Rocky Ford enterprise., 1910-04-22

main. and with them and of them are ordered
and orderly living.
II the story of how this came about is the story
of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police.
The mounted police! Don't you remember
when you were little chap. how you looked after
the uniformed man on the glossy bay he can
tered through the park and how you had no
dearer dream of glory than to be like him? Even
now don't you feel the old. boyish thrill at the
sight Of a blue-coated. erect figure in the saddle
at crowded city crossing? II you do not, you
are grown up"-saddest Of labels-and will
journey no more to the Never.Never.Never Land.
But for US "incurable children" the sight of
the mounted policeman still catches at those old
heart-strngs.
And If all this for the blue-coated. brassbut.
toned horseman Of the parks and boulevards.
what Of that other horseman. the one who rides
alone with the stretch OF endless prairies for his
beat. with the criminal who holds life at less
than naught. his quarry? Surely even your duled
Imagination. poor. tobepitied grown.ups.
catch fire family from the gleam of his scarlet
coat
Recruited chiefly from the younger OF we'll
todo. and even titled. English families. the North
west Mounted Police has long been an institu-
ton where English university man can work
OF the bubbling froth Of a drop Of gypsy blood
before settling down head OF county family
and warden Of his church. in the main a collec-
tion Of young men for whom the Red Gods call
700 wildly, men with q daredevil dash in their
0nke.up. who leave England because they are i'm.
pecunlOuS. or because OF row Win tuelT
Hes for sheer love Of adventure. Come with
me to Regina or Edmonton and you will hear
stories OF men who gave the recruiting ofhcer the
name OF plain John Smith with something OF a
cynical smile-and II bad form for the re-
crui;ing ohicer to notice this smile-men who had
a habit OF reaching for a monocle that wasn't
there. Of talking with the correct London pronun-
ciation and thrashing the fellow-trooper who
called attention to this fact
And any story you heard of the heir.pre-
sumptive to English mnrquisate patroling a
500-mile beat along the Arctic circle can be out
matched on the written records OF the force. and
in the memory OF any officer. Fifteen years ago.
Englishmen OF Kiplings gentleman ranker" type
made up fully half Of the force. and the other half
was composed Of wild Irishmen with all their
country's love OF a fight. old painsmen and indian
fighters. the silent. steady-eyed. hardriding men
who gather the frontier where the savage falls
away before the ragged vanguard Of civilization
And they have done their work so well that they
are fast driving away their own excuse for be-
ing The present northwest is no more what 1t
was in 1874 than busy Winnipeg OF to-day Is the
old Fort Garry to which the first troop Of the
mounted" came 40 years ago They have made
western Canada what It is out OF the lawless ter
ritory"-an almost preposterous undertaking.
onequarter OF the number OF policemen In New
York to govern country 25o.oo0 square miles
larger than the United States!
In short. the mounted police have brought
British law into western Canada. and firmly es-
tab,ished It. The homesteader can go Into any
Df the provinces and take out his claim secure In
the assurance that he work his land undis-
0rbed and harvest his crop unnjured The home
steader is doing It by thousands. and the Last
West is vanishing. The frontier-the last from
tier Of Amcrica-is being prosaically plowed by
the practical man in blue overalls. who doesn't
carry n hunting knife. except to cut on his
chew OF Granger Twist
The Indian has been reduced to his lowest
terms When men OF the United States were
building the Union Pacific across the plains. they
were obliged to employ Uncle Sans troops to
guard the builders II the ghosts Of the dead who
died violently in that first fve-years' fight for the
west we're to line up along the right OF way there
would be almost enough OF them to mark the
miles.
On a 3omile ride from the North saskatche-
wan last fall I met dozens Of teams driven almost
wholly by Indians and half.breeds. They were
hauling the long logs that were to be driven
twenty to thirty feet into the sands OF the Sas-
katchewan to carry the false work OF the Grand
Trunk Pacifc's stee! bridge
What a contrast! Instead OF hindering as was
once the case the northern Indians are helping to
build the railroad. In the construction Of the
new government transcontinental line. the In
dams are employed wherever they can be used
for the road is being rushed with all possible
speed consistent with good work The Indians
are useful, also. to the pathhnders as guides:
they know the forests Of new Canada they know
the mountain Businesses OF the Peace river. ana
they know all the crooks and canyons OF the
Coast Range In short, the red man OF to-day Is
tho trusted guide and faithful servant OF the path
finder He hunts for the white man still. but quite
differently from the way he used to hunt Tor the
pioneers Of old.
Thanks to the Royal Northwest Mounted Po-
lice, civilizations house Is In order To-day the
. long before the mounted will DO