The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-04-20
NEQREW N1yDERHl
COpTNGH7 BY PEARSON
PUB. CO

aftar th sd' 1'AA what
ICE -S7H72oH 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, unfnching courage and pa
tience-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, dog-drl-
vers mail-carriers, couriers publichealth and ami
mal-quarantine officers, prairie and forest-fre
guardians constables and soldiers for one-third
of the British Empire are passing with every
new mile of railroad. The border "wolfer," the
cattle "rustler," 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 TO-
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
breaking-in among the settled districts, while the
old stagers are 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 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 moment Of leisure studying textbook on the
common law, and he showed me some exam1na-
ton questions which implied that he must know
how to conduct cross-examnation IN open court
so as to avoid what are known in the law as
"lcadlng questions" And any lawyer will be I'M
pressed when say that every mounted policeman
must know how to take murdered mans dying
declaration In such manner that 1t can be pre-
sented az evidence in court. The reason for this
is that he combines the functions of policeman
with those of a 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 as varied as those OF
Gilbert and Sullivans Pooh-Bah. Primarily he
keeps ORDER After that, he does everything that
ought to be done, and that it isn't any one elses
duty to do. And when some one else leaves his
duty undone the mounted policeman takes 1t up
and finishes 1t. When the ma1l'carrier, who COW
ers the North Country on dog sledges. reaches the
most northern limit of his route, the mounted po-
farther north with them. Not long ago letter
came to my hands from the Lefangwell polar ex-
petition. in which the writer stated that he would
take Ave dogs and a companion and trave! 500
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-
nce 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.
It Is all in the days work to them. They Will
undertake anything. from minding the baby to
hanging man, with equal plac1d1ty. and put II
through without flicking 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 muir
derer over 5000 miles, caught up with him II
Mexico, brought him back by way OF Jamaica
and Halifax, avoiding United States soil to pre-
vent extradition complications, and hanged hin
within sight of the scene of his crime.
There has never been a lynchng in Canada Pu
that down to the credit OF the mounted ponce, wiz
administered justice SO successfully that Inei'
was never any temptation for the work to be I'd
ken up by private enterprise. There was neve
any parallel for the experience OF BISMARCK NOT
Dakota. where it is said the first "a graves wer
those of men who had died by violence. Io"ar
the Indians the mounted police maintained ira
dition of stern vigilance which prevented anything
like the costly Indian wars which the unite
States waged up to few years ago. Ihere wa
never in the history Of Canada train robber
such as still feature the headlines OF Unite
States newspapers from time to time The des
perado of every type had healthy respect TO
the mounted policeman and preferred to condue
his little enterprises south OF the border.
Canadians are particularly fond of telling tn
newly arrived American about the troop OF Anne
lean cavalry-a whole troop mind you-who tel
derby escorted a band Of bad Indians bent o
crossing the border, to the Canadian boundar
line. They were met by single mounted polio
man.