The new era., 1910-04-28

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main. and with them and Of them are ordered
and orderly living.
If 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 he can
tered through the park, and how you had no
dearer dream of glory than to be like him? Even
now don't you feel the DID, boyish thrill at the
sight of bue-coated. erect figure in the saddle
at crowded city crossing? II you do not. you
grown up"-saddest of labels-and will
journey no more to the Never-iJever-Never Land
But for "incurable children" the sight of
the mounted policeman still catches at those old
heart-strings
And If all this for the blue-coated brassbut.
toned horseman of the parks and boulevards
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 dued
imagination, poor. tobe-pited grown-ups, can
catch fire family from the CLEAN of his scarlet
coat.
Recruited chiefly from the younger sons of we'll
to-do and even titled. English families, the North
west Mounted Police has long been institu-
tion where English university man can work
off the bubbling froth of a drop Of gypsy blood
before settling down 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 daredevil dash in their
lRake-up. who leave England because they are i'm
pecunious. or because of row with their famf-
lies. or for sheer love Of adventure. Come with
me to Regina Edmonton and you will hear
stories of who gave the recruiting officer the
name of plain John Smith with something of a
cynical smile-and 1t bad form for the re-
cruiting officer to notice this smile-men who had
a habit of reaching for monocle that wasn't
there, of talking with the correct London pronun-
citation, and thrashing the fellow-trooper who
called attention to this fact.
And any story you heard of the heir-pre-
sumptive English marquisate patroling a
50O-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 Kipings 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. hardriding men
who gather on the frontier where the savage falls
away before the ragged vanguard of civilization.
And they have done their work SO well that they
are fast driving away their 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 1t is out of the lawless ter
rtory"-an almost preposterous undertaking.
one-quarter Of the number of policemen in New
York to govern country 25O.00O square miles
larger than the United States!
British law into western Canada. and firmly es-
Aabiished 1t The homeseader can go into any
Aof the provinces and take out his claim secure in
the assurance that he can work his land undis-
lurbed and harvest his crop uninjured. The home
steader is doing 1t by thousands. and the Last
West is vanishing. The frontier-the last from
tier of Americans being prosaically plowed by
the practical man in blue overalls. who doesn't
carry even a hunting knife. except to cut of his
chew of Granger Twist
The Indian has been reduced to his 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 If the ghosts of the dead who
died violently in that first ive-years fight for the
west were to line up along the right of way there
would be almost enough of them to mark the
miles.
On sOmile ride from the North Saskatche.
wan last fall, met dozens of teams driven almost
wholly by Indians and half-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 Grand
Trunk Pacific's stee! bridge
What a contrast! Instead of hinderlng. was
once the case the northern Indians are helping to
build the railroad. In the construction of the
new government transcontinental line the In
dams arc employed wherever they can be used
for the road is being rushed with all possible
speed consistent with good work. The Indians
are useful also. to the pathinders as guides;
they know the forests of new Canada; they know
the mountain Businesses of the Peace river. and
they know all the crooks and canyons Of the
Coast Range In short, the red man OF to-day is
tho trusted guide and faithful servant of the path
fnder He hunts for the white man still, but quite
differently from the way he used to hunt for the
pioneers of old
Thanks to the Royal Northwest Mounted Po-
lice. civilizations house Is in order To-day the
be long before the mounted will be