The new era., 1910-04-28

iec @11711o" Their work is done.
The spirit of adventure
which brought the men of 1874 to Red River Set
tlement wiure the hardest on to still more dis
tant fields. The scarlet tunic will be seen no
longer, except In the pages Of some historical
source book; but the work of these silent, steady
eyed men will live forever. record of tireless
ness. fearlessness, unfnching courage and pa
dence-the making of new and great empire.
Change has already come to the mounted. The
days when scant 800 men were magistrates. doc
tors, coroners, explorers. surveyors. mining re-
corders crown-timber agents. revenue and Gus
toms officers. telegraphers, scouts. riders drivers
boatmen. canoemen. marines and sailors. dogdr-
vers matl-carriers. couriers pubc-health and anil
mal-quarantfne officers, prairie and forest-fire
guardians. constables and soldiers for one-third
OF the British Empire passing with every
new mile of railroad The border "wofer." the
cattle "rustler," the whisky trader the fighting
Indian, the whole band of staggering rufians who
used to give zest to life in the Territory" has
largely passed away. been crowded northward
and westward toward the mining camps Of Alas
ka and the Yukon. The reckless daring. the ro-
bust hardihood and picturesqueness of the force
necessarily have somewhat changed in the de-
veopment Of the thoroughly civilized new north
west. Now the young fellows getting their
breaking-in among the settled districts. while the
old stagers stationed to the north and west
where there is still the frontier" on the edge of
untraversed wilderness.
For the purposes of the new order of things.
thoroughly
as 1t was in the days of the Territory. The mem
bers must pass a physical and mental examination
which guarantees that l came upon one of them
in moment of leisure studying textbook on the
common law, and he showed examina
ton questions which implied that he must know
how to conduct a discrimination In open court
to avoid what known in the law as
leading questions" And any lawyer will be i'm
pressed when say that every mounted policeman
must know how to take murdered mans dying
dop1 1o rot ff0p In cpNh q nm hat 10 "a
sented evidence in court. The reason for this
is that he combines the functions of policeman
with those Of petty magistrate
And this arrangement whereby the same man
could arrest you, and then try you himself. and
finally put you in prison and be your keeper, was
ideal arrangement In the days when justice
a justice of the saddle, and all the more de-
srable for being summary. Although there are
regular civil courts in the southern portion Of
Canada now, In the far north the duties of the
mounted policeman still varied those Of
Gilbert and Sullivans Pooh-Bah Primarily he
keeps order After that. he does everything that
ought to be done. and that 1t isn't any else's
duty to do. And when some one else leaves his
duty undone the mounted policeman takes 1t up
and finishes it. When the mail-carrier, who
ers the North Country on dog sedges. reaches the
most northern limit of his route the mounted po-
liceman takes over the bags. and goes 500 miles
farther north with them. Not long ago letter
came to my hands from the Lefingwell polar ex-
petition in which the writer stated that he would
take five dogs and a companion and travel 300
miles the ice to mail the letter. When the
letter reached its destination the envelope bore
the stamp Of the Royal Northwest Mounted Po-
lice who evidently had received 1t at one of their
posts in the arctic and then had carried 1t by dog
train from the ice fields to railway connection.
1t is all in the days work to them They will
undertake anything, from minding the baby to
hanging man, with equal placdity. and put 1t
through without ficking an eyelash. They have
done their part to demonstrate that the one
thing this earth longer than the equator Is the
arm of English justice. Less than three years
ago mounted policeman tracked Yukon mur-
derer over 5000 miles. caught up with him in
Mexico. brought him back by way of Jamaica
and Halifax avoiding United States soil to pre-
vent extradtion complications. and hanged him
within sight of the scene of his crime.
There has never been lynching in Canada Put
that down to the credit of the mounted police who
administered justice so successfully that there
was never any temptation for the work to be ta-
ken up by private enterprise. There was never
any parallel for the experience of Bismarck, North
Dakota where 1t is said the first "a graves were
those of men who had died by violence Toward
the Indians, the mounted police maintained ira
dition of stern vigilance which prevented anything
like the costly Indian tshich the United
States waged up to few years ago. There
never in the history of Canada train robbery
such as still feature the headlines of United
States newspapers from time to time. The des
perado OF every type had healthy respect for
the mounted policeman and preferred to conduct
his little enterprises south of the border
Canadians are particularly fond of telling the
newly arrived American about the troop of Amer
lean cavary-a whole troop mind you-who ten
derly escorted band of bad Indians bent
crossing the border. to the Canadian boundary
line They met by single mounted police
man.