It would almost seem as though the pageantry of past French Canadian
history, and the beauty and vigour of the topographical surroundings of
French Canadian life, had produced an hereditary pride and
exaltation--perhaps an excessive pride and a strenuous exaltation, but,
in any case, there it was, and is. The French Canadian lives a more
secluded life on the whole than any other citizen of Canada, though the
native, adventurous spirit has sent him to the Eastern States of the
American Union for work in the mills and factories, or up to the farthest
reaches of the St. Lawrence, Ottawa, and their tributaries in the wood
and timber trade.
Domestically he is perhaps the most productive son of the North American
continent. Families of twenty, or even twenty-five, are not unknown, and,
when a man has had more than one wife, it has even exceeded that. Life
itself is full of camaraderie and good spirit, marked by religious traits
and sacerdotal influence.
The French Canadian is on the whole sober and industrious; but when he
breaks away from sobriety and industry he becomes a vicious element in
the general organism. Yet his vices are of the surface, and do not
destroy the foundations of his social and domestic scheme. A French
Canadian pony used to be considered the most virile and lasting stock on
the continent, and it is fair to say that the French Canadians themselves
are genuinely hardy, long-lived, virile, and enduring.
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