The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1910-04-23

= Il March 81. 1911. What
'c1 S7H73o" Their work is done.
The spirit of adventure
which brought the men of 1874 to Red River Set
tlement willlure 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. unfinching courage and pa
tience-the making Of new and great empire
Change has already come to the mounted. The
days when a 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, dog-dri-
vers mailcarrers. couriers. publichealth and ami
maiquarantine officers. prairie and forest-fire
guardians. constables and soldiers for one-thtrd
OF the British Empire are passing with every
new mile Of railroad The border "wolfer." the
cattle "ruster." the whisky trader. the fighting
Indian. the whole band Of staggering ruffians who
used to give zest to life in the Territory" has
largely passed away, or 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-
velopment of the thoroughly civilized new north
west. Now the young fellows getting their
breakingin 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,
1t is a thoroughly competent and efficient force.
as it was in the days Of the Territory. The mem
bers must pass physical and mental examination
which guarantees that. came upon one OF them
in a moment of leisure studying textbook on the
common law, and he showed me some examina-
tion questions which implied that he must know
how to conduct a cross-examnation In open court
to avoid what are known In the law as
leading questions" And any lawyer will be i'm
pressed when I say that every mounted policeman
Lvour hs,xxy To oko q mr.
declaration In such a manner that 1t can be pre-
scented evidence in court The reason for this
is that he combines the functions of a 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
an ideal arrangement in the days when justice
was Justice of the saddle, and all the more de-
sirable 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 as those OF
Gilbert and Sulivan's Pooh Bah. Primarily he
keeps order. After that. he does everything that
ought to be done and that 1t isn't any one else's
duty to do. And when some one else leaves his
duty undone, the mounted policeman takes 1t up
and finishes 1t. When the mail-carrier. who Gov
ers the North Country dog sledges reaches the
most northern limit Of his route. the mounted po-
Mceman takes over the bags. and goes 500 miles
farther north with them. Not long ago letter
came to my hands from the Leffngwell polar ex-
pediton. in which the writer stated that he would
take five dogs and companion and travel 300
miles over 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 It at OF their
posts 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 placidity. and put 1t
through without ficking eyeash 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 a Yukon muir
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 extraditon complications. and hanged him
within sight of the scene of his crime.
There has never been ynching in Canada. Put
that down the credit of the mounted police. who
administered justice SO successfully that there
was any temptation for the work to be ta-
ken up by private enterprise. There 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
dtion of stern vigilance which prevented anything
like the costly Indian tshich the United
States waged up to few years ago. There was
never In the history of Canada a 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 ON
crossing the border, to the Canadian boundary
line They were met by single mounted police
man.