The Iuka vidette. (Iuka, Miss.) 1894-1912, 1910-04-21

Are you ready for these Indians?" asked the
American officer.
Eyes, sir" responded the policeman
They're a bad lot. Where is your escort sta
tioned?'
The trooper smiled family under his mustache.
why. SCOTS having his horse shod. and guess
Murrays over getting drink They'll be along in
a minute
And when presently Scott and Murray came
placidly 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 dwndle to
a dot across the level Then his feelings found
speech. WELL I'm damned" he said And the
troop rode away.
Again. old Pe-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
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 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-poes war bon
nets, drying skins. kettles and all-in misceane
heap
Pie-a-pot did some deep and rapid thinking A
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 OF
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
bled effects and turned their ponies heads north
Not so fortunate the attempt of Sergt Cole.
t1vnol u ,ufti A
mighty Voice.
Almighty Voice had stolen a steer. and Sergt
Colebrook with half-breed companion rode across
the prairie to arrest him. The policeman in
structed the half breed 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
sis for Almighty Voice must be taken alive. Then
he rode deliberately forward upon the muzzle OF
the Cree's rifle. and, than submit to the
shame of arrest, Almighty Voice fred. year la
ter however, the Indian was surrounded in pit
where he had taken refuge. The police brought up
their field guns and sheed the pit killing Almighty
Voice and thus avenging Sergt. Coebrooks death
The outcome of this incident served to prevent Sc
rious trouble with the Indians, who all in
more or less suky 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 was shown when one of Mecasto's
band escaped from the guardroom at Macleod after
having been tried by the police on charge of theft
and convicted. When he returned to Mecasto's
camp the chief who had attended the trial at which
the fugitive was 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 c
the officer In command
Perhaps the greatest achievement which the DO
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 memoir
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 no 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. 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 ever back Many were Of
fered commissions. and some accepted. Wherever
there is trouble, there the mounted police are the
answer to the problem, they have been In west
Canada for 80 years, from the time of the Riej
rebellion up to to-day.
The story of the mounted has it's shadows Men
grew tired of the loneliness and deserted at times.
men who had lost all-love, hope, ambition-auetly
went away into the wilderness and blew out their
brains. The life was unsettling; men could moi
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 of the most gorgeous tales
since the days of the Spanish Main AndSthe spir.
1t OF the force Is best embodied in that message
Qfa poIio
persisted In a 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
hact -