Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1910-04-21


American officer.
Eyes. sir" responded the policeman.
They're bad lot Where is your escort sta
tioned?"
The trooper smiled family under his mustache
why, SCOTS having his horse shod, and guess
Murray's over getting drink. They'll be along in
a minute"
And when presently Scott and Murray came
placdly 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 men.
The American officer watched them dwindle to
a dot 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 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
dams 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 10 minutes were up, he dsmounted
walked to the chiefs tepee, and with calm de.
liberation kicked out the keypole of the lodge
bringing the whole structure down-poes war bon
nets, drying skins, kettles and a-in a miscellaue
Gus heap.
Pie-a-pot did some deep and rapid thinking.
gesture to his young men would have sent hun
dred bullets Into each Of the quiet, unruled men
who systematically going through the camp.
kicking out the key-poe of each tepee But the In
dams of the northwest had learned that sooner or
later justice done by the mounted police and
Pie-a-pot never made that gesture. He gave in.
and in suen silence the camp collected it's scram.
bled effects and turned their ponies heads north.
Not so fortunate was the attempt of Sergt. Cole
brook TO arrest a fugitive Cree Indian named Al
mighty Voice.
Almighty Voice had stolen a steer and Sergt.
Colebrook, with halfbreed 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 rifle but Colebrook promptly ordered him to de-
sist, for Almighty Voice must be taken alive Then
he rode deliberately forward upon the muZzle or
the Cree's rife, and, sooner than submit to the
shame of arrest, Almighty Voice fired. year la
ter, however, the Indian surrounded in a pit
where he had taken refuge. The police brought up
their field guns and shelled the pit killing Almighty
Voice and thus avenging Sergt Colebrook's death.
The outcome Of this incident served to prevent
rious trouble with the Indians, who all In a
or less sulky and unsettled mood at the time.
How greatly the Indians have come to respect the
just and impartial administration of the law by the
mounted police shown when one of Mecastos
band escaped from the guardroom at Macleod after
having been tried by the police a charge of theft
and convicted When he returned to Mecastos
camp the chief who had attended the trial at which
the fugitive convicted had been so deeply i'm.
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 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 massacre 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 peaceably to the United
States. an exploit of which any body OF men might
be proud
When the Boer war broke out England called for
the mounted police to help her there. Onethird OF
them. practically the pick of the force. went out.
Very few of them ever came back Many were Of
fered commissions and some accepted Wherever
there Is trouble, there the mounted police the
answer to the problem. they have been in west
ern Canada for 30 years, from the time of the Rel
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, ambiton-Quietly
went away into the wilderness and blew out their
brains. The life unsettling; men could not
leave 1t and take up clerical work or farming be-
cause adventures 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
It of the force is best embodied in that message
found scrawled on the orders OF a policeman who
perished in blizzard while making his way with
dispatches to distant post. In his last moments
with numbed hand he had written: Lost. horse
dead, Am trying to push ahead, Have done my
best"