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

SZ1zR0 TzoO1Y5 1T q I10L1NzS6 10
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 as he can
tered through the park. and how you had
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-N Never Land.
But for "incurable children" the sight OF
the mounted policeman still catches at those old
heart-strings.
And II all this for the blue-coated, brassbut-
toned horseman of the parks and bouevards.
what OF that other horseman. the 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 dulled
imagination. poor. to-be-pitied grown-ups, can
catch fire family from the CLEAN OF his scarlet
coat
Recruited chiefly from the younger of we'll
to-do and even titled. English families the North
west Mounted Police has long been an institu-
ton where English university man work
OF the bubbling froth OF drop of gypsy blood
before settling down as head Of county family
and warden Of his church. in the main a collec-
tion of young men for whom the Red Gods call
TOO wildly, men with a daredevil dash in their
makeup. who leave England because they are i'm
pecunious. or because Of row with their fami
Hes or for sheer love Of adventure. Come with
to Regina or Edmonton and you Will near
stories of men who gave the recruiting ofhcer the
name Of plain John Smith with something of
cynical sme-and 1t was bad form for the re-
cruiting oficer to notice this smile-men who had
a habit of reaching for 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 ever heard Of the heirpre-
sumptive to English marquisate patroling
5OO-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 Kiplng's 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 fight. old painsmen and Indian
fighters. the silent. steady-eyed. hard-r1ding men
who gather on the frontier where the savage rails
away before the ragged vanguard OF CIVILIZATION
And they have done their work 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
amounted" came 40 years ago They have made
western Canada what it is out OF the lawless ter
ritory"-an almost preposterous undertaking
one-quarter OF the number of policemen in New
York to govern country 25O.OOO square miles
larger than the United States!
In short the mounted police have brought
British law into western Canada. and FIRMLY es-
Aabiished Il The homesteader can go into any
of the provinces and take out his claim secure IN
\ the assurance that he can work his land undis-
turbed and harvest his crop unin1ured The nome
steader is doing 1t by thousands. and the Last
West Is vanishing. The frontier-the last IRON
tier OF America-is being prosaically plowed oy
the practical man in blue overalls. who doesn't
carry even a hunting knife. except to cut on his
chew Of Granger Twist
The Indian has been reduced to bis 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 fveyears 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 3O-mile ride from the North Saskatche
last fall. met dozens OF teams driven almost
wholly by Indians and alf-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 Grano
Trunk Pacifics stee! bridge
What contrast! Instead Of hindering, as was
once the case the northern Indians are helping 10
build the railroad. In the construction Oh tne
government transcontinentai hne' .ne u
dams are employed wherever they can be USED
for the road is being rushed with all possible
speed consistent with good work The lnoians
are useful ALSO to the pathfinders as guioes;
they know the forests of new Canada; they know
the mountain fastnesses OF the Peace rVeI ano
they know all the crooks and canyons OF ene
Coast Range In short, the red man OF to-day is
tho frusted guide and faithful servant OF the path
Under He hunts for the white man still. but quite
differently from the way he used TO nunt tor tne
pioneers OF old. r..
.Thants to the Royal Northwest Mounted Po-
-ifce civilixatiou's house is in order To-day the
= be long before the mounted viii %