How do I get emacs to display accented characters?

[Jay F. Shachter]

I am using Emacs version 21.2.2, which I believe is the current version,
or close to it.

I am certain that this is a frequently-asked question, and I apologize
for asking it of you, but I have read the FAQ document, I have done
everything the info files instruct me to do, as far as I can figure out,
and I am still failing to get emacs to display accented characters.

When I use XEmacs, I have no problem.  When the buffer contains, e.g.,
"Rick's Café Américain", XEmacs displays "Rick's Café Américain".
Emacs, on the other hand, displays "Rick's Cafe Americain".  Unless
I do (load-library "iso-ascii"), in which case it displays "Rick's
Caf{'e} Am{'e}ricain".  Nothing I do has succeeding in getting Emacs
to display "Rick's Café Américain" like XEmacs does.

These are the things that I have done, which have had no effect:
 (set-terminal-coding-system 'iso-latin-1-unix)
 (setq unibyte-display-via-language-environment t)
 (set-language-environment 'Latin-1)

Surely there is something simple that I am failing to do.  I cannot
figure out what it is.  Your replies will be much appreciated.  I thank
you all in advance for your help.

                   Jay Shachter
                   jay@m5.chi.il.us