The San Mateo item. (San Mateo City, Putnam County, Fla) 189?-19??, 1910-04-09
THE AUTOCRAT OF
THE WILDERNESS

An officer of the mounted police Is
not an exponent OF the law; ne Is the
law itself, says Agnes Deans Cameron
in the Century. When he rides his
cayuse to-foothill camp or threads on
snowshoes the worn north trails OF
the trapper he goes clad with the
authority OF courts. He preserves or.
der, but he also makes arrests; he
tries offenders In his own courts, and
then escorts the man upon whom
sentence has fallen to a prison Of
his own making. where the law
breakers may be incarcerated for ten
days or thirty years
Back Of that slight, silent, steel
nerved rider is the strong arm OF
England and the whole OF Canadian
Jurisprudence, and when he speaks
II is as one with authority In eX-
treme cases, when the death penalty
has to be enforced, one mounted
policeman may have to act as clergy
man, executioner and coroner.
"All this swear without any men
tai evasion, equivocation or secret
reservation. So help me, God!' With
these impressive words do raw re-
cruit and grizzled soldier enter the
service OF the mounted police and
swear fidelity to his majesty Edward
VII II is not prospective wealth
that tempts a man 20 become an en-
pire builder in this mounted force OF
greater Canada, for hard Is her serv.
ice, poor her payment"
The newly recruited constable gets
sixty cents a day; his term Of en-
gagement Is five years, and he NAV
look forward to re-engagement on
second term, with a stan sergeants
pay OF from 81 to $3.50 a day TO
work uD 10. Recruits must be be-
tween the ages of % and 40, active
men OF thoroughly sound constitution,
and possessed OF certificates OF ex-
emplary character They must be
able to read and write in either Eng
lish or French, understand horses,
ride well, measure up to the mini
mum height OF 5 feet inches, have a
chest measurement OF 80 inches,
weigh not over rs pounds and be UNI
incumbered with a wife.
For two years the roll call Of one
troop included in its rank and file a
son OF a colonial Governor, a grand.
son Of a major-general, a medical stu
dent from Dublin, an Oxford master
OF arts, two troopers Of the imperial
forces and half a dozen ubiquitous
Scots For many years a son OF
Charles Dickens did honorable sery'
ice with this force, and there sery-
ed beside him runaway circus clown
and the brother OF a Yorkshire baro-
net. Several OF the full privates have
tucked away in the bottom OF their
mess kit medals won in South Africa,
Egypt, and Afghanistan, but the lost
legion OF gentlemen rankers FREEDOM
mates. and II is Rugby and Cambridge
out here on the unbroken prairies that
set the fashion in mutt and manners.
A compelling factor making for dig
nifty and decency in a border country
as big as Europe is this little band
OF relocated riders, scarcely a thou
sand in number, squirting singly
across the plains with sealed orders
and tuFning up just when most want
ed.
The beat OF the mounted policemen
is from Hudson Bay to the Pacific
and from the forty-ninth parallel to
the frozen Arctic, and he does not
take tips or sleep on duty. You can
not BLUM him, you cannot bulldoze /
him, and II Is not exactly safe TO try |
TO square" him. or this man, as OF
Lord "Bobs," we may say, "'E don't |
adr- ise"; II Is the boast OF the sery'
zee In Canada that they seldom get |
into print" Yet II Is strikingly true |
that on the margin OF every page OF
the nnwrlitnn history OF this great |