are throats." 
 
 " A la Claire Fontaine" is known and sung by every 
 one. " On n'est pas Qiiuhlicu Siins (VA/," says Mr. 
 Gagnon. (One is not a Canadian without that.) " Par 
 
130 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 Derri^re Chez Mon Pere " is not less familiar. A version 
 of this under the title " Vive la Canadienne " is played 
 at concerts and the like in connection with " God Save 
 the Queen " as the finale de rigeiir, as sometimes also is 
 •' A la Claire Fontaine." 
 
 To the song " Mon Canard Blanc " or " Derri^re Chez 
 Nous Ya-t-un etang " various choruses are sung. The most 
 popular is that lively and vigorous one, " En Roulant Ma 
 Boule," known to every Canadian. 
 
 Another very taking chorus is the one, " C'est L'aviron 
 Qui Nous Mene Qui Nous Monte." Widely known as it 
 is, 1 could not find it in print, and was obliged to appeal to 
 an old habitant for a correct version. When asked if he 
 knew it he promptly replied that he knew that and two 
 hundred and tlfty others, and was with diificulty restrained 
 from singing them all. 
 
 With other songs 1 include " Malbrouck S'en Va-t-en 
 Guerre," not because it is very old, but because in one of 
 its many versions it is so often heard. One of them is 
 precisely the familiar air of " We Won't Go Home Till 
 Morning," and another has been made famous by 
 " Trilby." Neither of these, however, is the one most 
 generally used. 
 
 The air of " Vive Napoleon" is very ancient and has 
 undergone many changes. " Vive Napoleon " has been 
 substituted for " Vive la Roi." The Canadians sing "Vive 
 la Roi de la Reine," thus avoiding, says Mr. Gagnon, "the 
 hiatus that would occur in singing ' le roi et la reine.' " 
 
 " Isabeau S'y Promene " is extremely quaint and pleas- 
 ing. 
 
 If any person who has some, even a very slight, acquaint- 
 ance with French and music, will take a little pains to no- 
 tice how the words and music go together, and see with 
 what vigor and swing they move, and the peculiar inter- 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 131 
 
 vals, he will, unless by chance he should already have 
 heard the son<js in their native or chosen habitat, find that a 
 new source of enjoyment has been opened to him. To 
 those who have not much knowledge of the subject it may 
 be well to say that there need be no hesitation about 
 strongly bringing out the final e when needed to till out 
 the measure when it would be mute in speech or prose. 
 For example, in the chorus " Vole, Mon Coeur, Vole," Vole 
 is used as a word of two syllables. In " A la Claire Fon- 
 taine" the tinal es have separate notes. Something of this, 
 as is well known, is usual in all French music, but it is nat- 
 urally more conspicuous in popular songs than in others. 
 
 Noise is of course a great factor in these songs, and the 
 airs are pitched very high. There is no attempt at part 
 singing. The voices are assumed to be in unison, though 
 we must confess that they sometimes fail to hit the mark. 
 
 Doubtless the most enjoyable circumstances under which 
 these songs can be given are those under which I have 
 oftenest heard them — on canoeing voyages and around 
 camp-fires. When two or more canoes are together on 
 some quiet water, nothing is more delightful than to hear 
 a voice from one of them start one of these songs, sing- 
 ing perhaps a couple of lines, which are repeated in cho- 
 rus. Then may come more lines similarly echoed, and 
 so on, the chorus forming by far the most important part 
 of the performance. If the journey is a leisurely one, the 
 song will very likely be " Isabeau S'y Promene," but if 
 there is occasion for haste it will be " Derriere Chez Nous 
 Ya-t-un etang," with the ringing chorus, " En Roulant 
 Ma Boule." Around camp-fires the songs are not less 
 fascinating than in the canoes. Perhaps this is owing 
 somewhat to the state of mind of the listeners. It is some- 
 times surprising how feeble the strongest intellect will 
 show itself to be when, after a day tilled with varied out- 
 
132 
 
 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 of-door pleasures, a man has eaten a supper that aston- 
 ishes him, fallen back on a bed of branches, and stretched 
 his feet out toward a cheerful blaze. 
 
 We once had a considerable party of staid and dignified 
 college professors. After a round of Canadian songs, these 
 serious minded gentlemen stood up and sang " Johnny 
 Schmoker," " Was Macht der Herr Papa," and a lot more 
 of the college songs of thirty or forty years ago ! It was 
 a pleasure to see these earnest scholars recalling their soph- 
 omore days, joining hands and singing " Gaudeamus 
 Igitur" with all the enthusiasm of youth. 
 
 Another time when we camped in a pouring rain which 
 dampened their clothes but not their spirits, two young 
 ladies amused themselves by concocting arid singing such 
 stutT as this : 
 
 Hark, the rain is falling down, 
 
 Hear it splosh, hear it splosh ! 
 It will make our denim gowns 
 
 Ready for the wash. 
 
 * 
 Hear one happy maiden cry 
 
 " Is it we ? Is it we ? " 
 Hear the other's quick reply, 
 
 " I do hope it be." 
 
 
 ^ p ^izj^— J 
 
 3 
 
 f 
 
 m 
 
 M » C 
 
 5J 
 
 w 
 
 But this has nothing to do with the real programme. 
 The usual " numbers " were such as the following : — 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 133 
 
 A la Claire Fontaine. 
 
 M h s ^ 
 
 JJjTj 
 
 Kt — N 
 
 wtzZM 
 
 m ^ m 
 
 A la clai- re fon-tai-ne M'eii al- lant pro-me- ner, 
 
 k p ,r^ IJ'.T f J- 1 r f J" I J^h 
 
 J'ai trou-ve I'eau si bel- le Que je m'y suis baigne. 
 
 CH0RU5 
 
 » — ^L^ w ^ J* m W^ — w ^ ^ ■ 
 
 Lui yz long-temps que je t'aime, Jamais je ne t'oublierai. 
 
 A la Claire fontaine 
 M'en allant promener, 
 J'ai trouve I'eau si belle 
 Que je m'y suis baigne. 
 *Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime. 
 Jamais je ne t'oublierai. 
 
 J'ai trouve' I'eau si belle 
 Que je m'y suis baigne ; 
 Sous les feuilles d'un cliene 
 Je me suis fait secher. 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 Sous les feuilles d'un chene 
 Je me suis fait secher; 
 Sur la plus haute branche 
 Le rossignol chantait. 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 Sur la plus haute branche 
 Le rossignol chantait. 
 
 * " I,ui ya," old form for "Il-y-a.' 
 
134 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 Chante, rossignol, chante, 
 Toi qui as le coeur gai. 
 Liii ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 Chante, rossignol, chante, 
 Toi qui as le ccEur gai ; 
 Tu as ie coeur ^ rire, 
 Moi je i'ai-t-a pleurer. 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 Tu as le cceur a rire, 
 Moi je I'ai-t-a pleurer; 
 J'ai perdu ma maitresse 
 Sans I'avoir merite. 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 J'ai perdu ma maitresse 
 Sans I'avoir merite, 
 Pour un bouquet de roses 
 Que je lui refusal. 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 Pour un bouquet de roses 
 Que je lui refusal. 
 Je voudrais que la rose 
 Flit encore au rosier. 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 Je voudrais que la rose 
 Flit encore au rosier, 
 Je voudrais que le rosier 
 Fut a la mer jete. 
 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
 Je voudrais que le rosier 
 Fut a la mer jete; 
 Je voudrais que la belle 
 Fut encore a m'aimer. 
 Lui ya longtemps, etc. 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 135 
 
 En Roiilant Ma Boiile. 
 
 ist time solo. Energico. 
 
 l|,„f | ' N J i j J J I, ' .^±^fg^ 
 
 En rou- lant ma bou - le rou - lant, En rou-lant ma bou - le. 
 
 J J'J M > I | J J* J 
 
 9 m 
 
 ber - ri^r' chez nous ya t'un e - tang- En rou - lant ma bou - le 
 
 fc pir F 
 
 ^ 
 
 B 
 
 M=H 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Trois beaux can-aids s'en vont baignant, rou - li, rou-lant, ma bou-ie rou - lant. 
 
 Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant, 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Le tils dii roi s'en va chassant, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boiile roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Le tils du roi s'en va chassant, 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Avec son grand fusil d'argent, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Avec Son grand fusil d'argent, 
 
 En roulant ma boule. 
 Visa le noir, tua le blanc, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Visa le noir, tua le blanc, 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 O tils du roi, tu es me'chant ! 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 O tils du roi, tu es mechant ! 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 D'avoir tue mon canard blanc, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
136 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 D'avoir tue mon canard blanc, 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Par dessous I'aile il perd son sang, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Par dessous I'aile il perd son sang', 
 
 En roulant ma boule. 
 Par les yeux lui sort'nt des diamants, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Par les yeux lui sort'nt des diamants. 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Et par le bee I'or et I'argent, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Et par ie bee Tor et I'argent, 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Toutes ses plum's s'en vont au vent, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Toutes ses plum's s'en vont au vent. 
 
 En roulant ma boule, 
 Trois dam's s'en vont les ramassant, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 Trois dam's s'en vont les ramassant, 
 
 En roulant ma boule. 
 Cast pour en faire un lit de camp, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant. — Ref. 
 
 C'est pour en faire un lit de camp. 
 
 En roulant ma boule. 
 Pour y coucher tous les passants, 
 Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant.— Ref. 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 137 
 
 Par Derrier' Chez Mon Pere. 
 
 Sung first as a solo, then as a chorus. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 "^ s 
 
 ^s 
 
 Par derrier' chez mon pe- re, Vo- le, mon coeur, 
 
 tKa-ti. i i'g'/nu^JM^ 
 
 vo- le. Par derrii^r' chez mon p^- re, Lui ya-t-un pommier 
 
 ^^=TRf 
 
 ^ 
 
 "W^^ 
 
 V^^f=^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 doux. 
 
 Lui ya-t-un pommier doux, tout doux, Lui 
 
 ^ 
 
 W- 
 
 ya t-un pom- mier doux. D-C 
 
 Par derrier' chez mon pere. 
 
 Vole, mon cueur, vole. 
 
 Par derri&r' chez mon pere 
 
 Lui ya-t-un pommier doux. 
 
 Lui ya-t-un pommier doux, tout doux, 
 
 Lui ya-t-un pommier doux. 
 
 Les feuilles en sont vertes, 
 
 Vole, mon coeur, vole, 
 
 Les feuilles en sont vertes 
 
 Et le fruit en est doux. 
 
 Et le fruit en est doux, tout doux, 
 
 Et le fruit en est doux. 
 
 Trois filles d'un prince. 
 Vole, mon coeur, vole, 
 
138 
 
 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 Trois filles d'lm prince 
 
 Sont endormies dessoiis. 
 
 Sont endormies dessous, tout doux, 
 
 Sont endormies dessous. 
 
 La plus jeun' se reveille, 
 
 Vole, mon coeur, vole, 
 
 La plus jeun' se reveille: 
 
 — Ma scEur, voilk le jour. 
 
 Ma soeur, volljl le jour, tout doux. 
 
 Ma soeur, voil^ le jour. 
 
 -Non, ce n'est qu'une etoiie, 
 Vole, mon coeur, vole, 
 Non, ce n'est qu'une etoiie 
 Qu' ^Claire nos amours. 
 Qu'eclaire nos amours, tout doux, 
 Qu'eclaire nos amours. 
 
 ^: 
 
 C'est I'Aviron Qui Nous Mene. 
 
 ^Jj \X^ J' _^T * L*^I 
 
 4. I I »— F«^ 
 
 W 
 
 ^ 
 
 C'est I'a-vi-ron qui nous mene, qui nous monte, C'est I'a-vi-ron qui nous 
 
 J^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ifc± 
 
 monte en haut. 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 139 
 
 Isabeaii s'y Promene. 
 
 Solo first time to sign, then repeated by chorus. 
 
 Also from sign first time solo, then repeated by the chorus. 
 
 y^>S( j> I J- "^ ^ 
 
 1- - sa- beau s'y pro- m^- ne 
 
 f j^j'J'j^^^iiMtj^m^rc^ 
 
 Le long de son jar- din. 
 
 Le long de son jar-din, Sur le 
 
 rFiir~fJ-iH>^/,r i ^,rr.g'^-^ 
 
 ±E 
 
 bold de I'i- - le. 
 
 Le long de son jar-din, Sur le 
 
 6k 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ J^ • ^ 
 
 bord de I'eau, Sur le bord du vais-seau. 
 
 Elle s'aper^oit d'une barque 
 De trente niatelots. 
 De trente matelots 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, etc 
 
 Le plus jeune des trente, 
 Composait une chanson. 
 Composait une chanson 
 Sur le bord de I'lle, etc. 
 
 — La chanson que tu chantes, 
 Je voiidrais la savoir. 
 Je voudrais la savoir 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, etc. 
 
140 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 — Embarque dans ma barque, 
 Je te la chanterai. 
 Je te la chanterai 
 Sur le bord de Tile, etc. 
 
 Quand ell' fut dans la barque, 
 Ell' se mit a pleurer. 
 Eir se mit a pleurer 
 Sur le bord de File, etc. 
 
 — Qu'avez-vous done la belle, 
 Qu'a-vous a tant pleurer ? 
 Qu'a-vous a tant pleurer 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, etc. 
 
 — Je pleur' mon anneau d'ore, 
 Dans I'eau-z-il est tombe. 
 Dans I'eau-z-il est tombe 
 Sur le bord de I'iie, etc. 
 
 — Ne pleurez point la belle, 
 Je vous le plongerai. 
 Je vous le plongerai 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, etc. 
 
 De la premiere plonge, 
 II n'a rien ramene. 
 II n'a rien ramene 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, etc. 
 
 De la seconde plonge 
 L'anneau-z-a voltige. 
 L'anneau-z-a voltige 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, etc. 
 
 De la troisi^me plonge 
 
 Le galant s'est noye. 
 
 Le galant s'est noye 
 Sur le bord de I'ile, 
 
 Le galant s'est noy^ 
 Sur le bord de I'eau, 
 Sur le bord du vaisseau. 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 141 
 
 Alouette. 
 
 f^ratb. tnf 
 
 JJ l J ^jii-^J 
 
 
 A - lou- et - te, gen-tille A- lou-et - te, A - lou- et - te, je te plu-me-rai, 
 
 ii Chorus, 
 
 ^^:^[:^m\rr . 
 
 m 
 
 Wv 
 
 Je te plu-merai la tete, je te plu-merai la tete, et la tete. et la tete, O. 
 
 ^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 J ^un> 
 
 ^ 
 
 ¥^=* 
 
 •oi"»- 
 
 A - lou - et - te, gentiile A-lou-et - te, A - lou- et - te, je te plu-me-rai. 
 
 Alouette, gentiile Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai, 
 Je te plumerai le bee, je te plumerai le bee, 
 Et le bee, et le bee, et la tete, et la tete. — O, &e. 
 
 Alouette, gentiile Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai, 
 Je te plumerai le nez, je te plumerai le nez, 
 Et le nez, et le nez, et le bee, et le bee, 
 Et la tete, et la tete.— O, &c. 
 
 Alouette, gentiile Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai, 
 
 Je te plumerai le dos, je te plumerai le dos, 
 
 Et le dos, et le dos, et le nez, et le nez, 
 
 Et le bee, et le bee, et la tete, et la tete. — 0, &e. 
 
 Alouette, gentiile Alouette, Alouette, jete plumerai, 
 Je te plumerai les pattes, je te plumerai les pattes, 
 Et les pattes, et les pattes, et le dos, et le dos, 
 Et le nez, et le nez, et le bee, et le bee, 
 Et la tete, et la tete.— O, &e. 
 
 Alouette, gentiile Alouette, Alouette, je te plumerai, 
 
 Je te plumerai le eou, je te plumerai le cou, 
 
 Et le cou, et le eou, et les pattes, et les pattes, 
 
 Et le dos, et le dos, et le nez, et le nez, 
 
 Et le bee, et le bee, et la tete, et la tete.— 0, &e. 
 
 * Repeat this bar once for 2d verse, twice for 3d verse, etc. 
 
142 
 
 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 MalbroLick. 
 
 /}((«^retto 
 
 ^ 
 
 :6=l»i 
 
 P 
 
 ^ 
 
 3 
 
 Mal-brouck s'en va-t- en guer - - re, 
 
 t 
 
 Ri too tra la, ri 
 
 ^ 
 
 gr ^T rr 
 
 0^ * — C 
 
 ' *^ g 
 
 too tra la. Malbrouck s'en va-t- en guer - - re. 
 ti^^i^S;^ .Chords, d-t«wipo. y\ a 
 
 Ne salt quand re-vien- 
 
 J^=^ 
 
 I 1^ P ^ f * * T '\~f^ P ^ P-l f^ * P fc f ^ I *^ — w 
 
 ^ 
 
 dra, la bas, Cou- rez, cou - rez, cou - rez ! Pe - ti - te fill' jeiine et gen- 
 
 AAA . t^ ^ 
 
 
 E2 
 
 'il - le. Cou-rez, cou- rez, cou- rez! Ven - ez ce soir vous a - mu - ser. 
 
 I reviendra-z-a Paques, 
 Ri too tra la, etc., 
 
 II reviendra-z-a Paques, 
 Ou ^ la Trinite', la bas. 
 
 La Trinite' ce passe, 
 Ri too tra la, etc.. 
 La Trinite ce passe, 
 Malbrouck ne revient pas, la bas. 
 
 Madame a sa tour monte, 
 
 Ri too tra la, etc., 
 Madame ^ sa tour monte. 
 Si haut qu'eir peut monter, la bas. 
 
 Elle apergoit son page, 
 
 Ri too tra la, etc., 
 Elle apergoit son page, 
 Tout de noir habille, la bas, 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 143 
 
 •' Beau page, ah ! mon beau page, 
 Quell' nouvelle apportez? " 
 
 " Aux nouvell's que j'apporte, 
 Vos beaux yeux vont pleurer. 
 
 "Quittezvos habits roses, 
 Et vos satins broche's. 
 
 " Monsieur Malbrouck est mort, 
 Est mort et enterre. 
 
 " JM'ai vu porter en terre, 
 Par quatre-z-ofticiers." 
 
 C'est la belle Fran^oise. 
 
 jhnrh-ci r^f'^^ 
 
 C'est la bel - le Fran- ^oise, Ion, gai, C'est la belle Fran- 
 
 ^ 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 r^,n h 
 
 *=s 
 
 qoi . se Qui veut s'y ma-ri. er, ma hi. roii. In. ret . te. 
 
 i 
 
 fc± 
 
 ^ 
 
 p^- j. i j^ "^ FrrH IN 
 
 Qui veut s'y ma- ri- er, ma hi- rbn, lu- re. 
 
 Son amant va la voire, Ion, gai. 
 
 Son amant va la voire 
 
 Bien tard, apr^s souper, ma luron, lurette, 
 
 Bien tard, apres souper, ma luron, lure. 
 
 11 la trouva seulette, Ion, gai, 
 
 II la trouva seulette 
 
 Sur son lit, qui pleurait, ma luron, lurette, 
 
 Sur son lit, qui pleurait, nia luron, lure, 
 
144 
 
 CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Mon Merle a Perdu Son Bee. 
 
 ?^ 
 
 ^ i tf^m t 
 
 ft 
 
 m \4 
 
 Mon merle a perdu sou bee, Mon merle a perdu sou bee. Un bee deux bees Ah O 
 
 sa tete une tete deux tetes, 
 
 r7\ 
 
 n^wH^i. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Que me vas tu chanter, O que me vas tu chanter ? 
 
 Mon merle a perdu sa tete, 
 Mon merle a perdu sa tete. 
 Une tete, deux tetes, un bee, deux bees. Ah, 0, etc. 
 
 Mon Merle a perdu un ceil, 
 
 Mon Merle a perdu un ceil. 
 
 Un ceil, deux yeux, une tete, deux tetes, 
 
 Un bee, deux bees. Ah, O, ete. 
 
 Mon merle a perdu son eou, 
 
 Mon merle a perdu son cou. 
 
 Un cou, deux cous, un oeil, deux yeux, 
 
 Une tete, deux tetes, un bee, deux bees, Ah, 0, etc. 
 
 Mon merle a perdu son dos, 
 
 Mon merle a perdu son dos. 
 
 Un dos, deux dos, un cou, deux cous, 
 
 Un oeil, deux yeux, une tete, deux tites, 
 
 Un bee, deux bees, Ah, O, ete. 
 
 Mon merle a perdu une patte, 
 
 Mon merle a perdu une patte. 
 
 Une patte, deux pattes, un dos, deux dos, 
 
 Un cou, deux cous, un oeil, deux yeux, 
 
 Une tete, deux tetes, un bee, deux bees, Ah, 0, ete. 
 
 * Repeat this bar once for 2d verse, twice for 3d verse, etc. 
 
CHANSONS CANADIENNES. 
 
 US 
 
 Vive Napoleon. 
 
 Sung first as a solo to sign, then repeated as chorus. 
 From sign, sung first as a solo, then repeated as chorus. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 m 
 
 r^irg 
 
 Quand j'e'-tais chez mon pe- re, Gai, vi- ve le 
 
 
 roi! Quand j'e'-tais chez mon p^- re, Gai, vi- ve le 
 
 e£ 
 
 ^: 
 
 Tgf'^f — 
 
 ie^ 
 
 F-'firciCfFtf 
 
 f 
 
 Pe- ti- te Jean- ne- ton, vi- ve le 
 
 ^ roi de la rei- ne. Pe- ti- te Jeanne- ton, 
 
 ^ 
 
 -» 
 
 :^^^-.^f. 
 
 Vi- ve Na- po- le- on ! 
 
 M'envoi'-t-a la fontaine 1 ,, . , 
 
 Gai, vive le roi ! > ^ 
 
 Petite Jeanneton, vive le roi de la reine. 
 Petite Jeanneton, 
 Vive Napoleon ! 
 
 Pour pecher du poisson, 
 
 Gai, vive le roi ! 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 [bh) 
 
146 CHANSONS CANADIENNES 
 
 La fontaine est profonde, | 
 
 Gai, vive le roi ! 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 J'me suis coulee au fond, 
 
 Gai, vive le roi ! 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 Par ici-t-il y passe ) 
 Gai, vive le roi ! ) 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 {his) 
 
 [his) 
 
 Trois cavaliers barons, 
 
 Gai, vive le roi ! 
 Petite Jeanneton, ^ic. 
 
 (bis) 
 
 -Que donneriez-vous, belle, I /, . ^ 
 Gai, vive le roi ! . ' 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 Qui vous tir'rait du fond ? ) ... , 
 
 Gai, vive le roi ! ' 
 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 -Tirez, tirez, dit-elle 
 
 1 {his) 
 
 Gai, vive le roi 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 Apres ga, nous verrons 
 
 Gai, vive le roi i 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 \ {hi 
 
 Quand la bell' fut tiree, \ . , 
 
 Gai, vive le roi ! ) 
 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
 S'en fut \ la maison,! ,, . , 
 
 Gai, Vive le roi ! -• 
 Petite Jeanneton, etc. 
 
part f 
 LANGUAGE— EDUCATION 
 
LANGUAGE-EDUCATION 
 
 I HAVE often been asked if the French spoken here is 
 not a mere patois, which the ordinary student of French 
 could not be expected to understand. 1 am not a French 
 scholar, but 1 do not think that the language of the Cana- 
 dians differs greatly from that spoken by persons of the 
 same degree of education in France. Cultivated persons 
 use good, and ignorant persons use bad, French here as 
 well as there. 
 
 Aside from individual peculiarities there appears to me 
 to be less ditTerence between the written and the spoken 
 language than might be expected. The formation of the 
 verbs tends, in a measure, to keep the variations within 
 certain limits. 1 know one man who always says, ''Je 
 may alter," in the sense of " I am just going there ;" but 
 this is scarcely worse than " 1 am just going to go," often 
 heard both in Canada and the United States. But if the 
 same man wanted to say he was not going he would use 
 a correct form. Another colloquial form with the same 
 meaning, ''May alter" (without the 7^), is very common. 
 Both expressions are old corruptions from '' Je vais y 
 alter:' 
 
 Mr. E. Gagnon cites a delightfully incorrect expression — 
 " Espere:( uti instant, ma y alter quand et vous" mean- 
 ing, " Wait a moment and 1 will go along with you." 
 Esperei (hope) is used here, as it very often is, in the 
 sense of attendee (wait), and I have often wondered when 
 and how to hope should have come to be considered the 
 equivalent of to wait. " Qiiand et vous " is equally diffi- 
 
ISO LANGUAGE — EDUCATION. 
 
 cult to translate exactly. Perhaps a better rendering of 
 the whole phrase would be, " Wait a moment, 1 will go 
 there when you go," the idea being that two persons 
 would go together merely for companionship, whereas 
 avec vous (with you) might imply for aid, or for some 
 definite purpose. 
 
 in some of the parishes where the Acadians expelled 
 from Nova Scotia settled, there are many expressions not 
 found elsewhere, and the pronunciation is somewhat pecu- 
 liar. The speech of the people of the Eastern Townships 
 differs also from that of those on the north side of the St. 
 Lawrence. On the lower St. Lawrence many curious 
 forms and expressions are in common use. Perhaps this 
 may be accounted for in part by the fact that a regiment 
 of Highland Scotch troops, disbanded at Quebec, settled 
 along that shore. They inter-married with the Canadians 
 and no doubt interpolated into the French, that of necessity 
 became habitual to them, many English and some Gaelic 
 forms of speech. The words that they used were French, 
 but their idioms and constructions were foreign. Since 
 that time, however, some of these peculiarities have worn 
 away, it may be interesting to note in passing that there 
 are now to be found, in that region many persons with dis- 
 tinctly Scotch names, and features which show evidence of 
 Scotch descent, yet who cannot speak a word of anything 
 but French. 
 
 Many English words have been incorporated into the 
 language ; especially, here as everywhere else, in connec- 
 tion with machinery and modes of communication. The 
 French people about here commonly say " railroad " and 
 " steamboat," but usually put a stress on the last word of 
 the compound, as if the expression were not quite natural 
 to the language, and quotation marks were implied. 
 The railway men say " switch," and I have even heard a 
 
LANGUAGE — EDUCATION. I5I 
 
 half-2ingiicized Canadian say" shunter" (English to shunt, 
 American to sv/itch, a train or car). A man at work for 
 me once said that a certain person was " malaise a beater " 
 (hard to beat). When his attention was called to some 
 holes in the board he was using, he said '' Je vats les plitg- 
 ger " ( I am going to plug them up), although the common 
 French battre and boucher would have served equally well. 
 He took the words beat and plug, added " er," and used 
 them as French, without any reason whatever. 
 
 The following will show how foreign words may find 
 their way into a language : At our fishing camp we use 
 many baked beans. Now the French for beans is feves, 
 but baked beans are called simply "beans." Our cook 
 will frequently ask if he is to " mettre tremper des feves 
 pour faire de beans,'' that is, put some beans in soak to 
 make some beans. So, baked beans will be beans in 
 French, while the unbaked article will continue to be 
 feves. 1 believe that the same use of the words prevails 
 in most of the lumbering camps. 
 
 Our habitant would not recognize potatoes as ''■ pommes 
 de terre ; " he would call them palates, or more likely 
 patakes. He would not say froid for cold, but frette. 
 An expression that will strike a stranger as being rather 
 curious is one that sounds almost precisely like yank. It 
 is evolved from " rien que " (only) as in rien qu' un(on]y 
 one), rien que deux (only two), spoken as "yank un," 
 " y^iuk deux." The hearer will quickly catch the speak- 
 er's meaning, but it will puzzle him to know what the 
 word is. 
 
 In spite of all these changes and variations (and a living 
 language, like any other living thing, is constantly under- 
 going change) 1 think the language holds its original 
 purity very well. A very intelligent Canadian lady, after 
 a considerable residence in France, told me that she found 
 
152 LANGUAGE — EDUCATION. 
 
 the speech of the common people better here than there, 
 and that of the best Canadian speakers equal to that of the 
 best French. 
 
 The language brought here by the higher classes was 
 largely that of the French Court, and that brought by the 
 lower classes largely that of Normandy, which was good. 
 The number of professional men, officers, priests, lawyers, 
 notaries, and others, has always been extremely large in 
 proportion to the population, and the modes of speech of 
 so many educated persons must have had some influence 
 on the language of the rest. 
 
 The language of the common people may be rude and 
 ungrammatical, as might be expected, but it is not by any 
 means a patois. It may be more the French of two hun- 
 dred years ago than that of to-day, but it is still French, 
 and not bad French. 
 
 Most of the English residents here speak French more 
 or less, if their accents and grammar are generally incor- 
 rect, they use the language with readiness and fluency. 
 There are thousands of men who habitually do business in 
 either language, apparently without the slightest prefer- 
 ence. Children playing together often speak English to 
 one and French to another in the same breath. 1 have 
 often heard a child of tive years talk English to its father 
 and French to the person at its side. In some households 
 the two languages are spoken indiscriminately, as any 
 trifling circumstance may turn the current of expression 
 into one form or the other. 
 
 The English of French speakers is generally less fluent 
 than the French of English speakers. There are very 
 few of either race who can speak the language of the other 
 with equal ease and elegance. 
 
 Among literary men there are many who have done 
 exceedingly good work in translating from one language 
 
LANGUAGE — EDUCATION. 153 
 
 to the other, though not necessarily speaking both lan- 
 guages fluently. 1 know of nothing finer in the way of 
 translating" English into French than Mr. Louis Frechette's 
 version of Mr. Howells' " A Chance Acquaintance," en- 
 titled " Un Rencontre." In translation of French into 
 English Prof. C. D. G. Roberts' rendering of " Les Anciens 
 Canadiens," entitled " The Canadians of Old," leaves little 
 to be desired. Another translation of the same book, by 
 Mrs. Pennee, is considered by some to be equally line. 
 
 Formerly the education of the common people was 
 greatly neglected, if not positively discouraged. Within 
 twenty-five or thirty years 1 have heard it argued and seen 
 it claimed in a Canadian newspaper that general education 
 was neither necessary nor desirable. Since that time a great 
 change has taken place, and the school system of the Prov- 
 ince is now pronounced excellent. No child of the rising 
 generation, unless in some very remote settlement, can 
 have any excuse for not knowing at least how to read and 
 write. A school teacher of my acquaintance gives me the 
 following sketch of the organization of the educational 
 facilities in the Province. He refers of course to the 
 French schools : 
 
 " The Canadian schools are directed by a committee of 
 Public Instruction composed of the Bishop and Priests of 
 the Diocese of Quebec, having for its President at this 
 time the Hon. Gideon Ouimet, who acts as Superintendent 
 and oversees the working of all the schools of the 
 Province. 
 
 " The schools are divided into three principal classes: 
 
 " 1st. Academical Schools. 
 
 " 2d. Model Schools. 
 
 " 3d. Elementary Schools. 
 
 " The local [Provincial] Government gives annually to 
 
154 LANGUAGE — EDUCATION. 
 
 each Model school a sum equal to two-thirds of the sum 
 received by the Secretary-Treasurer of each city or village, 
 for school purposes. (The proceeds of a special tax on 
 all tax payers.) 
 
 " It pays also a certain sum besides for each Elementary 
 school, based on the number of children of school Age. 
 
 " In each parish there is established a body of school 
 commissioners whose duty it is to build school houses and 
 establish schools in each arrondissement where there is 
 sufficient population. It is their duty also to engage teach- 
 ers and fix their salaries. 
 
 " In cities the salary of a Professor in an Academical 
 school is from four to five hundred dollars per year, of a 
 teacher in a Model school, from two to three hundred, and 
 in an Elementary school, from a hundred to a hundred and 
 fifty dollars. (In the country parishes the salaries of Model 
 and Elementary school teachers are considerably less.) 
 
 " The Professors in Academical schools are required to 
 teach the Greek, Latin, English, and French languages, the 
 histories of France, England, and the United States, draw- 
 ing, and bookkeeping by single and double entry. 
 
 " In the Model schools the French and English languages, 
 mental arithmetic, algebra, geometry, the histories of France 
 and England, the history of Canada, Sacred history and the 
 history of the Church, freehand drawing, composition, and 
 bookkeeping by single and double entry. 
 
 " In the Elementary schools education is commenced by 
 teaching the alphabet, a task very difficult and tiresome in 
 the career of the teacher. The spelling and putting together 
 of the words follows, then figures and the first ideas of 
 arithmetic. The teacher requires courage and perseverance 
 before his young pupils are able to tell him how much a 
 certain sum will amount to with interest compounded for 
 ten years. 
 
LANGUAGE — EDUCATION. 155 
 
 " The average number of pupils for each teacher in a 
 village is from twenty to thirty. 
 
 " After ten years' service every teacher has the right to 
 draw from the Government, in case of sickness, one-tifth 
 of the average annual salary that he has received during 
 the time, for the whole term of his illness. 
 
 " After thirty-five years' service every teacher has the 
 right to a pension equal to the whole average annual sal- 
 ary that he has received. This pension continues during 
 his life, and if he dies leaving a widow she continues to 
 receive for her lifetime one-half of that sum. 
 
 " To be entitled to this pension, however, the teacher 
 must pay annually to the pension fund of the Government 
 two per cent, of his salary during his term of service. 
 
 " The special tax imposed on all holders of real estate 
 for school purposes cannot be less than live or more than 
 fifty cents per hundred dollars. Each head of a family 
 also pays for each child attending school not less than five 
 or over fifty cents per month. Books and articles neces- 
 sary for the pupils are furnished by the parents. 
 
 " The general and personal taxes are fixed by the school 
 commissioners, and collected by the Secretary-Treasurer of 
 the municipality. It is his duty also to instruct the com- 
 missioners as to their duties, to give notices of meetings of 
 the municipal council (which are usually held once a 
 month), and to be generally the organ of communication 
 between the municipal Government and the public." 
 
 In many of the larger parishes teachers are employed 
 from some one of several Brotherhoods, of which there are 
 various orders that devote themselves mainly or wholly 
 to teaching. They are employed very cheaply. In a 
 neighboring and quite large village all the boys are given 
 into the charge of four of these Brothers, who contract for 
 
156 LANGUAGE — EDUCATION. 
 
 the whole for seven hundred dollars a year. . The men 
 are provided with buildings by the municipality, but pay 
 all their own expenses. Three of them only are teachers, 
 the other being the cook and general servant. Being 
 bound to poverty they can work cheaply. 
 
 In that village there are no schools for girls except at 
 the convent. Day scholars pay fifty cents per month for 
 tuition. Boarders pay about five dollars per month. 
 
 In many parishes it is difficult to find a sutficient num- 
 ber of suitable persons who can read and write to act as 
 school commissioners. I have heard some amusing anec- 
 dotes of a commissioner's experience in that capacity. In 
 one case the little girls brought their copy books to show 
 their improvement in writing, when the poor man could not 
 tell whether the books were held right side or wrong side up. 
 
 The commissioners, however, with the aid of the cure 
 and the Secretary-Treasurer, usually look well after their 
 business, and an inefficient commissioner would probably 
 find no more favor with his neighbors than a committee- 
 man of the same stamp in a New England village. 
 
 The trouble of course is that the great majority of 
 children leave school much too young, and soon forget all 
 they have learned. Two men in my employ, both young 
 and of fair capacity, who once attended school long enough 
 to learn to read, are now only able to study out simple 
 sentences with difficulty. 
 
 The girls derive, or at least retain, more advantage from 
 their school instruction than the boys. In the farmer's 
 family it is usually a daughter who keeps the accounts and 
 conducts the correspondence. When fresh from school or 
 convent she writes and expresses herself rather well, but 
 she too forgets, and is glad to give the pen and ink over 
 to her own daughter as soon as she has one old enough to 
 take charge of them. 
 
LANGUAGE— EDUCATION. 157 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that instruction is really 
 given in only a few of the somewhat formidable list of 
 subjects required of teachers in the Model schools. As 
 the schools are under the special supervision of the clergy, 
 a large part of the school hours is devoted to prayers and 
 religious exercises and the teaching of duties toward the 
 Church. 
 
 While a certain small amount of education is much 
 more general than formerly, there is no very noticeable 
 change in degree. There is one thing taught, however, 
 that is not in the curriculum, and that might be introduced 
 to advantage in many American schools, and that is good 
 manners. They are taught not only in the schools, but 
 everywhere else, and the lessons learned in childhood are 
 not forgotten in after life. Especially noticeable is the 
 respect of youth for age. Many other nations might well 
 learn from Canadians that politeness is not obsequiousness, 
 nor courtesy servility. 
 
 In parishes where there is a sut^icient number of Protest- 
 ant tax payers they may dissent and establish separate 
 schools. If there are not more than three they can like- 
 wise dissent and pay their taxes to dissentient schools else- 
 where. School taxes of incorporated companies go to the 
 support of Roman Catholic schools. As comparatively 
 little time is given to religious exercises in the dissentient 
 schools — although they have always some such — they are, 
 as a rule, far more efficient as regards secular education 
 than the others. 
 
 A few facts indicate progress in the matter of education. 
 
 Our parish numbers about eighteen hundred souls, 
 and has not materially varied from that number in 
 thirty-five years, emigration having absorbed all the natu- 
 ral increase and a trifle more. 
 
 In 1861 th? sale of stamps at the post office for the 
 
 21 
 
158 LANGUAGE— EDUCATION. 
 
 three months of September, October, and November, 
 amounted to about eleven dollars. At present the sales 
 are from forty to forty-five dollars monthly. 
 
 In 1861 only five or six daily papers were received by 
 subscribers. Now thirty copies of dailies are distributed, 
 and eighteen weeklies. (1 refer to French papers only, and 
 I think my informant must have neglected to count some 
 semi-weekly and tri-weekly papers.) 
 
 There were then two French schools in the parish where 
 now there are six. The regular attendance is also larger. 
 
 We have, included in the above population, about one 
 hundred and fifty English speaking people, who support 
 two additional schools. 
 
 These figures show a great gain in the general intelli- 
 gence, but they are somewhat deceptive, after the manner 
 of statistics generally. 
 
 My reckoning would give (nearly) one French daily 
 paper to eleven families (of five persons each) in the parish. 
 But it happens that they are all received in the village, 
 which numbers at least sixty families, and of these six 
 persons (or families) receive not less than twelve, leaving 
 only eighteen dailies for the other fifty -four. 
 
 The weeklies give about one paper to every fifteen 
 families of the agricultural population. 
 
 I do not vouch for the entire exactness of my calcula- 
 tions, but they give a tolerably fair approximation. My 
 information is derived mainly from post ot!ice returns. 
 Emigration and certain local causes account largely for 
 the great increase in the sale of stamps. 
 
IPart Iir 
 CONVEYANCES 
 
CONVEYANCES 
 
 < y /:^^ 
 
 The modes of conveyance in Canada are as peculiar as 
 the rest of its adjuncts of civilization. 
 
 As a winter vehicle for common use on country roads 
 there is nothing that answers so well as the old-fashioned 
 cariole. It is neither handsome nor capacious, but can 
 stand work that 
 would wreck a 
 New England 
 sleigh very quick- 
 ly, and at the same 
 time is extremely 
 comfortable. it 
 sits low, on solid 
 wooden runners 
 about two inches 
 thick, to which the shafts are attached by rings some two 
 and a half inches in diameter, thus giving them a consider- 
 able amount of play, which is oftentimes a great advan- 
 tage. The traces of the harness are fastened directly to 
 the shafts, so that the draught comes where it is most im- 
 mediately needed. The arrangement is probably not so 
 easy for the horse as where whiffletrees are used. The 
 back of the cariole is high, protecting the passenger from 
 cold winds. When two seats are used the forward one is 
 a foot higher than the other and not more than four 
 inches wide. The driver is thus always ready to stand 
 up, or to throw his weight to one side of the vehicle or 
 the other, as occasion demands. 
 
162 
 
 CONVEYANCES. 
 
 Well ensconced in furs, with a good horse and a good 
 driver (c/?«rr^//^f— translated " charioteer " by one of my 
 friends) the passenger may settle himself in a cariole for a 
 long drive without anxiety. He need not concern himself 
 much about his driver, who will be a hardy person, well 
 wrapped up and accustomed to all weathers. 
 
 There is one good thing about travelling in Canada, and 
 that is that in almost every village of the slightest import- 
 ance there may be found in winter or summer from two 
 to half a dozen of these " charioteers " ready to drive the 
 
 traveller wherever 
 he wants to go, 
 and at very rea- 
 sonable prices. 
 __ The old fash- 
 
 l^^Mir^^^raHftf IF ioned caleche has 
 
 entirely gone out 
 of use in this re- 
 gion, having been supplanted by the buckboard. In the 
 very hilly coun- 
 try east of Que- 
 bec it is still in 
 use. in the city 
 of Quebec also 
 many are em- 
 ployed as hack- 
 ney vehicles, and few tourists think their visit complete 
 without a ride in one of them. 
 
 The buckboard is in common use in the country. It is 
 not at all like the well-known Adirondack buckboard, 
 but is the simplest kind of a vehicle. The seat, which 
 is double (facing back and front), is placed in the mid- 
 dle of its length, and as the only spring comes from the 
 springiness of the boards, sometimes there is considerable 
 
 Old Cariole, 1790 
 
CONVEYANCES. 
 
 m 
 
 jolting ; but for regular travelling over rough roads it is 
 more useful and convenient than almost any other car- 
 riage. 
 
 In speaking of means of conveyance the snowshoe must 
 not be forgotten. Everybody knows what snowshoes are, 
 and not a few wonder how anybody can walk with them. 
 They are an embarrassment of course, 
 but less inconvenient than might be 
 supposed. On an unbroken sheet of 
 snow, two, three, or four feet deep the 
 snowshoe is a necessity. If the snow 
 is firm and hard the shoe will leave 
 only a slight track, but if the snow is 
 light and soft it will sink some inches, 
 although it will always find sufficient ~ 
 support somewhere. The required 
 step is so different from an ordinary 
 walk that the movement is at first fatiguing, but one soon 
 becomes accustomed to it. It ought not to be supposed, 
 however, that snowshoes are an indispensable part of 
 every Canadian's ordinary foot-gear. Farmers and vil- 
 lagers who seldom go far into the woods or fields in winter 
 rarely make use of them. 
 
 For the snowshoe no substitute has ever been proposed. 
 The Norwegian ski would not answer at all well in. this 
 country. A first-rate pair of snowshoes is a rare treasure. 
 If the rawhide netting is not well stretched and bags under 
 the foot when the snow is a bit soft or damp, it makes hard 
 work, and is a perpetual annoyance. If you get a pair 
 that is strong, light, and springy, take good care of them. 
 Dozens of plans for fastening on the shoes have been con- 
 trived, but the practised snowshoer will have none of them. 
 He sticks to the old plan of fastening with leather thongs, 
 and will not bother with straps and buckles. 
 
164 
 
 CONVEYANCES. 
 
 The three articles, the cariole, the snowshoe, and the 
 bark canoe, answer the purposes for which they are made 
 better than anything else yet invented. The bark canoe 
 can be equalled or surpassed in every respect but one, and 
 that is the convenience with which it can be repaired in case 
 of accident, with materials always at hand. With other 
 materials canoes may be built both stronger and lighter 
 in proportion to their carrying capacity, but they are 
 not so easily mended if they meet with a serious mishap. 
 With a piece of bark from the nearest birch tree, a bit 
 of gum, and the long slender root of the spruce, the ex- 
 perienced canoeman can repair almost any amount of 
 damage. 
 
 In country villages dogs were formerly often used for 
 drawing moderate loads, but nowadays their principal 
 occupation in that line is the amusement of the small boys, 
 who delight in harnessing them up and driving them. The 
 
 dogs, too, enjoy the 
 fun, and like a race as 
 well as their young 
 masters. A large dog 
 is quite a powerful 
 animal, and can draw 
 on a sled or toboggan, 
 if he has good footing, 
 fully as much as a 
 man. An Indian has been known to start out with his 
 team of four dogs harnessed tandem, drawing a load con- 
 sisting of a barrel of pork, two barrels of flour, some small 
 parcels and himself on top of all. Some may remember 
 when the usual manner of distributing milk to customers 
 in Quebec was from hand-carts managed by a woman who 
 held the shafts, aided by a dog harnessed to the axle-tree. 
 The use of dogs for such purposes is now forbidden in the 
 
CONVEYANCES. 
 
 165 
 
 cities. An old friend who happened to see the drawing 
 from which the following cut was made remarked, " Yes, 
 that is just the way they used to steal my wood when 1 
 lived out on the Gomin road." 
 
 '•>,^ 1-"*;^^ 
 
part 1*11 1[ 
 SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 Many visitors to Canada are amused to see the out-of- 
 door ovens that are common all through the country. 
 They are much of the same size and nature as the old- 
 fashioned brick 
 ovens of New 
 England, but are 
 usually built of 
 clay and set on 
 posts or frame 
 work of timber 
 at a little distance 
 from buildings. 
 Commonly they have some kind of a roof over them. 
 They have no flues, the smoke of the fires for heating 
 escaping through the open doors. 
 
 Most of the people, when not too far away, buy their 
 bread from the bakers, but nearly all farmers have an 
 oven for occasional use. Some families make their own 
 bread for the sake of economy, although the baker's profits 
 are small and his bread is almost always good and whole- 
 some. Country shopkeepers keep bread on sale as surely 
 as a New England shopkeeper keeps flour. The loaves 
 weigh six pounds each, and are made from a flour that 
 does not dry and so crumble quickly. Warm bread is 
 almost never used, and pastry but little. Neither are 
 oatmeal or cornmeal cooked. I find my men in the woods 
 like oatmeal when 1 have it, but they would never think 
 of providing it for themselves. It is the same with baked 
 
170 SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 beans. The men are always fond of them, but I have 
 rarely known a Canadian family to cook them. In large 
 lumbering camps, however, of late years they are very 
 much used, although the favorite dish is still the tradi- 
 tional pea-soup." 
 
 While most of the people may be considered poor we 
 see but little positive suffering among them, and cases of 
 really grinding, degrading poverty are extremely rare. We 
 have no almshouses ; but aged or infirm persons or those 
 without friends to support them are sometimes cared for 
 in the hospitals. There are not many such, for as families 
 are large there is almost always some one able and willing 
 to furnish subsistence to an unfortunate relative, and the 
 people generally are helpful to each other. There is no 
 immigration into the Province, and there are, therefore, 
 no friendless or helpless foreigners to be supported at the 
 public expense. If one of the poor of the parish meets 
 with special misfortune by fire or accident, so that he is 
 really in distress, a couple of his neighbors will often ap- 
 point themselves a committee to go about and collect sup- 
 plies for his benefit, and rarely return without their sleigh 
 well filled with provisions. 
 
 Beggars, duly provided with certificates from their cures 
 that they are worthy objects of charity, are not infrequent, 
 and seem to consider themselves a privileged class. They 
 go about from house to house — opening any door without 
 knocking — asking for charity '^ pour V amour du bon 
 Dieu," and going on to dilate on their claims to benevo- 
 lence, to which no one pays any attention. The house- 
 wife goes in search of the one cent which is the usual 
 amount given, and if she finds nothing less than a five or 
 a ten cent piece she coolly asks the beggar to change it for 
 her, which he is usually able to do. Many of these beg- 
 
SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 171 
 
 gars have certain routes that they follow, and make their 
 turns at regular intervals. 
 
 That Canadians are kind hearted is shown by this treat- 
 ment of their poor, and their hospitality is well known. 
 From the highest to the lowest the acquaintance or the 
 stranger who comes to their doors is welcomed to the best 
 the house can atford. If they were not gay and light 
 hearted they would not be French, although the manifes- 
 tations of their gayety are perhaps tempered by climate 
 and other conditions. 
 
 Polite they are, almost invariably to strangers, and gen- 
 erally among themselves. In all the writer's experience 
 among them he has never, whether in city, country, or in 
 the woods, met with anything but courtesy, and has rarely 
 witnessed unaccountable rudeness. Only under the excite- 
 ment of drink are serious quarrels common. One way 
 they may be considered quarrelsome, but their quarrels are 
 such as result in law suits rather than in bodily injuries. 
 They seem to be very fond of going to law. They are 
 somewhat free in accusing each other of tricks and dis- 
 honest dealings in small aiTairs, to which they may be 
 somewhat inclined, though possibly not more so than 
 some other nationalities. A cord of wood will not inva- 
 riably be of full measure here any more than is a ton of 
 coal or of ice always of full weight in New York. The 
 maple sugar that 1 receive for rents of trees is not always 
 the best that the man makes, or free from an admixture 
 of flour or other foreign substance ; but neither do we 
 always find elsewhere that the worst apples are on the top 
 of the barrel, or that the quart box of strawberries is cer- 
 tain to hold two pints. There are rogues in all countries. 
 On the whole, the honest habitant in Canada is probably 
 equally as honest as the honest farmer elsewhere. \ 
 
 I have been told that the most ingenious tricks in the 
 
172 SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 way of petty cheating are those played or attempted by 
 jobbers of logs in the woods in trying to pass oif poor 
 logs as good ones. Some that 1 have heard of were really 
 masterpieces of trickery. The culler, if he knows his 
 business, is always on the watch for them, and is fairly 
 sure to find them out ; and the curious part of it is that 
 the jobber is not in the least ashamed when his trick is 
 detected. 
 
 I Although comparatively few of the men are total ab- 
 stainers, yet drunkenness is not so general that it can be 
 considered to be a national vice. In almost every village 
 there will most likely be some more or less given to 
 drink, but the great majority are altogether temperate, 
 taking a glass or two occasionally, but never drinking to 
 excess. Licenses are required for the sale of intoxicating 
 liquors, and in most country parishes none are granted. In 
 some places where there is a good deal of travel an inn- 
 keeper may be licensed to sell to guests but not to the 
 public. This does not prove, however, that at special occa- 
 sions, — New Year's visits, heated elections, and the like, — 
 liquors are not important features. 
 
 [The people are mainly industrious,]'but to a New Eng- 
 ender would not seem to be hard worked. Mechanics do 
 not try to turn out the most and the best work possible, 
 but only enough to live on, and just a little more if the 
 chance comes. LXheir habits being simple and their living 
 cheap, they are satisfied with little, and social ambitions 
 do not trouble them muchT" The ambitious youth goes 
 to the cities, where he aspires to be a notary, a lawyer, a 
 politician, or, best of all, because safest and not usually 
 demanding arduous exertions, a Government employe. If 
 he goes into mercantile life he generally manages to hold a 
 fair position, and some of the largest and best of the com- 
 mercial houses in Quebec are entirely Canadian ; but heavy 
 
SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 173 
 
 corporate enterprises are generally controlled by other 
 nationalities. 
 
 I have alluded in Part VIII to the emigration to the 
 " States " as a common method among young and enter- 
 prising men and women of bettering their condition. 
 This emigration became so common as to alarm the 
 Government, and a few years ago strong efforts were made 
 to induce the repatriation of emigrants. These have 
 lately abated, and there would seem to be no occasion for 
 them. As the French population regularly doubles in less 
 than thirty years, it would seem to be a sutficient problem 
 to provide for the increase. Where some two and a half 
 millions of people in 1920 and five millions in 1950 are to 
 find homes in this province, is not quite clear. There is 
 land enough for them all, but only a small proportion of 
 it is desirable. The farming here is only poorly remuner- 
 ative at best. Diversified occupations and industries will 
 absorb a good many, but it looks as if emigration would 
 need to continue to be large. 
 
 That a hardy, temperate, prudent, and fairly industrious 
 people should not, even if not particularly energetic or 
 ambitious, have made some progress, could hardly be pos- 
 sible. Those who knew the Canadian people forty or fifty 
 years ago will easily see a difference now. 
 
 My personal intercourse with the people began in my 
 boyhood, and for the last ten years I have lived almost en- 
 tirely among them. 1 have always found them civil, oblig- 
 ing, and excellent neighbors. 1 could (and did) heartily 
 join with an English speaking Canadian friend who 
 summed up a discussion of their qualities by saying they 
 were "not a bad lot." 
 
 I am not blind to some defects in the national charac- 
 ter ; but neither, 1 hope, do 1 fail to recognize their many 
 good qualities, 1 would rather write pages about these 
 13 
 
174 SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 than give a single line of ungracious criticism to a people 
 among whom I have found so many friends, and been so 
 kindly treated. 
 
 Some Americans seem to have the idea that the French 
 Canadians still have an attachment to France and are not 
 loyal to Great Britain. This is a mistake. It is true that 
 the loyalty of the common people is of rather a neutral 
 character and perhaps would not stand a great strain, but 
 they have no attachment to France beyond that almost 
 inseparable from a common race, language, and religion. 
 As individuals they seem rather to dislike the French when 
 brought into contact with them. Our good Nazaire, who 
 is not at all a bad type of the Canadian habitant, cordially 
 detests them, as do many others whom 1 have met. 
 
 The Canadians have no reason for disloyalty to Britain. 
 All their rights have been well respected, and they have 
 received their full share — many Englishmen think far too 
 large a share — of honors and favors from the Crown. 
 Provincial politicians sometimes think or pretend to think 
 otherwise, but their claims are probably put forward mainly 
 with the hope of securing some personal popularity among 
 their compatriots. It is only fair to say that the people 
 generally pay comparatively little attention to these pol- 
 iticians. They know there is little or nothing of which 
 they can reasonably complain, and they are quite well con- 
 tented under British rule, and appreciate the advantages 
 they derive from it. They do not like the Englishman 
 any more than do other conquered races, but they get 
 along very well with him and try to get all they can out 
 of him. 
 
 The general sentiment was quite well expressed in the 
 reply of a priest to an English lady who wished to know 
 the feelings of the clergy towards the British Govern- 
 
SOME NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 175 
 
 ment : " We are quite well satisfied so long as you let us 
 alone," 
 
 A trifling circumstance may give an idea how little some 
 of the people know or care about their British connection. 
 1 told an employe that I expected certain visitors on the 
 Queen's Birthday {La fete de la Reine). He replied: 
 " La fete de la Reine, c'est la 4 Juillet, rCest-ce pas ? " 
 (The Queen's Birthday, that is the 4th of July, is it not ?) 
 He was not less intelligent than three quarters of the men 
 of his class, although it is probable that the majority would 
 know that the two dates were not the same. But few, 
 however, would know why the 1st of July (Dominion 
 Day) is a Canadian festival, and very few indeed know 
 why Americans celebrate the 4th of July. Of^cial efforts 
 to make the people look upon Dominion Day as an im- 
 portant point in their history entirely fail of effect with 
 the people in general. 
 
 Of annexation sentiment there is little worth mention- 
 ing. Most of the people think Canada would be more 
 prosperous under the United States Government, but the 
 feeling is not strong enough to make them seek to disturb 
 the existing order of things. 
 
part J1I1Iir 
 A WINTER EXCURSION 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION 
 
 My brother and I have a commodious fishing camp or 
 lodge on the shore of Lake Clair, already mentioned, to 
 which we often make excursions. Though these visits are 
 not properly Canadian Life, yet it is largely through them 
 that we have come into close contact with our habitant 
 friends. I therefore make no apologies for including in 
 this volume the story of one of my first excursions to our 
 camp with my family. The cabin was then a small and 
 simple affair, but has since grown considerably, responding 
 to the constantly increasing demands of our friends. 
 
 After one of my visits to the lake I said at home that 
 the next time 1 went I would take my little girls along. 
 They had already been on a camping expedition with me 
 the previous autumn, and well remembered its delights. 
 
 The novelty of camping in winter pleased them, and 
 they were ready to try it. I began to attempt to back out 
 of my agreement, but it was too late. I was compelled to 
 admit that there were no insurmountable obstacles in the 
 way. The lumbermen had opened roads by which we 
 could drive to the very door of the cabin. This was a round- 
 about way, but there was a much shorter one, though part 
 must be done on foot. The girls were not afraid of snow- 
 shoes, however ; they had been amusing themselves with 
 them for weeks. Moreover, they were young, fresh, and 
 vigorous. The prospect of a long walk did not disturb them 
 in the least. Of course 1 gave way, and their mother, 
 whose joining the expedition was quite out of the ques- 
 tion, did the same. 
 
 We decided on the shorter route for ourselves and the 
 
180 
 
 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 longer one for the baggage and provisions. While we 
 were making preparations there came on a heavy thaw. 
 Soft weather in the month of January, with torrents of 
 rain and occasional thunder-storms, lasted nearly a week. 
 Such a time was never known in the country before. 
 The ice gorged in many places, and the rivers overflowed 
 
 their banks for miles. Some houses were half under 
 water, and people went about in boats. 
 
 Of course we waited for cold weather, and in good time 
 it came. When at length we were ready to start we did 
 not complain of the cold, although the thermometer stood 
 at ten below zero. We dress and prepare for cold weather, 
 and it must be very cold indeed to prevent us from going 
 about. In fact, we experience less discomfort from twenty 
 or even forty degrees below freezing than from one of our 
 New England northeasterly storms, when the thermometer 
 is scarcely at the freezing point. Snow-storms one expects 
 and does not mind them much unless they are extremely 
 severe and with high winds. Once in a while, however, one 
 comes that blocks up everything for days together. 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. iSl 
 
 Our delay had given so much time to talk of our excur- 
 sion, that several of our friends accepted our invitation to 
 visit us at the camp. We promised to accommodate them 
 all, if they would not come too many at once. We could 
 offer a nice bed to each of six persons, but beyond that, 
 age, sex, and condition might interfere with convenient 
 lodging. The little girls proposed to sleep two in a bed, 
 and even larger ones offered to submit to the same incon- 
 venience rather than not go. 
 
 It was strange how the idea of a winter camping party 
 fascinated them. Soon the question came to be, not who 
 should go, but who would be obliged to stay at home. 
 
 I decided to take along my little camp-stove and my 
 faithful old double tent that had never failed to give me 
 all the room 1 wanted. Not too large for two or too 
 small for six—he who is not happy in it is not a woods- 
 man, and I do not want him with me. 
 
 A tent in mid- winter, especially for a sleeping apartment, 
 does not sound attractive ; but with my little stove it was en- 
 tirely comfortable, and proved a popular resort when we had 
 need of it. As it happened, the children and young girls 
 packed themselves so closely in the beds, that, as a rule, 
 only the guides were finally obliged sometimes to sleep in 
 it ; but there would have been no hardship in it for any one. 
 Day and evening it was a favorite lounging-place for all 
 hands. 
 
 So, after the rain had ceased, and after we had had 
 two days and nights of good solid zero weather, the girls 
 and I started off in two carioles, with many expressions of 
 surprise at the hardihood of our undertaking, and many 
 doubting wishes for a " boii voyage " from the neighbors. 
 
 Such an expedition was not at all in accordance with 
 the notions of the French people. Aside from the care- 
 fully encouraged view that the holidays of the Church 
 
182 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 oflfer sufficient recreation, and that none that the Church 
 does not take the leading part in are desirable, there might 
 seem something like impropriety in a party of young and 
 old, male and female, going away by themselves on a 
 camping expedition. Such a thing was never known in 
 our parish. The nearest thing to it was perhaps that in 
 the time of making maple sugar, a party might be made 
 up to visit a sugar camp for a day. True, my original 
 party was only my own family, but our visitors promised 
 to be of various families and ages. We cared little for 
 the Canadian ideas, for we had been accustomed to 
 do as we pleased among the people without asking 
 whether they liked it or not. Americans ourselves, we 
 had issued our Declaration of Independence, and lived 
 up to it. I am not aware that we ever did anything to 
 which they could object, but we paid so little regard 
 to their customs, that I suspect that they always felt a 
 little uncertainty as to what we might be going to do 
 next. 
 
 The first stage of our journey was a drive of nine miles. 
 The roads were not good, but were frozen hard, and the 
 carioles stood them well. We made the distance without 
 accident and within an hour, scarcely realizing whether it 
 was cold or not. We did manage to strike a " halite," 
 which nearly tore the sleeve out of the fur coat of one of 
 the girls, but the arm in it was so small that no harm was 
 done. 
 
 As soon as the snow becomes deep the roads must be 
 " balized," or after a heavy snow-fall the poor horses 
 would be unable to find them. The narrow track is 
 marked out with branches or saplings, with turn-outs, 
 also " balized," at convenient distances. As the drifting 
 snow completely fills up the road, there is nothing else to 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. 183 
 
 distinguish it from tiie soft snow on either side of it. 
 Roads, ditches, and fields are all on the same level. 
 
 As long as the horse feels the hard track under his feet 
 he will trot quietly along, even if there is no outward and 
 visible sign of it. If another vehicle is met where no 
 turn-out is marked it is not easy to induce him to leave 
 the path. The experienced animal, when compelled to it, 
 will step off as gently as possible, making no struggle, 
 but waiting peaceably until the other sleigh has passed. 
 Then, perhaps, he will throw himself back on his haunches, 
 raise both fore feet together, and bring them back into 
 the road again. 
 
 The shantymen's horses, on roads where there is not 
 much passing, learn to put their feet into the tracks made 
 by their predecessors. Consequently, although the sleigh 
 track may be very good, your horse can take no longer 
 steps and go no faster than the one that first opened the 
 road. Everywhere else he would sink deep into the snow. 
 
 At the end of our drive the faithful Nazaire met us, 
 and taking our extra wraps in a skilfully made up pack 
 on his strong and willing shoulders, led the way to our 
 next post. It was up a river, on snow and ice, but the 
 frozen crust was not strong enough to bear our weight, 
 and snowshoes were called into use. We knew the current 
 was very strong and the ice would be thin at best. It would 
 hold under a broad snowshoe, but the 
 unshod foot would be liable to break 
 through. On the swift rivers the 
 merest film of ice serves to support 
 enough snow to conceal its treacher- 
 ous nature. With the aid of snow- 
 shoes progress was easy, when with- 
 out them it would have been im- 
 possible. 
 
184 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 The distance we had to go was vaguely described as 
 " trentaine d'arpents" (about thirty arpents). If 1 had 
 been told it was a " good piece," I should have had quite 
 as good an idea, for 1 have found the Canadian's " tren- 
 taine d'arpents " a most indefinite measure. The arpent 
 is a measure both of length and superficies, its length 
 being equal to 180 French or 192 English feet. We 
 reckon twenty-eight of them to a mile. Of late years 
 the Government has made all its surveys in English 
 acres, which, surveyors tell me, is far the most convenient 
 measure, as it divides better into fractions ; but formerly 
 the arpent was universally used. One of my girls in- 
 sisted that thirty arpents meant three miles, while another 
 declared they meant four. The distance was really about 
 a mile and a half, and we made it without a break, al- 
 though the girls were glad of a rest at the end of the road. 
 Our stop was made at a " rollway," or place where the 
 logs are piled ready for the drive in the spring. Several 
 acres of ground were covered with them, the result of the 
 winter's work. 
 
 From here we turned into an almost unbroken forest. 
 Logs had been made there for many years, but to the un- 
 practised eye the aspect of the ground was just what it 
 had been from time immemorial. Some stumps may be 
 seen, but the mere passer-by would hardly know that man 
 had ever passed that way. Following up thit " maitre 
 chemin," or main road of the lumbermen, we found it 
 smooth, firm, and in beautiful order, as all these roads 
 should be, for the loads to be drawn are heavy. A good 
 deal of engineering ingenuity is often displayed in locat- 
 ing the lumber roads, for there must be no up grades, and 
 in such a hilly country as this it is not easy to avoid them ; 
 and a long detour is frequently necessary in order to avoid 
 even a slight rise. On this " maitre chemin" we carried 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. 185 
 
 our snowshoes on our backs, where they seemed much 
 lighter than they had done on our feet. The way was up, 
 up, up, all up hill for an hour and a half, up the hills that 
 the logs had come down. 
 
 We reached the lumbermen's camp just as the men had 
 tlnished dinner, and great was their astonishment at seeing 
 these three girls away there in the woods on a holiday 
 excursion, in winter. The Canadians are almost invariably 
 polite and respectful, but if those girls were stared at it is 
 no wonder. Nazaire and 1 were well known to the fore- 
 man of the camp, and we received every possible courtesy. 
 We were cordially invited to dine, but although the girls 
 were glad of rest and shelter, they could not manage the 
 pea soup, which indeed looked as if a strong stomach 
 would be needed to digest it. Nazaire and 1, however, 
 made a hearty meal without hesitation. 
 
 Our way lay only a little farther on the lumbermen's 
 roads and then we put on the snowshoes again, it was still 
 up hill, and soon my little barometer said we were four- 
 teen hundred feet above our starting point. The after- 
 noon was delightful, a most perfect winter's day ; cold, 
 but not too cold, as indeed it seldom is too cold in the 
 woods for walking. The lights and the shadows of the 
 trunks and branches on the white snow were charming, 
 and many were the expressions of delight and surprise 
 that 1 heard from the girls behind me, as we wound our 
 way, Indian file, in and out among the trees. Nazaire led 
 and 1 followed, to beat a good track for the others. He 
 was supremely happy at hearing the girls' cheerful voices, 
 and often turned his pleased face round to me with the 
 exclamation, " ^//'^//^5 sont heureuses!" (How happy 
 they are ! ) 
 
 After half an hour's walk up hill we began to go down, 
 and faster than we had gone up. The girls got many 
 
186 
 
 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 tumbles, but they were dressed for them, and a little fall 
 in soft snow hurts nobody. They already had had a 
 long walk, but were not so tired that their lively chatter 
 was checked, or the delights of the way were lessened. Still 
 to the unpractised eye there was no sign that man had ever 
 passed that way, and for part of the distance none but 
 
 hunters and explorers prob- 
 ably ever had passed. The 
 loggers had not reached that 
 region, and nobody else had 
 any business there. We were 
 opening a new path to our 
 camp, shaping our way by 
 the lay of the land and the 
 direction of the streams. 
 Nazaire knew all about these, 
 and where he goes I follow 
 without hesitation. This time 
 I knew we could not go far 
 wrong, for we had only to 
 cross the divide that sepa- 
 rates two systems of water- 
 courses, and the distance was 
 not great. It was to avail ourselves of newly opened roads 
 that we were taking this way to our camp, as well as to 
 avoid the " dos de cheval," or " horse-back," — a narrow 
 ridge, scarcely wide enough for a single footpath, with 
 deep and broken gullies on either side, and in many places 
 steep and hard to climb, as my legs found out when they 
 were a good deal younger than they are now. 
 
 Not very far from the top of the divide we came to a 
 ''petit lac rond" (little round lake), round as if drawn 
 with a compass. Our footpath had always led us across 
 this lake, but reaching it from another direction when 
 
o 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. l87 
 
 coming by the '' dos de cheval." It is only a bit of a lake 
 almost on the top of the hill, but what a lake it is for 
 trout ! We had no sooner crossed the Round Lake than we 
 began to go down again. We could hear the pretty little 
 stream, the outlet of the lake, rippling and murmuring 
 under its coating of snow, and telling us the way to Lake 
 Clair. In a few minutes more we could see, across the lake, 
 the smoke from our cabin. But here was the hardest 
 part of our journey. There was a strong wind sweeping 
 down the whole length of the lake, and the entire surface 
 was covered with smooth ice, with here and there patches 
 of snow. That wind had to be faced. Cheeks and noses 
 suffered somewhat, but there were no frost bites, and in a 
 short time the doors of our cabin opened to us. 
 
 The only other gentleman of all those who had prom- 
 ised to visit us who was able to come at that time, was a 
 somewhat heavy man, who had then no liking for snow- 
 shoes. (Later in the season, however, 1 found that he was 
 taking lessons in using both snowshoes and toboggan with 
 a good deal of enthusiasm, and that one of our fellow- 
 boarders often came late to her supper. But that has 
 nothing to do with this story.) He had come by the long, 
 tedious, and roundabout way by which he could reach the 
 cabin without walking, and brought with him all the good 
 things we had provided for our excursion, so that we were 
 not anxious about our supper. Owing to our long delays 
 at the lumbermen's camp and elsewhere he had arrived 
 before us ; but he had nothing to tell about charming 
 walks through woods, dinners at logging camps, or of 
 rushing, invisible streams. He had only sat still in his 
 " berline " (pung) and had seen nothing. 
 
 The cabin was new, clean, and warm, and the luxurious 
 beds of fir branches smelled deliciously. The delight of 
 the children knew no bounds. " Why, it smells just like 
 
188 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 Christmas," said the httle one, as the sweet fragrance 
 reminded her of our Christmas tree. " Aren't we glad 
 we came ! " and " Is n't this just splendid ! " were among 
 the remarks they made, mingled with thanks to me for 
 bringing them, which were more than I deserved, for 1 had 
 counted on enjoying their enjoyment. The two small ones 
 speedily appropriated a bed for themselves, and the larger 
 one another, and they luxuriated on the springy boughs. 
 
 Some trout had been caught for us by the guardian of 
 the camp, and the good Nazaire set about cleaning and 
 cooking them as if long walks and heavy packs were things 
 he had never heard of. The fish were excellent, and it 
 required a goodly number to satisfy our appetites. The 
 trout of Lake Clair are not large, although their delicious 
 flavor is proverbial. Their average weight is about three- 
 quarters of a pound, while the trout of the Round Lake 
 run to one and a half pounds, and those of Lake Croche, 
 another lake near by, to fully two pounds. Some good 
 fishermen say that a three-quarter pound trout of Lake 
 Clair gives as good sport as two-pound trout elsewhere. 
 They are strong and active, colors bright, and flesh firm and 
 red. Cooked by Nazaire they are certainly delicious eating. 
 
 All hands were more or less fatigued, and bedtime came 
 early. Screens of blankets made a dressing-room, with 
 all the privacy of a Pullman sleeping car at the least. 
 Later on, when we had more company, including several 
 young ladies, the men retired to the tent while toilets 
 were being made, but this time the blankets had to suffice. 
 When the children announced themselves ready 1 removed 
 some of the screens, and the men tumbled into their berths 
 very much as they stood. For this night Nazaire was 
 commissioned to look after the heating apparatus, and he 
 did it most effectually. How he and Simeon managed to 
 sleep in the places allotted to them, on the floor near 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. I89 
 
 the stove, I cannot tell. Even we who had the most com- 
 fortable places were almost roasted until I got up and 
 opened the door and dampened the tire. And this with a 
 thermometer at twenty degrees below zero ! If any one 
 had feared we should suffer from cold he should have 
 been in our cabin that night ; in fact we suffered much 
 more from heat than from cold all through our excursion. 
 Poor Nazaire was often called from his bed with " Ob ! 
 Na^aire, il fait chaud, c'est terrible " (it is terribly hot). 
 Even the smallest girl, who knew scarcely any French at 
 all, soon learned to say, " Trop cbaitd, Na:(aire, trop 
 chaud " (too hot, Nazaire, too hot). 
 
 At length he began to learn that we were not all such 
 salamanders as himself. This time the little ones slept 
 like tops, and so did I after the cabin got cooled down a 
 little. That Nazaire slept there could be no doubt. When 
 he goes to sleep he usually announces the fact. 
 
 Going to bed early involves being up betimes, and be- 
 fore six the next morning Nazaire had the kettle boiling, 
 and coffee was served all round preparatory to breakfast. 
 Toilets made, all hands hurried their breakfasts of bread 
 and bacon in order to go fishing, for they could have no 
 more trout until some were caught. One of the girls, 
 however, who had brought her skates, found the smooth 
 ice too tempting, and soon deserted us. She afterwards 
 caught more trout than any of the others, but this day the 
 youngest of all was champion, as she was the most patient 
 and enthusiastic of fishers. In the afternoon she kept at 
 it until the sun went down, and her trim little figure out 
 on that waste of ice and snow made a striking picture, set 
 in a frame of dark, wooded hills, and seen in the glow of 
 one of our most brilliant sunsets. Some of our winter 
 sunsets in Canada are truly magnificent. An artist friend 
 who visited us grew enthusiastic ov^r them. He had seen 
 14 
 
190 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 few more beautiful, even in Italy. He went into raptures 
 over the absolute purity of the atmosphere and its won- 
 derful clearness. 
 
 Our cabin was located for a view of those sunsets both 
 in summer and winter. Built on the water's edge and 
 facing exactly south as it does, there are two rounded hills 
 nearly in front of it whose tree-tops catch the earliest rays 
 of the morning sun, while the camp itself is in shadow, 
 and the long point on our left throws its shade over half 
 the lake until the sun is quite high. We have streaks of 
 light over the water in summer and over the snow in win- 
 ter that are very beautiful. The contour of the lake is 
 extremely irregular, so that the light is constantly changing 
 as the sun falls first on one and then on another hill or 
 cliff. We never tire of sitting in front of our cabin and 
 watching it. 
 
 When a thunderstorm comes up in summer the sight 
 is superb. Once Nazaire and I got caught in one. We 
 were out in a canoe when we saw it coming, and although 
 we paddled as hard as we could, it burst on us before 
 we were half way across the lake. 1 never knew it to 
 rain harder. We were drenched through in two minutes. 
 After that we sat still, paddling along easily and enjoying 
 the scene. It did not matter how hard it rained, we could 
 not get any wetter. There was no wind at all, but the 
 whole surface of the lake, as far as we could see, was one 
 great splash, so hard did the big drops come down. It 
 was grand to hear the peals of thunder crashing and echo- 
 ing from the hills and cliffs. 
 
 But we must return to our winter trip. The little girl 
 continued fishing till we were obliged to call her in. It 
 looked cold out there, while indoors the cabin was warm 
 and cozy, the trout were sizzling in the frying pan, and 
 the cpifee stearning in the coffee pot. 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 191 
 
 Fishing through ice is no sport to your true fisherman, 
 although it has some interest when the fish are to form a 
 considerable item of your daily food. Trout fishing in 
 summer is another thing. Then there is no sport more 
 delightful, whether you try with all your skill to throw a 
 carefully selected fly under the branches that overhang a 
 shady pool where you feel sure some beauty is lying, not 
 very hungry but liable to be tempted by a dainty morsel; 
 or whether in the early morning you push your canoe out 
 into the placid 
 lake that the sun, 
 just beginning to 
 gild the tree-tops, 
 has not yet 
 touched, to invite 
 some of those 
 lively fellows that 
 you see jumping and sporting just beyond you to come 
 in to your breakfast table ; or whether in the afternoon 
 you stand on some jutting rock, reached with dii^culty, 
 among fierce rapids, and do battle with some noble fish 
 that will test all your tackle and all your skill. In all 
 these is sport. But in winter there is nothing of them ; 
 no sharp rush, no bended rod, no strained line. The fish 
 bite lazily and are pulled up easily. If you have a bit of 
 the sportsman in you, you will only take what you need 
 to eat. 
 
 What with fishing, skating, sliding, cooking, and eating, 
 our first day passed quickly. In the evening we played 
 casino, the simple and popular game of cards with the 
 French Canadians. The children played with Nazaire and 
 Simeon, and the mixture of languages was as picturesque to 
 hear as the light of our one candle on their faces was to see. 
 The purely accidental effect was almost Rembrandtesque. 
 
192 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 The girls could speak but little French and the men no 
 English ; but they made themselves understood, and the 
 games were merry. 
 
 Next morning we were surprised to find it blowing a 
 gale. The gorgeous sunset of the night before had given 
 us no warning of the storm, although Nazaire had ex- 
 pressed the opinion that the weather was too fine to last. 
 It snowed more or less all day, but the girls fished all the 
 same ; and, boisterous as it was, they caught seventy-one 
 fine trout, so we had no fear of a famine, 
 
 John's leave of absence expired the next day and he 
 was obliged to leave us. We escorted him part way back 
 and then left him to Nazaire, to be shown the way to a 
 place where a carter with his cariole had been directed to 
 meet him. Nazaire undertook to lead him by a short cut 
 down a very steep place, and he got some rare tumbles, be- 
 ing a heavy man and not used to snowshoes. Nazaire said he 
 was sometimes compelled to stand still and roar at John's 
 flounderings. He left with Nazaire a challenge to some 
 ladies to come down by the same route. Two of them 
 accepted it, and probably have not forgotten their expe- 
 rience. This day we set up our tent for the extra accom- 
 modation, as well as for the cooking, which sometimes 
 made the cabin too hot for us. We tramped the snow 
 down hard with our snowshoes, pitched the tent, set up 
 our little stove, spread branches a foot thick, and made 
 everybody comfortable. 
 
 The first visitor to arrive was the surveyor. He was 
 capital company, full of interesting anecdotes and experi- 
 ences. He had worked in Canadian woods all his life, he 
 said, but this was his first surveying party " with picnic at- 
 tachment." Heseemed to enjoy the variety. It was amusing 
 to hear him tell a story, addressing himself first to Nazaire 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. 193 
 
 in French and then continuing to the rest of us in English, 
 without stopping to interpret. 
 
 He had passed through many dangers and hardships, 
 but the most serious of all was a time when with his whole 
 party he was in danger of starvation. 
 
 On their return from a long trip they found that the 
 cache where their provisions were hidden had been found 
 by a carcajon (wolverine), and that everything was de- 
 stroyed. They struggled along on short rations for a few 
 days, but some of the men grew weak, and progress was 
 slow. It was evident that something must be risked or 
 all would perish. My friend and one of the Indians took 
 nearly all the remaining provisions, amounting to three 
 biscuits each, and started for the nearest house, one hun- 
 dred miles away. They reached it just at evening of the 
 third day. The surveyor kicked olf his snowshoes at the 
 door, threw himself on a bed, and slept sixteen hours. 
 When he waked, the Indian had already started back, 
 with all the provisions he could carry. He found the men 
 just able to drag themselves to a stream for water, and that 
 was all ; but the supply of food revived them, and they 
 reached the settlement in safety. 
 
 After the storm already mentioned the weather grew 
 very cold, ranging mostly from ten to twenty degrees 
 below zero, and for several days the thermometer did not 
 rise above zero at any time. Our lowest record was 
 thirty-eight below. The surveyor, Nazaire, and 1 did what 
 we had to do, and the girls amused themselves in the 
 cabin. They were perfectly happy and contented, but 
 grew tired of fishing. There was much jollity when we 
 came back to the cabin at night. Simeon was left in 
 charge during the day to bring wood and water, cut holes 
 in the ice, work about the camp, and see that no accident 
 befell the children. 
 
194 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 The surveyor left us, and other visitors came thick and 
 fast in his place : first, two young ladies, sisters, and their 
 two brothers; then our artistic friend and his equally 
 artistic wife, and other relatives and friends of our guests 
 and ourselves, until the whole extent of our accommoda- 
 tions was required. There was no dulness in our camp. 
 So many young people, all relatives or intimately ac- 
 quainted, and all cheerful and agreeable, could not fail to 
 find amusement. There were visits to neighboring lumber 
 camps, snowshoe races, and other entertainments, notably 
 once a three-legged race in deep snow. 
 
 If one wants a jolly good laugh let him get some of his 
 friends to try a three-legged race in two and a half feet of 
 snow. But 1 would not advise him to try one himself, 
 unless he is young and strong. General hilarity prevailed 
 in the short intervals between eating and sleeping times. 
 As for cooking times, I think there were no intervals. The 
 ladies took that department out of Nazaire's hands and 
 kept it in constant, if irregular, operation. A little stirring 
 of soup followed by the practising of a dance, songs sung 
 between washing the spoons and cleaning the knives, and 
 other little fancies such as light-hearted girls might indulge 
 in, took up their time, and they were happy. We older 
 people read, wrote, talked, or looked on as we felt inclined. 
 There was no ennui. It never came near Lake Clair to 
 my knowledge, although Nazaire and 1 have spent many 
 days there quite alone. 
 
 Of music there was no lack. Our man Simeon proved 
 to be a capital singer as well as a violinist. His was not 
 the ordinary voice of the Canadian woodsman, a mere 
 head-tone used at a very high pitch, but a real baritone, 
 and used in a manner that one of our visitors, who ought 
 to know, said would not disgrace a city concert-room. 
 How he came by such a style 1 cannot tell. He never 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. 195 
 
 could have heard a really first-class singer in his life. It 
 was one of those things that, like reading and writing, 
 "come by nature." 
 
 He gave us such fine songs as '' Le drapeaii de Caril- 
 lion," " Le Zouave en Algerie," and many others not less 
 worthy. 
 
 Singularly enough, he was not well acquainted with the 
 words of the common popular songs mentioned elsewhere, 
 such as "y4 la claire foiitaifie," and the like, that almost 
 every one knows, so we got none of them from him. We 
 had a variety of these, however, one evening a little later, 
 sung in true lumberman fashion, high and loud, without 
 the least expression, by an accidental visitor to whom we 
 gave shelter. 
 
 Some of the ladies also were singers, and their con- 
 tributions ranged all the way from the most absurd college 
 songs to " Lascia ch' io pianga " and Reinecke's " Walde- 
 gruss," very prettily sung. 
 
 Our guests having almost all departed, my little girls 
 went home one day by the long route, leaving two young 
 ladic-s to go with me by the short cut that John had chal- 
 lenged them to follow. Naz lire took our extra wraps 
 and went on ahead. As we crossed the lake and looked 
 back at our deserted cabin 1 am not sure but one of the 
 girls shed a few quiet tears, thinking of the pleasant week 
 she had passed, and that she was not likely ever to see 
 the place again. At any rate both of them walked on 
 some time in silence, and I heard none of the accustomed 
 cheerful laughter and girlish chatT, usually so plentiful 
 between those two. Many parties have visited our camp 
 since then, but 1 think none have enjoyed so much pure 
 and unalloyed pleasure as this first party of all. 
 
 But Nazaire was far ahead, and we were obliged to 
 follow. When we came to the place where the path 
 
196 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 diverges there was a discussion as to whether we should 
 accept our friend John's challenge to go down by the 
 way he went, or take the longer and less interesting road 
 around the side c . -f hill. Of course the discussion re- 
 sulted in acceptance;; for the girls declared that if John 
 could go down so could they. Nazaire was waiting for 
 us and assured us that there was no positive danger, 
 although the way was " Men, bien a pic " (very, very 
 steep). 
 
 He had already been down with his pack and come 
 back by the road. We rested a little and then followed 
 him. It was " bien, bien a pic," sure enough. 1 myself was 
 the first to come to grief. Trying to get over some fallen 
 timber 1 made a misstep and pitched headlong. Head 
 and arms went deep into the soft snow, and heels high 
 into the air, with the snowshoes dangling. My cap and 
 whatever 1 had in my hands went away down the hill. 
 In such a position one flounders about a good deal before 
 he can get his feet under him ; but one of the girls man- 
 aged to climb down and lend a hand towards helping 
 me up. 
 
 We all reached the foot of the hill in safety, and after 
 discussing and rejecting a proposition to go back and try 
 the descent again, we went on. Nazaire assured us we 
 had tumbled much less than John, which was a satisfac- 
 tion ; but John will not believe it to this day. Anyway, 
 if he got a worse tumble than 1, it was a lively fall. 
 
 From there to the bank of the river was an excellent 
 road, and nearly all down hill. We passed the lumber- 
 men's camp without stopping ; but we were quite willing to 
 stop and rest again by the logs, as we had done going up. 
 The place was quite exposed and rather cold, so we walked 
 on down the river ; but there was a strong wind and the 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 197 
 
 walking was not as good as before. If it seemed tiiree 
 miles going up, it seemed six going down. 
 
 Our cariole arrived a few minutes after us, and an 
 hour's ride found us all at home ag 
 
 So ended our first winter campii.j^ expedition, and all 
 voted that it had been one of thorough pleasure. All 
 declared they would go again if they ever had the oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 Winter camping is preferable to summer in that there 
 are no troublesome flies or mosquitoes, and that it is easy 
 going through the woods on snowshoes. The summer 
 gives many delights 
 that winter does 
 not ; but each sea- 
 son has its charm. 
 
 Every one of my 
 party professes his 
 or her willingness 
 to go to Lake Clair 
 again at any time. 
 
 We were reading 
 some glowing ac- 
 counts of the winter _ 
 paradise of South- 
 ern California. One 
 of the little girls said, " Lake Clair is our winter paradise ; " 
 and so we call it. 
 
 It is our grand sanitarium. Whatever little maladies we 
 have are usually left there. Influenza, neuralgia, rheum- 
 atism, or malarial complaints seldom find their way back 
 from Lake Clair. 
 
 Since the time of this first family visit to Lake Clair 
 our cabin has been much enlarged, and every year we 
 have a number of guests. We have not the luxurious 
 
198 
 
 A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 accommodations of the modern fishing club ; but we have 
 enough to furnish all essential comforts for visitors, as 
 well as for my own limited requirements in winter. 
 
 Of course we do considerable fishing in summer and 
 equally of course we have all sorts of luck. Sometimes 
 after much canoeing, walking, wading, and hard work 
 generally, we get but little for our pains, and at other times 
 when our hopes and expectations are low we strike a good 
 bit of sport. One thing 1 will say for ourselves,— we 
 never waste any fish. When we get as many as we can 
 
 use, we stop fishing. And although we never get any fish 
 big enough to tell lies about in the newspapers, we seldom 
 fail to catch enough for our next meal. 
 
 Among our summer visitors at the lake we have a good 
 many ladies. Of course they all think they can take fish 
 as well as anybody, and we always give them a chance to 
 try. But it is as difficult for a woman to throw a fly as it is 
 for her to throw a stone. 1 at times try to give them a few 
 lessons in the art, taking good care, however, to pull my 
 hat well down over my eyes and ears, to avoid accidents. 
 Ladies need a good deal of practice before they can handle 
 
A WINTER EXCURSION. 
 
 199 
 
 a fly rod with even moderate certainty or safety. I keep 
 a couple of rods especially for ladies' use.. They are not 
 allowed to disport themselves with my own particular pet 
 tackle. Perhaps it is a little mean of me, but 1 think that 
 a good stout rod and worn-out flies are just as good to 
 frighten trout with as any others. 
 
 They rarely accomplish much, for what with untangling 
 their lines, getting their hooks out of their own and 
 their neighbors' hair and dresses and their own fingers, 
 there is not much time left for other departments of the 
 sport. So far as the real taking of trout is concerned, 
 I doubt if it is any advantage to have ladies in the party. 
 I have known a very inexperienced fisherman to take his 
 rod and net, go away alone and bring back a very hand- 
 some string of fish ; when a far more practised hand, who 
 took a lady with him, came back with scarcely any fish 
 at all. It was a lovely afternoon for fishing, too : soft and 
 cloudy, with a light breeze blowing, that made all the 
 trees wave their branches as if in benediction. Still, there 
 was fully as much excitement in our camp that evening 
 as if those two persons had brought in all the trout they 
 could carry. 
 

 
 
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