The new era., 1910-04-28

"Yes, SIR" responded the policeman.
They're bad lot. Where is your escort sta.
toned?"
The trooper smiled family under his mustache
why Scott's having his horse shod. and | guess
Murray's getting drink. They'll be along in
minute"
And when presently Scott and Murray came
pacidy the scene, that troop Of cavalry sat on
their horses and watched the band of Indians they
had carefully guarded depart over the yellow
prairie under the charge Of three
The American officer watched them dwinde to
dot across the level. Then his feelings found
speech. WELL I'm damned" he said. And the
troop rode away.
Again. old Pie-a-pot and several hundred OF his
tribe were making serious trouble along the rail-
road then under construction and the mounted po-
lice promptly rode out to the Indian village with
order for the tribe to break camp and take the trail
to the north, away from the line
When the policeman explained the order to him.
Pie-a-pot laughed and turned away. The other In.
dians jeered and discharged their guns in the air
The two policemen sat still.
81 will give you just is minutes to comply with
the order" said the sergeant quietly.
When the Is minutes were up he dismounted
walked over to the chiefs tepee and with calm de-
liberation kicked out the key-pole of the lodge,
bringing the whole structure down-poles war bon.
nets, drying skins. kettles and all-n mscellane-
heap.
gesture to his young men would have sent hun
dred bullets into each of the quiet. unrufled men
who were systematically going through the camp,
kicking out the key-pole of each tepee. But the In.
dians of the northwest had learned that sooner or
later justice was done by the mounted police and
Piea-pot never made that gesture. He gave in
and in sullen silence the camp collected its scram
bed effects and turned their ponies heads north
Not SO fortunate the attempt of Sergt. Cole
brook to arrest fugitive Cree Indian named Al
mighty Voice
Almighty Voice had stolen a steer. and Sergt
Colebrook with a hafbreed companion rode across
the prairie to arrest him. The policeman in
structed the halfbreed to tell the Indian that they
had come to arrest him. and that he must go with
them. The Cree replied: Tell him that if he ad
vances will kill him"
Instantly the half-breed covered the Indian with
his rife, but Colebrook promptly ordered him to de-
sist, for Almighty Voice must be taken alive. Then
he rode deliberately forward upon the muzzle of
the Cree's rifle, and. sooner than submit to the
shame of arrest, Almighty Voice fired. year Ia
ter, however. the Indian surrounded in pit
where he had taken refuge. The police brought up
their field guns and shelled the pit killing Almighty
Voice and thus avenging Sergt. Coebrook's death
The outcome of this incident served to prevent
rious trouble with the Indians who were all in a
or less sulky and unsettled mood at the time
How greatly the Indians have come to respectthe
just and impartial administration of the law by the
mounted police was shown when of Mecastos
band escaped from the guardroom at Macleod after
having been tried by the police charge of theft
and convicted. When he returned to Mecastos
camp, the chief who had attended the trial at which
pressed by the impartial nature of the proceedings
and by the fair administration of justice that he
promptly delivered him up again at the fort gate to
the officer in command
Perhaps the greatest achievement which the po-
lice ever undertook was accomplished when they
persuaded Sitting Bull and his band of between
five and six thousand hostile Sioux to return and
surrender to the United States authorities when
they had taken refuge in Canada after the memor.
able of Gen Custer and his command
Commissioners from the United States had visited
Sitting Bull and had negotiated with the chief for
his return and surrender. to avail. The police
however. by infinite tact and diplomacy. and be-
cause in their previous transactions they had won
the confidence of the Indians of the northwest at
length succeeded in inducing Sitting Bull and his
hostile braves to return peaceaby to the United
States an exploit of which any body of men might
be proud,
When the Boer broke out England called for
the mounted police to help her there One-third of
them practically the pick of the force, went out
Very few of them came back. Many were Of
fered commissions, and accepted. Wherever
there is trouble there the mounted police are the
answer to the problem, as they have been in west
ern Canada for 80 years, from the time of the RieI
rebellion up TO to-day
The story of the mounted has its shadows Men
grew tired of the loneliness and deserted at times:
men who had lost all-love, hope. ambiion-uuiety
went away into the wilderness and blew out their
brains. The life was unsettling. could not
leave it and take up clerical work or farming be.
adventurers are not built that way.
But. shadows and all. the story OF the Canadian
mounted police is one of the most gorgeous tales
since the days OF the Spanish Main And the spir
1t of the force is best embodied in that message
found scrawled on the orders OF policeman who
perished in a blizzard while making his way with
dispatches to a distant post In his last moments
with numbed hand he had written Lost horse
dead Am trying to push ahead Have dons ruy
best