Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1910-04-23

Inelr WOrk Is DONE
The spirit of adventure
which brought the men of 1874 to Red River Set
uement willlure the hardest on to still more dis
tant fields The scarlet tunic will be seen nc
longer, except in the pages of some historical
source book; but the work of these silent steady
eyed men will live forever a record of tireless
ness, fearlessness, unfinchfng courage and pa
tience-the making of new and great empire
Change has already to the mounted. The
days when scant 500 men were magistrates, doc
tors, coroners. explorers. surveyors, mining re
coruers, croWn-umber agents, revenue and Gus
toms officers. telegraphers, scouts riders drivers
Doatmen, canoemen, marines and sailors dog-drf
Vers maicarriers, couriers, public health and ami
mal-quarantlne officers. prairie and forest-fre
guardians, constables and soldiers for one-third
OF the British Empire passing with every
new mile of railroad The border "wolfer," the
cattle "rustler." the whisky trader the fightfne
Indian the whole band of staggering rufians 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 ro
bust hardfhood and picturesqueness of the force
necessarily have somewhat changed in the de-
velopment of the thoroughly civilized new north.
west Now the young fellows are getting their
break1ngin 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 order of things.
1T is a thoroughly competent and efficient force,
as 1t was in the days of the Territory The mem
bers must pass physical and mental examination
which guarantees that. I came upon one of them
In a moment of leisure studying textbook on the
common law, and he showed some examina-
ton questions which implied that he must know
how to conduct cross-examination In open court
so as to avoid what known in the law as
pressed when say that every mounted policeman
must know how to take murdered mars dying
declaration in such manner that # be pre-
sented as evidence in court The reason for this
is that he combines the functions of a policeman
with those of petty magistrate
And this arrangement. whereby the same man
could arrest you, and then try you himself and
hnaIly put you In prison and be your keeper,
an ideal arrangement in the days when justice
was Justice of the saddle. and all the more de
sirabfe for being summary. Although there are
regular civil courts in the southern portion of
Canada now. I'm the far north the duties Of the
mounted policeman are still varied those of
Gilbert and Sullfvan's Pooh-Bah- Primarily he
Keeps order. After that, he does everything that
ought to be done, and that 1t isn't ans efseys
dary to do. And when some else leaves his
duty undone, the mounted policeman takes # up
and finishes t. When the mafl-carrier,. who COW
the North Country dog sledges reaches the
most northern limit of his route, the mounted Pc
nceman takes over the bags, and goes 500 miles
farther north with them Not long ago, a letter
came to my hands from the Lef6ngweu polar ex-
petition. IN which the writer stated that e would
take Eve dogs and companion and travel 300
miles over the fcs to mail the letter When the
letter reached it's destination, the envelope bore
the stamp Of the Royal Northwest Mounted Pc
lice who evidently had received it at one OF their
posts In the arctic, and then had carried it by dog
train from the ice fields to railway connectfu1.
1t all In the days work to them They Will
undertake anything, from minding the baby to
hanging a man, with equal placidity. and put it
through without Ticking eyelash- They have
done their part to demonstrate that the
thing on this earth longer than the equator Is the
of English Justice. Less than three years
ago mounted policeman tracked a yukon muir
derer over 5000 miles, caught up with him in
Mexico. brought him back by way of Jamaica
and Halifax. avoiding United States soil to pre-
vent extradition complications, and hanged him
within sight of the scene of his crime.
There has never been lynching in Canada Put
that down the credit of the mounted paiice. who
administered Justice successfully that there
was never any temptation for the werk to be
ken up by private enterprise There never
amy parallel for the experience of Bismarck. North
Dakota, where it is said the first "a graves were
those of men who had died by violence Toward
the Indians. the mounted police maintained ira
dition of stern vigilance which prevented anything
like the costly Indian which the United
States waged up to few years ago There
never in the history of Canada train robbery
such still feature the headlines of United
States newspapers from time time The des-
perado of every type had a healthy respect for
the mounted policeman and preferred conducy
his little enterprises south Of the border
Canadians particularly fond of telling the
newly arrived American about the troop of amer
lean cavalry whole troop mind you-Wfo ten
derby escorted a band Of bad Indians bent on
crossing tho border. - the Canadian boundary
line They were met by . single ncgnted police