Longfellow'S "Evangeline."

"Evangeline" is perhaps the most attractive of Longfellow's poems. The accepted theory as to its origin is, that Hawthorne heard the story upon which the poem is based, and thought of making it the subject of a romance; but finally gave it to Longfellow as more suitable for an idyl. The story is thus set down in Hawthorne's Note Book:--

"H.L.C. heard from a French Canadian the story of a young couple in Acadia. On their marriage day, all men in the Province had been summoned to assemble in the church to hear a proclamation. When assembled, they were all seized and shipped off, to be distributed through New England; among them was the new bridegroom. His bride set off in search of him, wandering about New England all her lifetime, and at last, when she was old, she found her bridegroom on his deathbed. The shock was so great that it killed her likewise."

A correspondent of the New York Times relates the following, as coming from Longfellow:--

"I got the climax of 'Evangeline' from Philadelphia, and it was singular how I happened to do so. I was passing down Spruce street one day, toward my hotel, after a walk, when my attention was attracted to a large building with beautiful trees about it, inside of a high enclosure. I walked along until I came to the great gate, and then stepped inside and looked carefully over the place. The charming picture of lawn, flower beds, and shade which it presented, made an impression which has never left me; and twenty-four years after, when I came to write 'Evangeline,' I located the final scene--the meeting between Evangeline and Gabriel, and his death--at this hospital, and the burial in an old Catholic graveyard not far away, which I found by chance in another of my walks. The work is purely a fancy sketch, and the name of Evangeline was coined to complete the story. The incident Mr. Hawthorne's friend gave me, and my visit to the hospital in Philadelphia, gave me the ground-work of the poem."

"Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of a woman's devotion, List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest; List to a tale of love in Acadia, home of the happy."

The historic facts upon which this "Tale of Love" is founded are as follows: The country now known as Nova Scotia, and formerly called Acadia by the French, was in the hands of the French and English by turns until the year 1713, when it was ceded by France to Great Britain, and it has ever since remained in the possession of the English. It was not till 1749 that the English themselves began to make settlements in the country, laying in that year the foundations of the town of Halifax. A jealousy soon sprang up between the English and the French settlers, and it deepened more and more as the impending danger approached of open warfare between the mother countries. The French contested the boundary lines of Acadia, which had been defined only in general terms by the treaty; and they in their turn were accused of intriguing with the Indians for the annoyance of the English settlers. But the chief point of dispute was the oath of allegiance demanded of the Acadians by the English. The Acadians refused to take the oath unless it excused them from taking arms against the French, who were of their own flesh and blood. The demand was repeatedly made and as often refused, until at last the English determined to free the country of the French settlers and so to scatter them through the other North American colonies as to preclude any concerted action on their part to return to Acadia. On the 2d of September, 1755, an order was issued calling upon all the male inhabitants of the colony to assemble in the church on the 5th inst., to hear a proclamation read concerning the oath of allegiance. This being considered an important meeting, about four hundred and eighteen men and boys were assembled; the church was immediately surrounded by an armed force, and Lieutenant-Colonel John Winslow announced to the helpless people his Majesty's decision, that they with their families were to be immediately removed out of the country. To carry this order into effect required prompt action, and the men were at once conveyed on board the ships that had brought the troops. Their families and household goods were also transported to the vessels, but in the haste and the confusion of the languages, families were separated and carried to different ports, many of them never becoming united again. Thus, in a few days, three thousand souls were sent out from their homes and scattered through North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut.

The pathos with which Longfellow tells the tale of one such separation still prompts strangers visiting Philadelphia to seek out the old burial ground and pay their tribute at the supposed grave of Evangeline.

Throughout the Canadian provinces, Longfellow is honored as much as if he were a subject of the Queen. In Nova Scotia the regard for him is especially strong; if the canonization of a poet were possible, he would be the patron saint of the Acadian peninsula.